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:
You might also like
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.”
You might also like
|
|
|
|
|
Fashion By Teens – Sweat Equity Enterprises
Sweat Equity Enterprises is an awesome organization that allows high school students in the New York area to design and produce their own fashion products. Instead of going out to buy the latest fashions, these teens create their own…
The student participants gain intensive design, technology and entrepreneurship training as they develop original graphic, product, or apparel designs from concept to prototype in partnership with a company partner. Past projects include bags and outerwear for Marc Ecko Enterprises, graphic design for New York Cares and Abada Capoeira, shoes for Skechers, watches for Callanen/Timex, package design for Dr. Miracles Hair Care Products, skateboards for Zoo York, cars for Nissan, and electronics for RadioShack.
Check out the video below of students describing their products and learn more about Sweat Equity Enterprises at their website, www.sweatequityenterprises.org.
You might also like
|
|
|
|
|
Become a Nike Field Reporter – Contest Deadline June 15, 2009
Nike is looking for their next Field Reporter, a young woman who will get the opportunity to travel across the country and interview some of the biggest athletes in the game. Check out Nike’s description of the contest below:
Who Were Lookin For
One lucky lady between 18-24 whos sassy, smart and sports savvy. If you’re in the know and on the go, its time to take your shot at being the first-ever Nike Field Reporter.Whats a Field Reporter?
If you think you have what it takes to volley one-liners with Maria Sharapova, kick it with Mia Hamm, and Q&A over cappuccinos with Serena Williams, this is your dream job.As the Nike Field Reporter, you’ll jetset around the country on Nike’s dime talking to athletes, artists and culture makers. You’ll report back in the form of photos, videos and blog entries.
You have to be ready for anything and anyone. As this is being written, the current Nike Field Reporter is spending a few days just hanging out with Kobe Bryant.
Think you could keep up? Remember this isn’t a job for the camera shy. Or the easily intimidated. You’ll need to show us you can talk a good game, as well as play one. Make us laugh. Impress us with your quick wit and storytelling. Prove to us you are Nike’s next star in a 2-minute audition video and sample blog post.
Check out the Nike site for more information and to apply.
You can visit the current Field Reporter’s blog here. Check out these videos of the first Nike Field Reporter, and the promotion video for the contest:
You might also like
|
|
|
|
|
Creative Career: Puppeteer Kevin Clash
Dreamer Profile: Kevin Clash:
Puppeter, Author and Producer
This Creative Career post is brought to you today by the color red, and the letter P – for Passion.
Kevin Clash is a puppeteer you may not know, but you definitely know some of his work. He’s the creative mind behind the lovable character Elmo on Sesame Street, and many other playful personalities we’ve grown up with and love.
Clash’s pursuit of his puppeteering career didn’t come easy. In an article online he talked about how he was teased as a child for his passion to make puppets, while other kids in his Baltimore neighborhood dreamed of playing basketball or going into the music business. He had loved puppets since age 10 after watching Sesame Street and had been enchanted with them ever since. In his book he said kids threw taunts at him like, “Look at him, he’s playing with dolls. He sews. He sleeps with his puppets.”
Even so he kept doing what he loved with the support of his parents who continually encouraged him. After doing puppet shows in his neighborhood starting at age 12, he got the chance to go on television and eventually made his way to Sesame Street in 1985. He came up with Elmo’s distinctive voice and laugh, making Elmo one of Sesame Street’s most popular characters. (He also did the voice of “Baby Sinclair” from the “Dinosaurs.”
His work also won Clash an Emmy Award, and he appeared on Oprah in an episode about obscure celebrities. Now he serves as Sesame Street Muppet Captain and co-executive producer, and he’s in homes worldwide teaching children life lessons through his lovable characters. Talk about passion!
Clash says he hopes his book will “inspire everyone to hit their goals.” In this interview he talks about how he never imagined he would be doing something he loved as a career, and how it doesn’t even feel like work. He’s truly living his dream.
Here are some of the videos and articles about Kevin Clash and his work:
In this interview in the New York Times Clash talks about how people react to him when they realize he’s an 6-foot-tall man, about his life, and about the art of puppetry and making stories relevant to kids lives today.
This interview with Kevin Clash and Elmo was tickling & hilarious:
Kevin Clash on “Reading Rainbow:
Kevin as the voice of the Dinosaur’s Baby Sinclair, “I’m the Baby, Gotta Love Me”
You might also like
|
|
|
|
|
Click here to view the first designs
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... 
Click here to shop envibrance inspirational designs!