The U.S. government is being strangled by partisan politics. Youth employment is at a 60-year low. Student-loan debt is approaching $1 trillion (and default rates are rising quickly). Yet young Americans are far more optimistic about the country’s future than the pundits would have you believe — and they are demonstrating that optimism through entrepreneurship. According to a 2011 survey, 23% of young people started a business as a result of being unemployed. Fifteen percent started a business in college. And let’s not forget the veterans, who are twice as likely as other Americans to own businesses. So why are so few pundits and politicians building on that entrepreneurial energy as a solution to joblessness and economic malaise? The fact is, it’s high time we funneled our collective energy toward rebuilding an entrepreneurial America. (MORE: Facebook Is Responsible for Creating 450,000 Jobs, Really?!) This is not an abstract endeavor. My own organization, the Young Entrepreneur Council, and partners like Junior Achievement, Babson College, Codecademy, Venture for America and College Hunks Hauling Junk have identified a handful of tried-and-true approaches that are already successfully fostering business creation by young people all over the U.S. I’ve summed them up in five broad strategies that we believe need to be adopted to accelerate this vital movement. 1. Integrate academia and the real world In a 2011 survey, 88% of young people said that entrepreneurship education is vitally important, given the new economy — and yet 74% of college students had no access to entrepreneurship resources on campus. And when resources were available, most students felt they were woefully inadequate. This is not acceptable — in the 21st century, entrepreneurial thinking isn’t just for entrepreneurs. Adaptability, creativity and financial literacy are core skills for American employees and so-called intrapreneurs — innovators within larger organizations — as well. They’re also critical assets to our communities: Junior Achievement and the Aspen Institute found that youth-entrepreneurship programs positively impacted dropout rates and community engagement, not to mention the development of risk taking and opportunity recognition. But most employers today think … Continue reading How Entrepreneurship Can Fix Young America