According to the Kauffman Foundation, 54% of Millennials say they would like to start or be part of a startup. Now more than ever is the time for the entrepreneurial generation of creation.

Today, in my Social Innovation class, Dave Blanchard, the CEO and Co-Founder of Praxis lectured about the entrepreneurship movement that has taken off and influenced many young people’s career aspirations. Blanchard is an entrepreneur passionate about bringing new ideas to life to have a positive impact on society.

According to Twitter, Praxis is a venture group that resources entrepreneurs motivated by their faith to have a considerable social and cultural impact. Their goal is to help entrepreneurs build high-impact organizations through accelerator programs such as mentorship, peer community, access to capital, and hands-on support.

“There is a new player emerging on the cultural and business scene today: the idea entrepreneur. The idea entrepreneur is an individual…whose main goal is the influence how other people think and behave in relation to their cherished topic.” (Harvard Business Review, May ‘13)

The Praxis Academy is a new kind of school that incorporates theology, culture, and entrepreneurship. The Academy has two accelerate programs per year: for-profit and non-profit. The structure is retreat oriented with mentors who organically attempt to build personal relationships with the fellows. The program measures its success based on qualitative feedback from the fellows, the amount of capital that each fellow circulates, and how active each fellow is within the community. The ultimate goal is to discipline ones self to love different things in different ways in order to make an impact. Blanchard believes that the best entrepreneurs in the world are the best at overcoming obstacles, which the Praxis team emphasizes in their program.

The following is an example of two Praxis fellows taking on the real world today:

Jonas Paul Eyewear was started by Ben and Laura Harrison after their son was born completely blind. Their company offers stylish kids glasses and kids sunglasses and employs neutral colors, square features, and minimal branding. As entrepreneurs, the Harrison’s believe, “it is possible for enterprise to positively impact the world around us. As humans, we believe that the number of individuals living with a curable visual impairment is unacceptable.”