British teenager wins $100,000 US technology fellowship

[dipsydoodle]

Eighteen-year-old Andrew Brackin has just been given the offer of a life time.

He's been handed $100,000 (£67,000) to go and live in San Francisco and work on his own tech idea.

The teenager from London is one of 20 young business people now being sponsored by Peter Thiel, the co-creator of PayPal and one of the first people to put money into Facebook.

But the offer comes with a catch.

Andrew must agree to skip university and avoid any formal studying for at least two years.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/22479007

[NYC_SKP]

1. He'll be happy he did this.

IMHO, very few teens are ready for college and some time out actually helps them become better students.

[enlightenment]

2. It used to be pretty common for uni-bound UK students to

take a break before they start. It's called the 'gap year'. What they do differs, naturally - those who have money and/or connections tend to travel - those without tended to work locally. They idea was to do something that gave back; volunteering or such.

Unfortunately, competitiveness and higher fees have led to a decline in that important break between stages in a young life, which is a shame.

If I recall correctly, Thiel isn't just encouraging students to take a break from uni - he is encouraging them to quit. Quite the libertarian, I think.