Shooting for the Moon: TEN9EIGHT Film Features Young Entrepreneurs
They’re bright, energetic, and blazing a trail of accomplishment by shooting toward their dreams… Check out the film Ten9Eight featuring a group of young passionate entrepreneurs…
“In America, a kid drops out of high school every 9 seconds… Imagine if they didn’t.” The upcoming documentary Ten9Eight explores this question, by telling the stories of a group of diverse young entrepreneurs from urban neighborhoods around the country who are overlooking their circumstances and starting their own businesses. The film, by award-winning filmmaker Mary Mazzio, follows the teens as they compete in an annual business plan competition run by the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE). The teens are selected from over 24,000 students from across the country, and compete in the final round in New York City for the chance to win $10,000 to launch his or her business.
Here are introductions to some of the young people featured in the film:
Anné Montague, age 17, Founder of Inamoratos Dance (pictured above): Anné does it all. She dances, choreographs, and takes full charge of her dance company, which she started at the age of 10. Anné was raised primarily by her father, Purcell Montague, a truck driver, as her mother suffered from drug addiction. Anné, a focused girl with a big attitude, requires her dancers to go to class and keep their grades up. Anné’s business is a non-profit, aimed at getting inner city kids off the street. Her motto? “No shirt, no shoes, no need. We dance.” Anné will attend Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University next year, majoring in business.
Rodney Walker, age 19, Founder of Forever Life Music and Video Productions: Rodney was put into the foster care system at the age of 5 and ended up homeless on the streets of Chicago. Almost becoming a statistic like many of his brothers, Rodney was able to chart a new future – and is now studying business as a freshman at Morehouse College.
Amanda Loyola, age 16, Founder of Eco-Dog Biscuits: Amanda’s father escaped from the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, finding a job at Burger King in Brooklyn, New York. He inspired his daughter, Amanda, to think that anything might be possible in America. Amanda started her business, a vegetarian dog treat company, after her dog, Princess, died from cancer.
Anné, Rodney, Amanda are but three of several remarkably resilient kids featured in this film, all of whom are facing the most challenging of circumstances in the inner city – making their achievements all the more remarkable.
Descriptions from from the website Ten9Eight.com
Click here to read more of the teens’ stories and for more photos, and visit www.ten9eight.com to see if the film will be playing at a theater near you.
Watch the trailer for the inspiring film below:
Dreamer ENT Editor’s Note: As a NFTE alumnus I’m really excited to see this film, and encourage everyone to see it as well. To find out more about how you or someone you know can take part in NFTE visit www.nfte.com.
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Teen Rocks Out On Cool Custom Guitars
Image Source: Ten9Eight Website
14-year-old Alexander Niles, a middle-school student from South Florida, is mixing his love of guitars with entrepreneurship, creating custom guitars that he will sell on his online store. He constructs each guitar from scratch, and creatively embellishes them to the customer’s liking.
Alexander received his business training from the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship NFTE, a great program for elementary to high school students that helps them build their own businesses. You can learn more about his company in this article in the South Florida Business Journal. Watch Alexander rocking out on his own custom guitar in the video below from the upcoming documentary Ten9Eight: Shoot For the Moon, which features several other young entrepreneurs. For more information about NFTE, visit http://nfte.com.
Watch Alexander on South Florida’s NBC 6
as he describes how he got started:
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Dreamer ENT Founder Featured in NFTE Entrepreneurship Textbook
Dreamer ENT’s founder Julene is featured in the upcoming entrepreneurship education textbook from the Network Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship, or NFTE. The feature is about cultivating relationships to help your business succeed. The textbook entitled Entrepreneurship: Owning Your Future is used in the NFTE curriculum to teach high school students the art of starting and running a business. NFTE is the program that enabled Julene to start her own marketing business when she herself was in high school.
Read a portion of the feature below:
Relationship Building: The Art of Success
When Julene Fleurmond was in the tenth grade, she entered a Web design contest at her South Miami high school. “I began teaching myself how to use different Web-design programs,” she said. “I didn’t think I would win, and I won first place.”Relationships Lead to Business
Along with being awarded a scholarship, Julene also impressed one of the judges, who asked her to work with his organization, the National Urban League, on other projects. Julene began doing community service projects. She researched how to operate a creative graphic design business, took on internships at other firms, networked with professors and mentors, and made sure her work was on a professional level.After two years of freelancing, Julene started Envibrance Studios, a media and promotional company that creates Websites, multimedia, creative content, and publications. Envibrance’s motto is “Envision the possibilities; we’ll bring them to life.” Julene was confident about providing her services, but she didn’t feel confident about pricing them…
Relationships That Count
In the beginning, Julene tried to do everything herself. Eventually she found that “Asking for help is not some thing you should be afraid of. Sometimes I would ask other designers I knew to do part of a project. Or we would collaborate if I didn’t know how to do something. They would do one part of it and I would do the other.”Julene also learned how to take on projects that she’s passionate about. “My genre now is mostly youth-oriented organizations or organizations that cater to youths. Having a genre or an audience that I’m very passionate about really helps me to be more passionate about my work.”
Her advice to other entrepreneurs is to make sure they’re passionate about whatever they do, even if others say it won’t be profitable.
“I think that if you pursue what you’re truly passionate about and what you were made to do, financial benefits and everything else will follow naturally.”
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Hi, I'm Julene, editor and director of Dreamer ENT. The goal of this site is to inspire young people, and the young at heart, to pursue their passions boldly and brilliantly... 
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