John Hope Bryant

From the Credit Union Times: Entrepreneurial Spirit Continues to Swell Among Students: Gallup/Operation HOPE

BY MICHELLE A. SAMAAD

January 30, 2013 • Reprints

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With more schools offering classes on how to start and run a business, students in fifth through 12th grade are very optimistic about becoming entrepreneurs one day.

According to findings from the 2012 Gallup-HOPE Index, a joint project to encourage entrepreneurial development among youth, based on a nationally representative survey of 1,217 students, 43% said they plan to start their own businesses.

The poll also found that students understood the value of education, with 93% agreeing that there is a relationship between the level of education and earning potential.

Fifty-nine percent said their school offers classes on how to start and run a business.

“The results from this year's Gallup-HOPE Index show that there's a lot of entrepreneurial spirit among our young people, but we need to provide them with better access to the tools they need to succeed,” said Jim Clifton, chairman and CEO of Gallup.

Many of the students surveyed were familiar with credit unions. Fifty-four percent said they have a credit union or bank account. The 26% of students in grades nine through 12 who said they work at a paying job, likely park their earnings in those accounts. Seven percent of all students polled said they are currently interning with a local business.

The study also found that 32% of students surveyed said their parents or guardians have started a business. 

“Educated, engaged, hopeful kids are the future entrepreneurs of America,” said John Hope Bryant, founder and CEO of Operation HOPE. “This information helps us tailor programs to foster young entrepreneurs, helping them develop an idea into a business,” he added on the Gallup-HOPE Index.

Initiated in 2011, the GHI is part of Gallup's 100-year commitment with Operation HOPE to assess the attitudes and behaviors often ascribed to entrepreneurs and to provide government and business leaders with data about student sentiment nationwide, the organizations said.

Original article here.

 

A Personal Letter from Operation HOPE Founder, Chairman, and CEO John Hope Bryant and Ambassador Andrew Young

Operation HOPE is "the private banker to the working poor, the underclass, and the struggling middle-class," and the impact of our work can be felt on-the-ground, everywhere we operate.  Our mission is 'silver rights,' or making free enterprise and capitalism work for all.  Financial literacy is the tool, financial dignity is the goal and financial inclusion is the way. 

2012 marked new heights for HOPE's silver rights movement as it continued to reach out and empower underserved populations in new and innovative ways. HOPE divisions currently serving the community include:

 

• Banking on Our Future, focused on keeping the most at-risk youth from repeating the cycles of poverty and despair that has trapped so many in their families and communities by teaching them basic financial literacy, or what we call "the global language of money." 

 

• HOPE Business-In-A-Box/Gallup-HOPE Index, focused on inspiring a generation of young people to become future American assets of economic energy, small business and entrepreneurship.

 

• HOPE Financial Dignity Centers, including our newest HOPE Financial Dignity Center at Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr''s Ebenezer Church in Atlanta, Georgia, are where we approve clients day one, subject to the resolution of their primary denial factors, and raise credit scores on average 120 points over 18 months of active counseling. We call it the 700 Credit Scores Communities Initiative.  The HOPE Center at Ebenezer marks our 11th HOPE Center across the nation, and is the proud anchor for the new Martin Luther King. Sr. Community Resource Complex next to Ebenezer Church.  Most people know that Daddy King, as he was lovingly called, co-pastored Ebenezer Church with his son, Dr. King, but what they don't know is that Daddy King served on the board of a bank for 40 years.  Even more than 50 years ago, the King legacy was alive with civil rights, and silver rights empowerment, too. A special thank you to our HOPE Center signature partners, including Bank of the West and Union Bank on the west coast, E*TRADE FINANCIAL in New York City and Washington, DC, and at Ebenezer in Atlanta, FINANCIAL SERVICES ROUNDTABLE members SunTrust Bank, State Farm Insurance, LPL Financial/NestWise, Wells Fargo Bank,MasterCard, and BMO Harris Bank, along with supporting partners including the Coca-Cola Company,Kaplan University, Equifax, the United Way of Greater Atlanta, amongst others.

