Raising Entrepreneurs

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Young entrepreneurs use chery blossoms to draw a crowd.

Strolling under the cherry blossoms arching out over Kenwood neighborhood streets in Bethesda on Saturday afternoon, Nadia Green’s thoughts drifted to another kind of promenade.

“I’d like to have a wedding in them,” said Green, 11, an Arlington, Va. resident. Fortunately for her the happy day is far off, because her mother, Barbara Porter, and two other friends mistook “Kenwood” for “Kensington” and arrived a few hours later than they expected.

Thousands of visitors like Green will visit the blossoming cherry trees in the 240-home neighborhood, often to enjoy a different kind of cherry blossom experience from that on display at the Tidal Basin in downtown Washington, D.C., and to escape the throng of tourists there.

One tradition that has sprung up alongside the cherry trees is the spate of tables loaded with drinks and baked treats along the streets, with Kenwood’s younger residents pitching their goods.

Town of Somerset resident Jay Jadeja, 12, and three of his friends set up their lemonade stand at the intersection of Dorset Avenue and the Capital Crescent Trail, near a major ingress and egress of Kenwood at Little Falls Parkway. After about two hours, they had sold about $40 of lemonade, which they proclaimed a good haul.

Asked if they still liked to climb the cherry trees, however, which some residents have said should be prohibited, Jadeja and his friends answered only with bashful smiles.

Further west on Dorset Avenue, young Gwen Lefkowitz was perched alertly in her chair behind a table of $1 lemonade and two-for-a-dollar chocolate chip cookies. At about 11 a.m. she said sales had been brisk, and said she was focused on business and not on pleasure because she wasn’t a big cherry blossom fan.

“I’m not as much of a flower person,” she said. “I’m more of a skater girl.”

Read the full story in Gazette.net

Young entrepreneur, S Tarak al Zubair, with his solar-powered car.

It can carry six passengers at speeds of more than 40kph without ever having to fill up at a petrol station, or even plug into an electric socket.

But perhaps the most impressive thing about this solar-powered, fibreglass car, which went on display at Dubai Mall in April, is the age of the brains behind it: S Tarek al Zubair is just 16, while his cousin, Hamad bin Sulaiman, is two years younger.

The boys, both students at the International School of Arts and Sciences, built the futuristic vehicle for this year’s Young Entrepreneurs Competition.

They and 1,200 other high school and university pupils from across the country have put their business savvy and innovation on display for the past four days, selling everything from cars and custom-made handbags to Braille designs embroidered on coffee mugs and T-shirts.

“God has blessed our country with oil, but we also have sand, hot water, energy from the sun,” said Tarek, who won last year’s competition with a solar-powered mobile phone charger. “We as a country need to become sustainable.”

With his sun-powered car, made with solar panels shipped from Germany, Tarek said he wanted to serve as an example for the country’s leadership.

“Think what that means if two teenagers can make a car run on solar power,” he said.

He plans on giving the prototype vehicle as a gift to Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.

Read the full story in The National.

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Young entrepreneur, Kunal Gupta, founded Impact in 2004

The Impact Entrepreneurship Group is flourishing since the economy soured. Its programs target university and high school students and include a national annual conference, an entrepreneurship week campaign, a leadership summit and a Microcredit Competition that gets underway later this month for which teams of students from 200 high schools receive $100 to launch a business idea and make as much money for charity as possible within a week.

“There’s been a significant increase in interest,” says Kunal Gupta, who founded Impact in 2004 while attending Ontario’s University of Waterloo. “There are opportunities in the market for young entrepreneurs that would not be seen in a good economy.”

Mr. Gupta, who launched Polar Mobile after he graduated, a company that develops a proprietary content and advertising platform for mobile devices, still serves as chairman of Impact’s board and says the breadth of students participating has grown to include those from arts and other studies outside business.

In the past year, Impact — which bills itself as Canada’s largest, non-profit student-run organization — opened offices in Calgary and Vancouver.

The organization has acquired the support and sponsorship of corporate leaders and entrepreneurs who pioneered successful businesses in Canada.

Alex Shipillo of Vancouver, heads Impact’s Microcredit Competition and co-founded Youth Canada to help high school students navigate university scholarship programs. The two groups amalgamated in 2006 to promote entrepreneurship to young Canadians.

“This is the first recession of my lifetime,” says Mr. Shipillo, who plans to start a business after graduating from university. “There’s no longer any guarantee we’ll get a good job after university.”

Ray Cao started EightyTwenty Group, a software company that is poised to double its staff in the coming months. He served a term as president of Impact while studying at University of Waterloo and remembers a survey of high school students Impact conducted to assess their perception of entrepreneurship; 70% responded it was a path of last resort for those who had dropped out of school or failed to find jobs.

“When you’re in high school, a small business does look like the last resort but one of the key reasons is because of the way it’s taught,” Mr. Cao says. “Most teachers have not been entrepreneurs.”

Impact has focused on how it communicates its message to enhance their interest in entrepreneurship and provide hands-on experience. “It’s really about making a paradigm shift,” he says.

Read the full story in The Vancouver Sun.

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Another in an encouraging series, young entrepreneur Devon Zielinski, has won a $40,000 college scholarship as a result of his business activities.

Devon Zielinski was one of 60 high school seniors nationwide who received the McKelvey Foundation Entrepreneurial Scholarship last week. The scholars receive $10,000 a year over four years to attend a U.S. college or university.

The New York-based program offers financial aid to young entrepreneurs and first-generation college students.

Zielinski, who has owned Cutting Edge Opportunities Lawn Care for about two years, was one of five Texas seniors to receive the McKelvey award.

“I went numb. I couldn’t believe it,” he said. “I was in shock … and then I was super excited.”

The Argyle senior said he will graduate June 3 and will attend Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, where another $40,000 scholarship is waiting for him. He plans to study business. Earlier this year, he was one of 21 state finalists for TCU’s Texas Youth Entrepreneur of the Year Awards.

McKelvey scholarship interviewer Paul Camara called Zielinski “a business-savvy young man who has a very well-defined business plan for growth.”

“For an applicant to have a lawn care business, they must have extraordinary qualities as an entrepreneur and show us that they have taken their business to the next level from mowing lawns in the neighborhood,” Camara wrote in a prepared statement. “Devon was able to show us in the interview that he has very strong entrepreneurial qualities and shows great potential for future success as a business owner.”

Christine McKelvey, foundation president, said more than 1,200 students applied for the award. Of the four years the scholarship has been offered, this was the most competitive, she said, adding that the selected students proved to be lifelong entrepreneurs.

“We’re really looking for people that show that they have the drive and passion to be entrepreneurs,” McKelvey said. “It’s really the individual that we’re looking at.”

Read the full story in the Denton Record-Chronicle

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