FeeFighters is passionate about entrepreneurship and the local community, and we are acting on this passion by participating in the Future Founders program. The idea is to bring accomplished entrepreneurs into underserved classrooms on the south side of Chicago to inspire high school students and help them write business plans. At the end of the year, there is a business plan competition complete with monetary prizes for top business plans.

Being entrepreneurs, we strongly believe that fostering values of ownership, motivation, and innovation in kids who may not see that passion on a day to day basis will not only challenge them to believe in something greater, but will impact the broader community.

I had the opportunity to participate in Big Idea Day, which was the kickoff event for Future Founders. The CEC (Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center) among other sponsored the event, and went to great lengths to make it a success. After short presentations, each mentor was given a table of about 10 students to help brainstorm ideas. First, we brainstormed problems, and then solutions to the problems through technology. I was struck by the level of pain with which students shared problems…how can we use technology to decrease gun violence in schools? How can we use technology to lower wait times in doctors offices? How can we use technology to make sure small children are not kidnapped?

In a few seemingly short hours, teams came up with solutions to these problems, and even the host (Microsoft) was impressed with the results.

I look forward to further mentoring students and sharing the knowledge I’ve gained, but also learning from them in so many ways by keeping a perspective about what is important to the broader community and not just the echo chamber tech bubble that we get caught in too quickly.