This Friday and Saturday at the Lycée Français de New York, ninth graders in the “Be the Change” Parcours took part in the finals of Lycée Start-Up Weekend. It was intense. The adrenaline was high. The competition was fierce, and the projects that distinguished themselves were impressive.
Developed in partnership with Start-Up Lycée, a French nonprofit dedicated to engaging students in entrepreneurship, the Lycée Français de New York’s own program uses the lens of the United Nations’ “17 Sustainable Development Goals.” These are goals that the UN hopes to accomplish globally by 2030—a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity, for people and the planet—created in partnership by developed and developing countries alike.
The aim is to end poverty, improve health and education, reduce inequality, and spur economic growth—all while tackling climate change.
Here at the Lycée, we find that the UN’s SDG goals are a helpful way to get students thinking about social challenges they would like to address with their businesses. In fact, the title for this Parcours, “Be the Change,” is a nod to Mahatma Gandhi:
The weekend’s winners were:
- Oceanhair
- Sarah – Andréas – Margaux – Camilo
4 “coups de coeurs,” in no particular order:
- NutrireciP (Manger bien)
- Ilona, Clara, Zachary
- First Care (Kit santé)
- Gabrielle, Claire, Julius
- Carin’bags (help in bags)
- Nora – Alexine – Lina – Mia
- Care packages for foster kids
- Teens 4 Teens (app to support bullied / depressed teens)
- Eugenia – Gita – Aliya – Victor
- online questions for teens (community)
Our 50 young entrepreneurs began on Friday morning by welcoming their volunteer coaches (many of whom are parents of the Lycée)—an impressive coterie of creative business strategists from across France, NYC, and beyond. Ludovic Charbonnel, co-founder and CEO of ChallengeMe, kicked things off by describing the highs, lows, rewards and thrills of launching a start-up venture.
“The journey is more important than the destination,” Charbonnel explained to an eager roomful of 9th-grade start-up enthusiasts. “It’s nice to build new things, and learn something new.”
“The hardest but most important step is to get from talking to executing,” added another start-up coach and Lycée parent, Richard Cacciato.
With this wisdom in mind, students broke off into groups and spent the rest of the day developing their projects and pitches. They worked out the tech dimension by creating apps and websites to accompany their ventures, and they built out the business angle by discussing feasibility, scalability, economy and markets.
All of this work culminated in Saturday’s big pitch sessions in the auditorium. Each student-led start-up had three minutes to sell their idea to the judges, and all of the contenders did a marvelous job. The winning team was awarded $500 and continued mentorship.
“Start-ups are the direction the world is going in,” said Head of School Audrey Peverelli. “That excitement and freedom—it is the way of doing business of the future.”
Thanks to the work of our 9th-grade entrepreneurs, that future is looking bright indeed.
About the Author :
Arthur Plaza holds a Ph.D in History and French Studies from New York University. He also studied at Sciences-Po and was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to conduct research in France in 2004-2005. Part of his research was published in the collective volume entitled “Politiques de la laïcité au XXe siècle” (PUF, 2007). In addition, he has been an editorial assistant at the scholarly journal, French Politics, Culture & Society.