Youth Scholars Program: A summer course offered at the University of Maryland that allows students to explore dynamic business and technology topics by working in teams to design a new business. Click here!

C.U. Enterprises for Kids: Cutting Edge Entrepreneur Program for Kids. Click here!

Hot Shot Business: be a virtual employer! Click here!

Tips for kids from USA Today. Click here!

GoVenture: a comprehensive entrepreneurship simulation offered by Media Spark. Click here!

BABSON COLLEGE: America’s top college for entrepreneurship education. Click here!

SCORE “Counselors to America’s Small Business” is a nonprofit association dedicated to educating entrepreneurs and the formation, growth and success of small business nationwide. SCORE is a resource partner with the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA). Click here!

Materials available on Amazon:

A Kid Can Start A Business: Geared Towards Kids, Good For Everyone
by Shannah Trailor

Business Kit for Kids: A Complete Start Your Own Business Kit for Kids
by Summit Financial Products, Michael J. Searls, and Todd Clary

The Kids’ Business Book (Kids’ Ventures)
by Arlene Erlbach

Start a NFTE program in your school. Click here!

Entrepreneur U. – The Kauffman Foundation’s support database for teaching entrepreneurship. Click here!

Consortium for Entrepreneurship Education – entrepreneurship activities for the classroom. Click here!

Syracuse University Experiential Classroom clinic. Click here!

Rural Enterprise through Action Learning – Don’t live in an urban district? Tips for entrepreneurship teachers in rural areas. Click here!

The Case for Entrepreneurship Education by the Consortium for Entrepreneurship Education. Click here!

Reports by Harvard Business School on the effectiveness of entrepreneurship education through NFTE. Click here!

Poll of Americans’ views on entrepreneurship and the economy. Click here!

Kauffman Survey of Youth on Entrepreneurship. Click here!

• Students from low-income families are six times more likely not to finish high school than those from high-income families. Click here for more information.

• Students increase their occupational aspirations, interest in college, reading, and leadership behavior after participation in NFTE’s programs. Six months later, 70 percent of the alumni in a recent evaluation cohort were in college, 63 percent had jobs, and one in three ran a small business. Click here for more information.

• Fifty percent of African American, Hispanic and Native Americans will fail to graduate with their high school class.  Click here for more information.

• 1.2 million teens will drop out of high school this year. Click here for more information.

• Seventy-five percent of state prison inmates are high school dropouts. Click here for more information.

• 81% said they would have stayed in school if the subjects were more relevant to real life. Click here for more information.

City Drop Out Rates (calculated based on primary public school district, more information here):

• BALTIMORE – HIGH SCHOOL DROP OUT RATE: 58.5%
• MIAMI – HIGH SCHOOL DROPOUT RATE: 44.1%
• CHICAGO – HIGH SCHOOL DROPOUT RATE: 49%
• BOSTON – HIGH SCHOOL DROP OUT RATE: 41.4%
• NEW YORK – HIGH SCHOOL DROPOUT RATE: 49.4%
• FT. LAUDERDALE – HIGH SCHOOL DROPOUT RATE: 40%
• WASHINGTON DC – HIGH SCHOOL DROPOUT RATE: 42.4%

AMERICA’S PROMISE ALLIANCE — Founded in 1997 with General Colin Powell as Chairman and chaired today by Alma Powell, America’s Promise Alliance is a cross-sector partnership of more than 300 corporations, nonprofits, faith-based organizations and advocacy groups that are passionate about improving lives and changing outcomes for children. Click here for more information.

CHILDREN’S DEFENSE FUND: The Children’s Defense Fund (CDF) is a non-profit child advocacy organization that has worked relentlessly for 35 years to ensure a level playing field for all children. We champion policies and programs that lift children out of poverty; protect them from abuse and neglect; and ensure their access to health care, quality education and a moral and spiritual foundation. Supported by foundation and corporate grants and individual donations, CDF advocates nationwide on behalf of children to ensure children are always a priority. Click here for more information.

GETSCHOOLED – The Gates Foundation teams up with Viacom to offer help to teens, teachers, parents, and community leaders through this all-media spanning program. Click here for more information.

