News Item

The Eugene Lang Entrepreneurship Center has long been an active advocate for supporting entrepreneurship among our youth. One of the ways it does this is through the support of entrepreneurial workshops targeted at the city’s young people like those offered by The Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE).

Founded by CEO Steve Mariotti, NFTE is an organization that helps high school students from low-income communities build skills and unlock their entrepreneurial creativity.

“I decided to change career paths, back in 1982, from the corporate sector to become a special education teacher”, said Mariotti. “I worked in rough areas like the East New York section of Brooklyn and later in the Fort Apache section of the South Bronx, and while there I soon gathered insight into how to successfully motivate these tough students – that is, teaching them how to run a business".

The inspiration to form an organization was formed from these experiences and learnings. In 1987, the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE, formerly The National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship), a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, was formed. And twenty-two years later, NFTE has expanded its reach to include more than 280,000 young people and currently has programs in 21 states and 12 countries.

During this time, The Lang Center and NFTE have enjoyed a long standing relationship.  “Steve has been a respected colleague and friend for well over a decade” said Lang Center Director, Professor Murray Low. “I admire his work and NFTE's teaching models are quite effective, evidence from all their triumphant stories”.

Every year, the Lang Center sponsors some of NFTE’s activities during the summer months by donating space and other resources.  This year the Lang Center supported the following three programs: 

- 19 high school students participated in The Advanced Entrepreneurship Seminar (AES), known by NFTE internally as their “All-Star BizCamp” for their young alumni. The seminar has become a hallmark of the kind of advanced training and support they aspire to provide their most promising, motivated youth.  This year marked the program’s 7th year as an intensive week-long experience for motivated alumni over the age of 18 who wish to strengthen their concepts and make them operational.

- 37 high school students participated in the Institute for Entrepreneurship (IFE).  Through a partnership between Prep for Prep, the Goldman Sachs Foundation and the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE), students created individual business plans based on their skills and passions.  Experiential activities, guest speakers, and field trips added to the curriculum, where students learned key business concepts such as economics of one unit, legal business structure, and market analysis.  IFE culminated in a business plan competition, where students presented their plans to a panel of judges, including Administrative Director Laura Lee, followed by a brief question and answer session.

 - 30 high school students participated in The CA/NFTE New York Metro Technology BizCamp which focuses on teaching local young student entrepreneurs advanced business concepts, technology-based design and marketing strategies to support their businesses.  The students also learned how to develop their own individual business plans.

“NFTE is grateful to The Lang Center at Columbia Business School for providing us with classroom space, guidance and support for our seminar” said NFTE Alumni Services Director Suzanne Taylor who ran AES this year.  “The donation of that space allowed us to successfully deliver a world class learning experience to ambitious young students from across the United States”.

NFTE has more than 1,500 active Certified Entrepreneurship Teachers and is continually improving on its innovative entrepreneurship curriculum. To learn more about NFTE's impact, visit their website.