One of the Island’s technology entrepreneurs has thrown his online presence behind an ambitious campaign in support of the Island’s at-risk youth.For Fireminds CEO Michael Branco, backing the New Beginnings $1 Million Campaign also offers a chance to help young adults discover the rewards of technology studies.Launched in April and supported by The Royal Gazette, the campaign is aimed at assisting the Mirrors Programme — as well as funding education grants for young people who have completed personal development programmes.“Technology is a great area for a young person to get into, because you have a global marketplace,” Mr Branco said. “You’re not limited to Bermuda.“It’s a field that’s constantly changing, constantly challenging, and keeps you on your toes. It’s also great because, even though I highly recommend you do formal education in Computer Science, it’s one of those things you can experiment with at home, and become good at.”The technology consulting firm Fireminds is setting up an online donations portal to help the $1 Million Campaign, run by the New Beginnings Education Trust.As the owner of the online site Premier Tickets, Mr Branco will open the site to ticket sales for fundraisers — and use his online newsletter to publicise events supporting the campaign.Premier Tickets’ events listing attracts thousands of visitors a month, he said, giving extra exposure to the campaign.Said Mr Branco: “I started out in my field at an extremely young age, so for me the intersection of youth and technology is great. New Beginnings is a resource for youth to potentially go on and explore their careers through further education.”Online donations to the campaign will be available through Premier Tickets by the end of this month.It has proved a potent force for charitable fundraising in the past, Mr Branco added — in some cases, raising tens of thousands of dollars.“Our site is secured with a SSL [secure sockets layer] certificate, and our payments gateway is PCI [payment card industry] compliant, which is the required standard for anybody accepting credit cards online. We also don’t store credit card data. It’s all necessary to do business online.”Would-be donors wary of donating online can also use Premier Ticket’s 24-hour number, 278-1500.Mr Branco said his support for the New Beginnings Education Trust was a natural extension of his involvement with local ventures like the Ewan Sampson Scholarship Trust — a scholarship for Bermudians interested in information technology — and in the past, the Ross “Blackie” Talbot Charity.He has also worked closely with the Technical Leadership Forum, an annual scheme placing young interns in technical roles within local companies.The goal of New Beginnings is to equip graduates of Mirrors and other such programmes with educational funding that is ordinarily difficult for “at-risk” candidates to acquire from traditional scholarships.Graduates of personal development programmes often find themselves more inclined to commit to their education.“That’s certainly something I’d do everything to encourage,” Mr Branco said.“Aside from helping this campaign, I’m more than happy to give advice to any students interested in technology careers.”Useful website: www.ptix.bm.