Dear VFA Friends and Supporters: We hope you’re enjoying your summer! We’ve wrapped up our Training Camp in Providence, the Class of 2013 has landed, the Class of 2012 is entering into their second year, and word of VFA is quickly spreading. Along with a recent feature in the New York Times on the front page of the business section and a live segment on CNBC, Andrew Yang and four of our Fellows will be featured on the CBS Evening News in the coming weeks. In February, Andrew will publish his first book, “Smart People Should Build Things.”  In other exciting news, we’re hiring for the VFA Team in NYC! If you’re comfortable working in a fast-paced environment and are interested in joining a small, rapidly growing company, check out our careers page today to view our open positions. Finally, we are thrilled to announce that applications are now open for the Class of 2014!  Throughout the fall we’ll travel across the country to meet students and recent grads who are interested in joining our next class of aspiring entrepreneurs. If you’re interested in applying or know someone who would make a great Fellow, check out our FAQs page or our admissions page for more info.  To find out when we’re visiting a campus near you, check out our events page in the coming weeks! We’ll be adding events throughout the fall, so don’t forget to stay up to date with the Venture for America blog.  Want to join our next class? Apply Today! Training Camp is over and the Fellows have landed. What are they up to now?

The 2013 Fellows just spent 5 weeks learning the skills they would need to hit the ground running at their companies. And after only a few weeks on the job, many of them are doing just that!  Clara Gustafson now oversees marketing automation efforts for her company, Riskive in Baltimore, which helps consumers better protect themselves.  They expect she will become a quick expert! Zubin Teherani is overseeing online marketing for his company, IDScan, in New Orleans. He will soon start representing them at local trade shows.  Avery Houser is now leading a branding team at Teespring in Providence, doing everything from loyalty programs and video ads, to e-mail marketing and social media. Checking in after a year: Class of 2012 Read on to see what some of our veterans have been up to! It’s been an exciting and hard-working year for many of our 2012 Fellows! They’ve been in their cities since last August, and after checking in with them at their one year Training Camp reunion, there’s only one way to describe how they’re doing…. they’re killing it! The Class of 2012 returned to Training Camp to join the Class of 2013 for their year one reunion, where they discussed their experiences so far and created plans for the coming year and beyond with VFA.  Edie Feinstein: Kickboard in New Orleans  Edie has spent the past year working for the hugely successful Ed-tech startup Kickboard in New Orleans. In just one year, Kickboard grew from a team of 8 to 27, quadrupled the number of schools they serve, and Edie even started managing a customer support team.  Josh Levine: Downtown Project in Las Vegas Josh has spent the past year living in Las Vegas, working for Tony Hsieh’s Downtown Project and helping build the new Turntable Health Clinic. In his spare time, he and his boss Zubin Damania, an internal medicine doctor and internet celeb knows as “ZDoggMD”, produce music videos about contemporary medical issues.  Want to get involved in VFA? You can… – Become a Mentor – Make a Donation – Spread the Word … and more! For more info, join us at our next VFA Summit in NYC on Tuesday, Sept. 17th!  RSVP Here Fellow Reflections from the Field Mike Wilner wanted to launch his career as an entrepreneur, but wasn’t sure how until he found VFA. To see what he’s learned as a Fellow so far, check out: Getting Shots Up: 6 Things I learned at VFA Bootcamp. Not a senior but want to get involved now? We’re seeking VFA Campus Ambassadors from schools across the country! For more info or to apply, visit our jobs page.  Join Us Today! Smart People Should Build Things VFA Founder Andrew Yang is publishing his first book! Available in early 2014 or PREORDER TODAY.  Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Instagram

Thanks to everyone who supported our 2013 Training Camp! Just a few weeks ago, the Class of 2013 departed from Brown University after 5 weeks of trainings and challenges to move to their cities and get to work!   To wrap up Training Camp, we recognized a handful of Fellows for exceptional performance throughout the weeks, including winning teams from challenges, top presentations, and Fellows who demonstrated outstanding value creation on the final challenge.    The Fellows accomplished some amazing feats in just a few days. Alex Rawitz created curriculum for Startup Effect, a non-profit co-founded by four VFA Fellows that teaches entrepreneurship in middle schools in Detroit and New Orleans. Then there’s Ali Sheppard, who developed “Fellow 2 Fellow”: a peer mentoring network to connect Fellows across classes and cities.   We also wanted to congratulate Astrid Schanz-Garbassi, Sean Jackson, Matt Fulton, Jon Hills, Mike Wilner, and Shilpi Kumar, who were named Top Performing Fellows for the 2013 Training Camp. We believe these Fellows embody the spirit of VFA and serve as an example of what a Fellow should be. A special thanks to all who supported Training Camp, including UBS Americas, Brown University, the RI Foundation, American Express OPEN Forum, and all of our trainers and speakers. Thanks for supporting VFA! We’re looking forward to another successful year.  All the Best, The VFA Team

Hi, I’m Chloe! I’m thirteen years old and I’m interning at Venture For America. Thirteen may seem like a young age to be interning, but I don’t think so. In fact, I think that younger people should become more involved by interning, especially with organizations that focus on entrepreneurship, such as VFA.
Now, as a teenager, I consider it my job to be sarcastic, lazy, and even a little obnoxious at times – eye rolling is a prerequisite. However, I also consider it my job to be informed on what’s going on in the world. What got me involved in this is none other than VFA. Before learning about the organization, I wanted to be a lawyer. Being a lawyer is a fantastic job, but it is a path that many college graduates take, along with becoming a doctor, or a financial advisor.
I still think being a lawyer would be a good fit for me – I’ve loved acting and debate since I was little, both of which are involved in law. Because of this, when my dad told me that I would be interning at VFA, I wasn’t too happy. However, I did some research. An hour and a couple of Wikipedia pages later, I ended up deep into articles about teen entrepreneurship.
Never before had I even considered becoming an entrepreneur. For one, I’m not a builder. Unlike my brother- who’s a wizard with Legos- I’ve never been good at making things, much less making something that’s my own invention. But then I looked deeper into entrepreneurship, and learned about teenagers such as Nick D’Aloisio. D’Aloisio created an app called Summly, which summarizes news and online content to make browsing faster and easier. I also learned about other kids like Debbie Sterling and Danny Mendoza. Sterling is the creator of Goldieblox, a toy that encourages young girls to learn about engineering, and Mendoza is the founder of Together We Rise, an organization that works to help foster children make their own choices.
After reading about them, I became motivated to do something as well. It doesn’t matter that I don’t know anything about coding or creating things. I can learn, have my friends help me, or even make something that doesn’t need to involve building- like a non-profit for children in need. The possibilities are endless, something that more young people need to realize, so they can learn take more chances.

What are you going to do next year?

We’re looking for motivated, supremely talented, and high-character college seniors and recent grads who want to get hands on business experience early on, make an impact, and gain the skills they need to one day build a business. If this describes you or someone you know, visit our application page today!

2014 Fellowship Application Deadlines:

Round 1: October 7, 2013
Round 2: December 2, 2013
Round 3: February 17, 2014
For questions about the application process and the fellowship, you can visit our FAQs and admissions info page. If you still have questions, you can reach us at apply@ventureforamerica.org.
If you’re thinking about applying, you can read a message from Andrew Yang to all applicants here. We look forward to receiving your application!

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