From Hardship to Harvard | Pedro De Abreu | TEDxYouth@ColumbiaSC

This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences. Being the Chess Player and Not the Chess Piece

How Pedro De Abreu raised himself from poverty in Brazil, arrived in America with no English, became an entrepreneur and was accepted to Harvard.


Pedro De Abreu is an entrepreneur, author and scholar. He was born to hardships in Brazil and moved to America at 15 without knowing any English. Since moving to America, he has won the prestigious Leadership in Education Award by Harvard University, the New Century Scholar Award by the USA-Today and the Coca-Cola Foundation, the Darla Moore Emerging Leader Award by the Darla Moore School of Business. Pedro has started a business, a non-profit that teaches chess to children, published a book, and has his own segment on WLTX News 19, the Motivational Minute . In 2012, British publishing house Marshall Cavendish featured Pedro, along with 24 entrepreneurs from around the world, in the book Young Entrepreneur World: How 25 Teen-Trepreneurs Succeeded and Left World Leaders Scratching Their Heads.

Pedro can be contacted at:

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Email: [email protected]

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