“Generation Y-NOT?” symbolizes the fact of life that you can have everything, yet fail, or nothing, and still succeed, the determining factor is the “attitude.”

Why is this important for our youth to understand? Because our youth have already begun a life, hearing that they “cannot” do this, or “won’t be able to” accomplish that. Generation Y-Not? Challenges our youth to live a life always asking “Why Not?”

Every nine seconds, a high school student drops out of high school in the United States. As our nation scrambles to addressthis youth epidemic, UNIDAD of Miami Beach has taken a progressive approach in tackling our local truancy dilemma. Adhering to research conducted by Harvard University and learning from Programs like Ten9Eight, our Social Entrepreneurship BizPlan Competition not only allows for our youth’s natural competitive spirit to flourish, it also utilizes this vehicle to teach them financial literacy, self-awareness, accountability & social responsibility, all awhile, significantly decreasing their probability of dropping out of high school.

Regardless of creed, nationality or religion, the future workplace is more complex than we can imagine. The global market has now pinned our youth against other youth from around the world for Education, Opportunity, Access to Opportunity and even employment. Thus this inevitable move towards a global connectedness brings along with it a myriad of new challenges and blessings.

• They have financial smarts. After witnessing the financial insecurity that beset earlier generations stung by layoffs and the dot-com bust, today’s newest entrants into the workforce are generally savvy when it comes to money and savings.

• Work-life balance isn’t just a buzzword. Unlike boomers who tend to put a high priority on career, today’s youngest work-ers are more interested in making their jobs accommodate their family and personal lives.

• Change, change, change. Generation Y’ers don’t expect to stay in a job, or even a career, for too long. They’ve seen the scan-dals and they’re skeptical when it comes to such concepts as “employee loyalty.”

• They don’t like to stay too long on any one assignment. This is a generation of multitaskers, and they can juggle e-mail on their BlackBerrys while talking on cellphones while trolling online.

• They believe in their self worth and value enough that they’re not shy about trying to change the companies they work for. They walk in with high expectations for themselves, their em-ployer, and their boss.

• There’s Gen Y’s total comfort with technology. While boom-ers may expect a phone call or in-person meeting on important topics, younger workers may prefer virtual problem solving.

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What is the history of the N

ew

Generation Leadership and W

orkforce Institute (NGLW

I)?The N

ew Generation Leadership &

Work-

force Institute (NGLW

I) is going into its 6th year of inspiring w

ork. NGLW

I was first

started to serve the Hispanic students in

the Miam

i Beach area. We quickly learned

the dire need that exists in the lives of teens of all backgrounds for leadership learning, social responsibility and w

ork-readiness training. N

GLWI adapted its m

ission to be inclusive of all youth, know

ing the progres-sive nature of this new

generation. Little did w

e know 6 years ago, how

‘New

’ this generation w

ould be.

How

does a High School Student

Participate in your program?

Currently, our funding requirements en-

sure that the eligibility process is both clear and precise. Som

e of the require-m

ents are that the student be a junior or a senior in H

igh School, comply w

ith in-com

e guidelines, and be currently living in M

iami-Dade County. Q

& A W

ITH TH

E EXECU

TIVED

IRECTOR:

MARGARITA

CEPEDA

Why ‘Social Entrepreneurship’?

It has been proven time and again in studies

conducted by Harvard, Stanford and others,

that High School students that are exposed

to entrepreneurial learning during their high school experience significantly increase reten-tion rates and directly address the grow

ing concern of truancy in our nation. The “social” part of our entrepreneurship teachings, is to not only prom

ote excellence and self-sustain-ability, but also m

ore importantly, prom

ote the value of a giving spirit and creating a new

gen-eration of socially conscientious leaders.

What kind of Leadership do you

teach? Why?

This year, we continue to use the great teach-

ings of individuals like Dale Carnegie’s: Leader-ship M

astery and Stephen Covey’s: 7 Habits of

Highly Effective Teens. They w

ere beyond their tim

e, and yet now, their teachings of H

umanity

are so timely. W

e have seen our teens not only learn effective habits and m

aster leadership, but m

ore importantly, they have em

braced the value of it.

Why Financial Literacy?

Our current economic situation in itself justi-

fies the need for financial literacy training. The concept behind financial literacy is to not only know

how to m

anage money, but m

ore im

portantly, how to m

ake money and spend it

responsibly.

There are some exceptions m

ade in few cases,

but our career advisors work closely w

ith both the student and their guardians during the eli-gibility process.

Who are som

e of your supporters?First and forem

ost, we thank the City of M

iami

Beach & South Florida W

orkforce for funding our program

. This year, we have been honored

to have the support from com

panies and organi-zations like VISA, TD Bank, Costco, W

LRN (N

PR) Pollo Tropical, Terrero Film

s, John Casablancas M

iami, Florida Atlantic University, M

iami Dade

College, Miam

i Beach Convention Center, Miam

i Beach Cham

ber of Comm

erce and AMPS Inter-

national, to name a few

. This year, we expect this

list to double.

What can a H

igh School Student Expect From

Your Program?

This coming year, w

e have plenty of great activi-ties and surprises for our students. Our students go on field trips, learn leadership, financial lit-eracy and even com

pete for a 1st place prize of $1,500 during our social entrepreneurship Biz-Plan com

petition, they even get PAID to partici-pate in the institute for the m

onth of June. They enjoy guest speakers, field trips to Orlando, the FAU Boca cam

pus & M

iami Dade College for a ca-

reer day tour & w

e even buy every single youth participant a tailored business suit for their graduation cerem

ony. I wish I had one of these

institutes around when I w

as in High School.