This summer we took an inside look at the New York office of the Network For Teaching Entrepreneurship, also known as NFTE. NFTE is a non-profit organization providing educational entrepreneurship training to high school students from low-income, urban communities.

This podcast is the story of high school students throughout their journey through an eight-week intensive training course over the summer. They are bright students who are eligible for free/reduced lunch and require teacher recommendations in order to participate in the program. But it’s also the story about people who are underrepresented in the entrepreneurship community, and who don't get the flashy headlines (yet). We follow these students as they develop a business idea, earn revenue for the first time and overcome the unexpected challenges that come with entrepreneurship. By completing NFTE’s training, these students acquire business and life skills that will stay with them for the rest of their careers.

To learn about NFTE, however, is more than to learn about what their students accomplish. There is a large community that supports the organization from companies that donate resources, individual professionals who donate their time to mentor, and alumni who return to the program to help in any way possible. The story of NFTE is also about how all these constituencies interact with one another and create an environment where everyone benefits.

For more information about NFTE please visit: http://nfte.com/

For more information about the New York office of NFTE please visit http://nfte.com/offices/new-york-metro/

For a transcript of the episode please visit: http://nylaun.ch/NFTEtranscript