 

• HOPE Coalition America, which is the national partner with FEMA around emergency financial disaster preparedness, response and recovery, or the "economic Red Cross" for the nation.  HCA responded to, and served, more than 200,000 survivors following Hurricane Katrina, and we are responding to Hurricane Sandy now. 

 

• HOPE Government Relations & Public Policy, and HOPE Forums, which both advance responsible public policy and help to shape, engaged public opinion.  The recent HOPE Global Financial Dignity Summitfeaturing U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, with more than 1,500 delegates from 30 countries, covered by 50 major media outlets, is but one example of our focus here.

Read the complete personal letter on the HOPE Blog here.

2012 Gallup-HOPE Index Findings Show Gap Between Entrepreneurship Aspirations and Work Experience for American Youth

Education experts convene to discuss solutions to capitalize on economic energy of students

WASHINGTON, Jan. 23, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- "Silver rights" nonprofit Operation HOPE, a leader in financial dignity, joined with Gallup to announce findings from the 2012 Gallup-HOPE Index (GHI), a joint project to encourage entrepreneurial development among youth. The organizations also co-hosted a panel discussion on comprehensive solutions to encourage economic and entrepreneurial achievement for America's youth.

The GHI is an annual survey that measures engagement, hope and economic energy of fifth through 12^th grade students in the U.S. Through exploration of students' future aspirations and their access to the necessary education and experience needed to achieve these goals, the study can inform educational programs and resources to help students become meaningful participants in the nation's economy. Initiated in 2011, the GHI is part of Gallup's 100 year commitment with Operation HOPE to assess the attitudes and behaviors often ascribed to entrepreneurs and to provide government and business leaders with data about student sentiment nationwide.

Results from the 2012 GHI reveal that America's youth are optimistic about the future and many have entrepreneurial ambitions. The results, based on a nationally representative survey of 1,217 students, show that 43 percent of students plan to start their own businesses. The poll also found that students understand the value of education, with 93 percent agreeing that there is a relationship between level of education and earning potential. Fifty-nine percent said their school offers classes in how to start and run a business.

After We Inaugurate Our President, Welcome Our New Entrepreneurship Generation: Join Us for the Gallup-HOPE Index Forum, Washington, DC, 2013

For those interested in learning more about the Gallup-HOPE Index Forum, 2013, contact Jodi Brockington, deputy director of HOPE Forums.

 

 

Gallup Chief Executive Officer, Jim Clifton Joins Operation HOPE National Board of Directors

Operation HOPE (HOPE) recently announced the addition of Jim Clifton, chief executive officer of the Gallup Organization to its National Board of Directors. With this appointment, Mr. Clifton becomes Operation HOPE’s newest ambassador for its youth economic energy (youth entrepreneurship and job creation) campaign, which provides programs and resources to promote global dignity and free enterprise in underserved communities.

In 2010 Operation HOPE and Gallup formed a game-changing partnership around the measurement of economic energy in America's youth. With this partnership came a 5 million dollar commitment from Gallup to America's schools through HOPE and 100 year commitment to host the annual Gallup-HOPE Index Forum, reporting out to national leaders on the level of increased economic energy of our youth.

As a board member for HOPE, Mr. Clifton’s areas of focus will include wiring America's schools for economic energy measurement and metrics and pulling the trigger on the Gallup-HOPE Index partnership and Gallup 100 year commitment around same.

Special Commendations to Operation HOPE, Atlanta -- 10,000 Youth Educated in Financial Literacy in 2012 ALONE!

I was very pleased and proud to hear that our Operation HOPE Atlanta team for Banking on Our Future, led by our own Tara Dennis, has reached the 10,000 youth educated mark for ONE year, 2012, teaching financial literacy tools, and financial dignity lessons for youth in our community.

Tara Dennis and her team deserve commendation, and to be proud.  You can tell her congrats yourself, here.

