Born the daughter of a philanthropist and granddaughter of community servants in Chicago’s South Side, Noah Warren has always seen entrepreneurship not solely as a means of building wealth, but also—and, in her eyes, much more importantly—as a chance to improve the lives of the people around her. So when she first learned about Future Founders’ 2023 Startup Spring Break program, she jumped at the opportunity to start writing her own chapter of the family story.
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Noah Warren was raised by change-makers, and she’s been itching to become one herself for as long as she can remember.
“Making a difference and solving real problems have always been really important to my family,” the seventh grader says with a broad smile. “My mom and my grandparents taught me to be passionate about giving back, so that’s really important to me, too.”
So when her science teacher at Haines Elementary shared a flyer for Startup Spring Break, Noah remembers her eyes lighting up. She’d participated in a few entrepreneurship programs before, she says but nothing quite like this one.
Powered by Google, Startup Spring Break is a free weeklong entrepreneurship intensive that allows participants from all over Chicago to practice entrepreneurial skills in real time while working to develop and pitch their own original app-based business ideas. This year, the students also had the opportunity to visit Google’s Chicago office and connect with several female Googlers about their experience in the tech field—a blessing Noah has definitely not taken for granted.
“It really felt like a once-in-a lifetime situation. It was so inspiring to see all the different women at Google who were able to accomplish their dreams. [They showed me] that it’s possible to be successful if you keep trying to reach your goals in life”
As she considers her own future, Noah says that she feels similarly inspired by her mother’s professional journey, transitioning to the nonprofit sector from a career at a multinational corporation.
“My dream is to follow my mom’s path and become a philanthropist. Seeing how she’s been able to achieve the dream of giving back she had as a child makes me want to do the same thing. And Future Founders has helped me build a foundation for me to do that.”
Noah hopes to start a business that makes people’s lives better and establish her own career in philanthropy. She sees housing insecurity as an especially important social issue, eyes narrowing with determination as she describes her plan to create a hotel where people experiencing homelessness can stay at no charge. In Noah’s vision, all guests would have access to food and healthcare, and could simply experience the dignity of a hotel stay without cost or stigma.
Now, she feels ready to start making it happen.
“Like I said, I’ve always been passionate about making a change in the world. Now, after Startup Spring Break, I feel more confident in my goal of becoming an entrepreneur and creating my own business to help me make that change. The program also showed me that being an entrepreneur isn’t only about making the money you want to make, also about doing something impactful with that money. It’s about solving a problem—not just for me, and not just for now.”
At Future Founders, “entrepreneur” isn’t simply a job title—it’s a mindset. One that allows you to take control of your future and pursue what matters most to you.
The way we see it, to be an entrepreneur is to be a leader. To raise your hand. To solve the problem. To take the initiative. And when done correctly, to leave the world better than you found it.
In this sense, Noah Warren has always been an entrepreneur. As she turns her eyes to the future and dares to imagine something better, she is sustaining her family’s audaciously hopeful legacy—and exemplifying the kind of entrepreneurship that will change the world forever.
To learn more about Startup Spring Break, check out our website.
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