Hayward High School Teacher Honored

The Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship’s (NFTE’s)* Regional Gala on June 5 will include Hayward High School teacher Rick Charles and Silver Creek High School student Avrind Nandi, each of whom received prestigious awards at the NFTE National Gala at the National Museum in Washington DC this spring.

Charles and Nandi each represented the Bay Area during the event, which included top NFTE teachers and student entrepreneurs from around the world, winning the Global Enterprising Educator and Global Young Entrepreneur, respectively. Next, along with members of the technology, venture capital, and educational communities, they will be representing their schools and their cities at the NFTE Bay Area Regional Competition on Thursday, June 5 at The Computer History Museum in Mountain View.

Hayward High School teacher Richard Charles uses instructional material from NFTE, the national entrepreneurship nonprofit group that targets low-income students. In his business economics class, students develop business plans for their enterprises and present them during a business plan competition. 

Charles said. "It's similar to the TV show 'Shark Tank.' We have professional business people that come in, listen to the presentations and score them," he said.

Arvind Nandi, from Silver Creek High School, San Jose was also honored at the national event. He is Founder and CEO of WalkIn, an app that provides restaurants with an easy to use interface that organizes customers by time of arrival and number of people. Restaurants can then easily send a simple text message from a laptop or mobile device to the customer notifying them when their table is ready.

In the future, Arvind hopes to include a feature allowing restaurants to view logistical and statistic data about their customers. To give back to the community, WalkIn plans to work with restaurants to execute a yearly food drive for the poor and homeless people in the community as well as donate a portion of yearly profits to charities and centers that support low-income families.

The winners of the Regional competition on June 5, and the chance to compete in the National Competition on October 9.  Both will take place at The Computer History Museum in Mountain View.

—Information submitted by Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship