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Educational inequality in the United States is a gigantic issue. Students from low-income families are five times as likely to dropout of high school or college than their peers. Even if they do make it to college, many of them still lack the practical skills to flourish in today’s fast-paced global economy.

Enter Estelle Reyes, one of the changemakers chiseling away at this issue. She is the electrically vibrant yet down-to-earth Executive Director for the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship in Los Angeles, a nonprofit that has affected the lives of 10,000 young people under her leadership. Through its education programs, NFTE (aptly pronounced nifty) gives students the tools to upstart their own ingenious business ideas and engages them with the spirit of entrepreneurship- tackling complex problems with a creative edge.

She’ll be one of the amazing speakers gracing the stage at NextDayBetter + Los Angeles on Saturday, August 16th at General Assembly. Learn more about the event and RSVP here: bit.ly/UtyfRv

Below, she shares with us her story, her career insights, and why she’s dedicated to education.

Going with the flow

“If you’re interested in something, immerse yourself in it and then connect the dots… somehow the universe will find a way to give it to you.”

In college I was pre-med and majored in neuroscience, and then when I graduated I just didn’t want to go to any more school. My senior year I was a mega slacker. All my roommates were going to job fairs and I was just chilling and hanging out on the couch. I just didn’t know what I wanted.

One day my parents met a couple while eating in Chinatown and they happened to have a daughter who worked at Goldman Sachs. I called her up and after having a really good conversation she said that I should apply to Goldman, even though I’ve never had any type of business background. After fourteen interviews, I got a position in Private Wealth Management and worked as a financial analyst for two years.

While I loved the dynamic work environment, I found that I was always drawn to more community related work. I’ve always had a passion for education. After Goldman, I had no job again. I didn’t have a credential for public school teaching so I hustled and printed a list of Catholic schools in the Bay Area that I started cold calling one at a time. The principal of one school that had a first grade teacher opportunity happened to be in LA. I drove all my stuff up and moved to the Bay Area a week later.

Though I worked more hours as a teacher than at Goldman, I found it so much more rewarding. But even though I loved it, I felt like I wasn’t having as big an impact as I wanted. Only one class a year. So I went back to school to get my Masters of Ed in Human Development and Psychology at Harvard. Afterwards, I looked for a job for a long time. I had no luck until I heard that NFTE was opening an LA office and wanted someone to help with piloting. I started working as a Program Director and then transitioned to Executive Director two years later.

Now, not only can I blend what I learned in Goldman Sachs and school together, I get to live my personal passion every day. The grueling path doesn’t matter to me, because I knew the end goal. I get to do what I love to do everyday and get paid for it, and that’s such a treat.

A broad-smiling Estelle Reyes at NFTE’s Semi-Finals Coaching Night.

Leading the way

“I think that the reason why I feel confident in my role as a leader is because I first learned how to follow.”

The reason I get how this office works is because I’ve done every role. I’ve been program director. I’ve done grant writing. I’ve done all the things it takes to run this office. The way I am in terms of leading is I like to give people the big picture and the goals. Then I delegate. I do check in and see how I can help, but they know the best way to get there because it’s their goal. When you give people freedom they can fly so much higher than if you’re holding their hand.

The power of education in entrepreneurship

“If you are able to help students understand that the world doesn’t happen to them, they happen to the world, switching that perspective is really transformative.”

The really powerful thing about teaching kids about entrepreneurship is that it causes such a ripple effect. They in turn can teach their parents. If they actually launch a business and start operating it, then they’re able to help their communities and start commerce.

Teaching them about entrepreneurship helps with so many things- being more engaged in school, problem solving, learning how to present in public and be more confident. For example, one of NFTE’s National Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge winners named Hayley Hoverter created a business called Pinch. When she was little, her mom worked as a barista at Starbucks, and was always distressed by the amount of trash she saw. What she did was invent an organic sugar packet that dissolves in your beverage, leaving no trace of waste. She wrote a provisional patent for her product when she was 16, graduated high school, and is now going to Dartmouth.

Estelle Reyes with her NFTE Team and students at their National Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge in New York (October 2013).

The spirit of self-discovery

“I’m a super adventurer. I will try anything at least once…”

I think that kind of spirit is really fitting because that kind of attitude is super entrepreneurial. ‘I will hustle. I will do this. I’m not scared of things.’ If there’s a challenge, let me think of ways to solve it and try things we haven’t tried before. That spirit enables me to be the best I can be personally, and then I can infuse that into my professional life.

Photos courtesy of Estelle Reyes and NextDayBetter.

About the Author | Sherina Ong is an aspiring changemaker currently attending the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia for graduate studies. She is a NextDayBetter contributor, whose writing has been published on Rappler, The Origami, and the Pilipino American Unity for Progress (UniPro) blog.