Note: and yes, those are non-alcoholic beverages (smile).

Operation HOPE, Chicago Making A Difference: A Report Card

 Here I stand with Operation HOPE, Chicago program leader Karen Kuramitsu, who is doing a fine job.

Banking on Our Future, Chicago Resuls and Performance Summary 2012 

Since Banking on Our Future (BOOF), Chicago was launched in Chicago in 2002, 76,580 youth have completed the program. (As of October 30, 2012, 4,668 students have participated in BOOF.) 1,569 volunteers have been trained and deployed to the classrooms. BOOF has been presented in 11 cities in the Chicagoland area.

The BOOF program has been taught in 412 public, private and charter schools and community based organizations in Cook, DuPage, Will and Lake Counties. Currently, 50 partners provide volunteers for the Banking on Our Future program. 

John Hope Bryant Speaks on LOVE LEADERSHIP Before Youth and Gallup Leadership in Omaha, Nebraska

I was deeply honored to speak before 300 young leaders of and for the future in Omaha, Nebraska who are using Gallup's "Strength Finders" human science technology to move their lives in a positive direction. Given how often I speak before young people, I can tell you right now -- these youth were different!

One of the memories I hold most dear involves walking up to the venue with a team of Gallup executives, also friends, and a young lady from the school (a student there) steps forward and hands me two letters, enclosed in envelopes.  She calmly but firmly announces to me that one letter was destined for me, which I could open later, and one letter -- well, one letter was for the President of the United States.  She expected me to deliver it to him, and she didn't blink when she said it.

Needless to say, I did precisely as I was told (smile).  The next day, when I was in Washington, D.C., I made sure I delivered this letter from this young lady directly to the White House, insuring that it made it to the West Wing.  These youth -- this amazing group of leaders in the making, thanks to Gallup -- this is what gives me hope!

A special thank you to my friend Jane Miller, who runs Gallup in Omaha, Nebraska and is deeply involved with empowering youth throughout Greater Omaha, Nebraska, for inviting me to spend some time with her star-youth.

FROM OMAHA WORLD-HERALD: ‘Make smart sexy again,’ youths told

By Ross Boettcher
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

The long-term future of the U.S. economy rests on the shoulders of young people who are eager to start businesses, create jobs and be their own bosses but don’t necessarily have the skills to pull that off.

The most recent Gallup-Hope Index, a measure of entrepreneurial engagement and financial literacy, found that 45 percent of students in grades five through 12 want to start their own company, and 77 percent want to be their own boss.

The students responded to a nationally representative poll conducted by the Gallup Organization in partnership with Operation HOPE. 

On Wednesday, about 300 high-achieving Omaha Avenue Scholars, community business leaders and 300 Gallup employees converged on the Joslyn Museum to hear John Hope Bryant, the chief executive and founder of Operation HOPE, encourage more students to fight back against “thug culture” and to “make smart sexy again.”

“Everything you do matters,” Bryant said. “This is not a recession we’re in. It’s a reset.”

The vast majority of the 1,721 students surveyed said they aren’t afraid to take risks, never give up and are regularly thinking of new ideas — qualities characteristic of entrepreneurs.

But only about half report that their schools offer classes on how to run a business and 54 percent learn lessons about finance and banking. Fifty-eight percent of students reported having their own bank account, and about one-in-five spend more than one hour a week doing a paid job.

Read the complete article here.

 

More Advice to College Students

1. Do what you are passionate about. You will stink at everything else.
2. Match your passion with a job description, and then pick your major in response to that match. 
3. Remember that college is your pre-paid R&D for life. Don't waste it at parties you don't even remember. 
4. College is about the only time a grown man is still considered 'cute and adorable' -- take advantage of how weak kneed every successful adult is around you by asking for something meaningful -- like a business internship at their company for the summer. 
5. Have more questions than answers. God gave you two ears and one mouth for a reason. Listen more than you talk. You can be smarty pants later.