BUILD-ing America’s Youth through Entrepreneurship

At one of the lunch tables in this high school, a student named Matt and four friends sat huddled together focusing intently on a stack of papers and speaking with purpose. Initially, the exchange did not appear unusual. After all, five teenage boys routinely have heated discussions over lunch. What was strange, however, was the topic they were discussing. It was not whether the 49ers would ever make another Super Bowl run or if Kanye West is a better rapper than Jay-Z. Instead, Matt and his friends were spending their lunch hour examining the financial statements for their company and arguing over the best method to reduce expenses and increase their net income.

Although they can barely drive, Matt and his four high school friends founded and operate Game-Day Shoes, a custom shoe design business that began as part of BUILD’s youth business incubator program in East Palo Alto. This program combines the basics of financial management with the imagination and responsibility associated with entrepreneurship, a combination that motivates students like Matt to learn how to succeed in business, while also acquiring the basic math and writing skills required to graduate high school and enter college.

Over the past few years, this youth business incubator has exploded into the largest in the nation, revealing that students are hungry to learn what it takes to succeed in business and willing to work hard in school to help them achieve that success. This enthusiasm about education couldn’t come at a better time for our country.

First, motivating students to stay in school helps stem our country’s ever-increasing high school dropout rate. Despite working in some schools with graduation rates as low as 30 percent for BUILD’s target demographic, 100 percent of BUILD’s students have graduated high school and gone on to college. Achieving these remarkable results leads to better lives for the students and for our entire country. The economic impact of “dropouts from the class of 2007 alone will cost the nation nearly $329 billion in lost wages, taxes, and productivity over their lifetimes” (Alliance for Excellent Education 2007).

Second, teaching students basic financial skills provides our country a much needed service since more people than ever cannot manage basic personal finances. A recent survey by Harvard Business School and Dartmouth College revealed that over 60 percent of Americans do not understand how to manage basic credit card debt or home loans. Financial illiteracy is not just a problem for teenagers or blue-collar families. Annamaria Lusardi, a professor of Economics at Dartmouth, emphasized that, "Even those with a college degree don't have an understanding of the basic finance ideas.” Through a carefully designed curriculum, BUILD teaches financial literacy and shows students how these skills can help them build a sound financial future for their businesses and their families.

It’s time for lawmakers to pay attention to America Forward and organizations like BUILD, which have proven that social entrepreneurs can develop effective programs that will improve the welfare of individuals like Matt and of our entire country. Unless we encourage programs like the one that motivated Matt and helped launch Game-Day Shoes, the economic and personal crisis that so many Americans face will not be an exception for our economy, it will be the rule.


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Michael Stahl is currently a third year law student and research associate at Stanford Law School. Prior to law school, Michael worked at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, where he focused on strategic planning and public policy. Michael also taught high school English in Cleveland, Ohio.