Starting a Business the SAGE Way Teens in the student entrepreneurship program are changing the world, not to mention making their own worlds a lot nicer.

Imagine reducing high school truancy rates, helpingdisadvantaged workers file tax returns or setting up a freeenterprise program for students in Mexico. Nidya Baez did all thosethings--all before graduating from high school. Baez, 17, graduatedin May from Fremont High in Oakland, California, where she andabout 60 other Fremont students participated in SAGE (Students forthe Advancement of Global Entrepreneurship).

SAGE is an international program that teaches secondary schoolstudents how to start and manage a business while maximizingenvironmental sensitivity and civic responsibility--at leastthat's the formal definition. An enthusiastic Baez quicklygives her version: "SAGE is for students who want to changethe world one project at a time--we have a vision of the world andwant to make it better."

One of the Fremont group's greatest successes was thecreation of a food cart on their high school campus. "Wenoticed a lot of kids were leaving campus to go out for lunch, andthey weren't coming back," says Baez. To counteract thetruancy problem, Baez and SAGE teammates partnered with localrestaurants to resell items like burritos and barbecue sandwichesfrom a campus food cart. The project won Fremont High top honors inCalifornia's 2002 SAGE regional competition while also meetingtheir goal. "Truancy rates fell from about 70 percent to about40 percent," says Baez, "and we made about $2000 inprofit."

Those profits go back into the SAGE program to finance futureprojects or pay traveling expenses for students whose projects haveearned them a spot in national competitions or even the SAGE WorldCup (where countries like Mexico, Poland and South Africa bringtheir best to compete against the top U.S. team).

For their next mission, Fremont students came up with a plan toprovide income tax returns for those who need them the most:elderly and underemployed people in their community. Says Baez,"We knew a lot of people in our community were not claimingtheir tax returns, and we wanted to let people know that they couldget their taxes done for free."

After creating an action plan, students studied tax laws,including curriculum by the IRS, and then set up a tax office incollaboration with a local library. "We put fliers upeverywhere--in restaurants and libraries--and lots of people camein with stacks of paperwork," says Baez, who remembers onecustomer in particular. "She was in her 70s, and she came inwith her paperwork in big stacks; she was a retired teacher andcouldn't find her W-2 form." After searching throughmounds of paperwork to no avail, the woman was tired andfrustrated. "We encouraged her, and she went home and foundher W-2 and brought it back so we could help."

The best part about projects like these? "We got to helpadults who had been working all their lives," says Baez."These people were tired and busy with their kids, and wehelped them--people were amazed. People trusted us."

And trust does not come easily to young people in Baez'scommunity. "We're people of color, low-income--wedon't see leaders who look like us in the media, but we'reout to change things," says Baez, whose indomitable spirit hasearned her a slot at the University of California, Berkeley,starting this fall.

The ultimate Fremont team mission is to plant the seed of SAGEglobally--with schools like those in Guadalajara, Mexico, saysMikel Calderon, SAGE technology team leader. A lack of funding keptmuch of the Fremont team from traveling, but that didn'tdiscourage students Baez and Veronica Garcia, SAGE executivedirector, who headed out to Guadalajara to help create and mentor aSAGE program among local high schools.

One of the mentored schools, La Preparatoria de DegolladoJalisco, later won their local SAGE competition by creating agreenhouse that grows and sells roses in Degollado, Mexico--keepingthe work and profit local by eliminating the need to import fromMexico City.

Free Enterprise forAll
Part of the success of the SAGE program is that it was groomed onthe heels of SIFE(Students In Free Enterprise), which has been promoting freeenterprise on more than 1,400 university campuses in 33-pluscountries since 1975. SIFE matches university students withbusiness and academic mentors as they team up to solve economic andsocial problems while creating profitable enterprises, says MarciaKlipsch, faculty advisor for the University of Arizona SIFE team.An example? The SALSA project, created by the UA SIFE team, took asurplus of hydroponic tomatoes that would have been wasted andturned it into "Tomate Loco Salsa," which they sold for aprofit.

But it wasn't a fiesta, says Klipsch. "Students had tolocate a working kitchen; perform nutritional analysis; learn howto preserve, can and market their salsa; and manage the movement ofinventory--just like in business."

Secondary schools wanting to start a SAGE program in theirschool need to find the nearest SIFE university program able tobecome a "host" campus for your school. SIFE hostsorganize and fund (pay for travel cost, prize money and awardsthrough grants and sponsorship) a regional competition for the SAGEschools they are hosting. There must be at least three secondaryschools in a region in order to compete. There is no fee to start aSAGE program and no required model to adhere to. The onlyrequirement is that SAGE teams follow established judging criteriain competitions.

Curt DeBerg, faculty advisor for California State University,Chico, SIFE, and the brains behind SAGE, is willing to assist inestablishing new regional SAGE organizations and help withfundraising tips and training for host campuses. Last year 44 SAGEteams competed at the national level, says DeBerg, but getready--the competition is getting stiffer. By 2004, more than 70schools in California alone are expected to be in the running, andDeBerg is determined to get SAGE into 15 countries by the end ofthis year.

With all this success already behind SAGE members, it soundslike changing the world is not just a lofty aspiration, but morelike a reality they are steadily fulfilling.