Category: Speaker Spotlight

Speaker Spotlight: Interview with Nicole Nageli

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(photo: Stephanie Vail)
(photo: Stephanie Vail)

“Nicole is full of big dreams, bright ideas, and best of all- action. Nicole hasn’t let anything stand in her way, least of all, her age.”

 

I spotted Nicole the moment I walked in the door to the coffee shop, early on a Saturday morning. Filled with contagious energy, Nicole is the kind of friend you want to go on roller coasters with, get ice cream with, or even start a business with. Nicole is full of big dreams, bright ideas, and best of all- action. Nicole hasn’t let anything stand in her way, least of all, her age.

At age 13, Nicole has a message to share and recently, had an opportunity to be part of the Young Entrepreneurs Academy, sponsored by the Castle Rock Chamber of Commerce. This academy offered an opportunity to create a business plan and pitch the idea to a business panel; the process included working out the details of the finances, her company’s mission and incorporating her own sweat equity. Nicole had a huge grin on her face as she regaled how she spent an entire summer writing- and illustrating- a 60 page children’s book, over her summer vacation. Her summer vacation!

Listening to our ambitious 13 year old speaker eagerly describe the impact her computer science class is having, and how coding is quickly becoming one of her favorite subjects to learn is incredible. Nicole was even selected as one of 15 students to visit Google’s campus during one of their last weeks of school and shares, with two thumbs up, how visiting the campus was, “One of the coolest things in the whole world!”

Her goal? Nicole tells it well: “The message I’m trying to convey in my book is that the story should address important issues, but be simple enough so that younger people can understand it and older people can too.”

 

This girl isn’t done yet, in fact, she’s just getting started. Nicole shares, “I want to publish more books that go into deeper concepts than the first two books. The first two are happy kids books. I want a deeper message and [to be] more inspirational. I want to spread a message and make sure I’m doing good.”

Nicole understands the depths of creating a legacy, in fact, that is what she, our youngest speaker at Ignite Denver ever, tackles when she will take the stage on June 8th at The Oriental Theater. Nicole has a beautiful message to share with others: if you help each other rise to the top, then everyone can rise together, no matter what your mission is.

 

Read more about Nicole’s spark here.

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