“Entrepreneur” is a word of French origin, meaning in the strictest sense someone “who undertakes to effect an action, most often long and complex (Larousse Dictionary).” And whether we conclude that it was Richard Cantillon in 1755 or Jean-Baptiste Say in 1803 who first coined this term, there remains a strong connection between the notion of inventive doing and France. That educators around the globe consider the dispositions, knowledge and skills of being an entrepreneur to be vitally important for twenty-first century students is also a perspective which resonates deeply at the Lycée Français de New York.
Developing our students’ entrepreneurial potential
For Young Zhao, one of the leading educational thinkers of our times, “entrepreneurship is fundamentally about the desire to solve problems creatively. The foundation of entrepreneurship-creativity, curiosity, imagination, risk-taking and collaboration-is…part of our human nature.” Human beings, Zhao argues, “are born with the desire and potential to create and innovate, to dream and imagine, and to challenge and improve the status quo” (World Class Learners: Educating Creative and Entrepreneurial Students, p. 9). Yet, he continues, schools should do much more to develop their students’ entrepreneurial capacities, if only because our century, perhaps more than any other in history, requires the mastery of entrepreneurship by all, for the purpose of both personal fulfillment in a rapidly changing world and the collective resolution of the pressing questions with which our planet is faced.
Seven dedicated LFNY changemakers attending a Yale-Stanford social enterprise event about women’s rights in Africa, LFNY Cultural Center, May 5, 2015.
At the LFNY, where our aim is to nurture the thinkers, innovators and leaders of tomorrow, we are taking up the challenge of cultivating an entrepreneurial mindset among our students with the greatest possible enthusiasm. While it will take us time to complete the full-fledged curriculum we have in mind, we are building partnerships with two organizations which we hope will provide opportunities for our budding entrepreneurs and guidance to our educational team, one in the area of business entrepreneurship (TIE Young Entrepreneurs (TYE)) and another in the area of social entrepreneurship (Ashoka Youth Ventures (AYV)).
“Creating our own solutions and putting together teams”
TYE offers a program at the Lycée Français de New York for some 20 promising high school students from across the city every Saturday morning, “integrating classroom sessions [led by impassioned, practicing entrepreneurs], mentoring [with the same inspiring professionals] and business plan competition.” Four of our own pupils have taken part this year, with impressive results. As one of them, a particularly committed tenth-grader, explained to me, lots of teenagers have ideas for things they could invent or businesses they could create, but they do not always believe that they can actually achieve them. We are learning that we can act, she went on. That we can create our own solutions and put together teams that will help us accomplish pretty much anything we wish.
A video clip from Ashoka Youth Ventures explaining how social entrepreneurship goal-setting should be “S.M.A.R.T.”
The mission of AYV, which has brought together 20 dedicated ninth-graders every Thursday afternoon since last September, is similar: “to guide a cohort of young people towards launching their own social ventures [understood as initiatives which bring positive change to the local, regional or global community and which are sustainable because they have a socially responsible business dimension that generates the funds which the change project needs to be successful]” How? By “support[ing]participants in each distinct phase of venture implementation, from the genesis of the original idea, to execution, initial financing, and implementation.” In the words of one AYV member, the Ashoka experience is teaching him something simple: the world can indeed be improved, but change-making (which is the AYV synonym for social entrepreneurship) involves learning how to use the tools of entrepreneurship and not just relying on one’s idealism.
Pride in our students
When seven of our AYV students served as ushers at an extraordinary social entrepreneurship conference held at the LFNY on May 5, I was immensely proud of the praise I heard about them. Sponsored by the Yale and Stanford alumni associations and featuring the executive directors of three highly regarded non-governmental organizations working in the field of women’s rights in Africa (Tostan, Village Health Works, and ZanaAfrica), approximately 250 social entrepreneurs or supporters of social entrepreneurship converged in our Cultural Center. One participant remarked to me afterwards: what impresses me about your pupils is not only their impeccable manners, but the fact that they are very curious about the paths our organizations have taken and are asking for advice about starting their own projects. More fitting testament to our students’ growing entrepreneurial spirit would be hard to imagine.
About the Author :
Sean Lynch was Head of School at the Lycée Français de New York from 2011 to 2018, after having spent 15 years at another French bilingual school outside of Paris: the Lycée International de St. Germain-en-Laye. Holding both French and American nationalities, educated in France (Sciences Po Paris) and the United States (Yale), and as the proud husband of a French-American spouse and father of two French-American daughters, Sean Lynch has spent his entire professional and personal life at the junction between the languages, cultures and educational systems of France and the United States. In addition to being passionate about education, he loves everything related to the mountains, particularly the Parc National du Mercantour.