Corporations and business owners looking to make a sure-fire investment that will pay big dividends have an option that doesn?t cost money.
The Baltimore office of the National Federation for the Teaching of Entrepreneurship needs business leaders willing to work with Baltimore City middle and high school students to help them learn the finer points of business.
“Being a contact person who gives a bit of encouragement will get students more interested in work and get them farther along,” said Anne Quirk, vice president of the Greater Baltimore Middle Market Region for M&T Bank.
“We are fighting a losing battle if we think it is the teacher only who can do it,” Quirk said.
NFTE is a nonprofit organization founded in 1987 by former businessman and New York City teacher Steve Mariotti, who saw that street-smart students who learn entrepreneurial skills develop academic and business smarts by discovering that what they learn in the classroom is relevant to the real world.
The organization has been in Baltimore for three years and has raised about $2 million to fund NFTE programs in schools and train teachers in entrepreneurship. About 2,500 students have been involved in the program.
“NFTE is a platform to transform kids? lives through involvement in school and community,” said Larry Rivitz, owner of Marketing Initiatives LLC and chairman of the board of the local NFTE chapter. “It also generates community involvement in the collective future of these kids. Money is the engine that pays for it, but it?s also the hands-on work of our partners that opens up opportunity for these kids far more than mere donation of money.”
NFTE allows students to develop a plan for their own business and gives seed money to help get the business off the ground. Volunteers help students write their business plans and coach them along the way.
“It?s a way out for some of these kids,” said NFTE?s local Executive Director Trisha Granata, a former first-grade teacher.
The one-on-one contact with successful business leaders often is the only positive reinforcement the students receive, Quirk said.
“If you look at private school that are well funded, they have parents, coaches and mentors constantly with their kids,” she said. “We need to play that role in the city schools.”
Pitch in
» To be a volunteer, mentor or speaker, or to sponsor an internship, call the Baltimore office of the National Foundation for the Teaching of Entrepreneurship at 410-685-6383.