ASHOKA — Ashoka is the global association of the world’s leading social entrepreneurs—men and women with system changing solutions for the world’s most urgent social problems. Click here for more information.

BIG BROTHERS, BIG SISTERS: Kids Who Feel Better About Themselves Do Better in School. Big Brothers, Big Sisters Offers school-based mentoring opportunities for adults to spend time with at-risk students. School-Based Mentoring is not a classroom program, and it’s not tutoring. School-Based Mentoring is one-to-one mentoring that takes place in the schools. Click here for more information.

ACHIEVE:  Achieve is an independent, bipartisan, non-profit education reform organization based in Washington, D.C. that helps states raise academic standards and graduation requirements, improve assessments and strengthen accountability. Click here for more information.

COMMUNITIES IN SCHOOLS: Communities In Schools champions the connection of needed community resources with schools to help young people successfully learn, stay in school, and prepare for life. Click here for more information.

EDUCATION ALLIANCE: Education Alliance provides educational opportunities, trainings and support for school teachers and administrators as well as the general public. Click here for more information.

YOUTH ENTREPRENEURSHIP IS A CRITICAL TOOL IN KEEPING KIDS IN SCHOOL

NFTE donation programs. Click here to donate.

Young Entrepreneurs Alliance. Click here to donate.

National Federation of Independent Business. Click here for more information.

Girls Going Places. Click here for more information.

Inc. Entrepreneurship Mentoring Program. Click here for more information.

Youth Social Enterprise Initiative. Click here for more information.

Entrepreneur Mentor Society. Click here for more information

Entrepreneurship Resource Center: click here!

Information about Hot Shot Business, a Disney-Kauffman online simulation game for young people to run a business: click here!

MRS. OBAMA: Well, this is a good thing to see this department fired up and ready to go, right? I am — I am honored to be here this afternoon. First let me tell you that you couldn’t be luckier than to have as your leader this guy by the name of Arne Duncan. Barack and I, my brother, my family, we’ve known Arne for a very long time, and we’ve seen his growth, his leadership develop over the years. And he is someone who is committed, hardworking, passionate. But he’s someone who is fair, who is honest, who is decent, and who knows that getting to any goal means you have to build a team from within, from the bottom up. And I know he’s already beginning to do this. This kind of turnout and enthusiasm is sort of for me, but, you know, but I know you’re also excited about your new secretary.

So I’m honored to be here, to share the stage with Arne, as well as all of these public servants who have dedicated a lifetime to education and to public service.

Arne wanted me to talk a little bit about myself, but I always sort of feel like, after two years of a campaign, you know everything. But I think the most important thing to tell you or to remind you is that I am a product of your work. I’m a product of people who were investing every day in the education of regular kids who’d grown up on the south side of Chicago, kids on the north side, folks in the south, in the west — young people who oftentimes comes into these systems not knowing their own power and their own potential, believing that there’s some magic out there, to great things. But because of the work that you’ve put in, you’ve taught us and helped many of us understand that it is our own hard work and our own belief in self, our commitment to pushing ourselves along, building great communities and families, and reinvesting that energy once we have some successes.

I am a product of your work. I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for the public schools that nurtured me and helped me along. And I am committed, as well as my husband, to ensuring that more kids like us and kids around this country, regardless of their race, their income, their status, their — the property values in their neighborhoods, get access to an outstanding education.

So as Arne said, this is the first stop in many. I’m going to be visiting agencies throughout this administration to do just something simple, and that’s to say thank you — thank you before we even begin the work, because so many of you have been here struggling and pushing for decades. And Barack and I want to say thank you for what you’ve done and thank you for what you will continue to do. But we also know that there are new faces coming into this work, and we want to welcome you, and thank you for the hard work that you’re going to put in.

And I’m going to spend the next several weeks or months, however long it takes, going from agency to agency, just to say hello, to learn, to listen, to take information back where possible. But truthfully, my task here is to say thank you and roll up your sleeves, because we have a lot of work to do.

But the issues that we’re collectively working on affect all of us, all of these communities. They affect you and your children and your grandchildren and those of your friends and your family. We’re all in this together. So we have a stake in educating every single child, regardless, as I’ve said, of background and income.

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