DALTON, Ga. — Forbes magazine calls its annual 30 Under 30 list “the most definitive gathering of today’s leading young change-makers and innovators in the U.S.” Dalton native Hardy Farrow has been named one of those leading innovators in this year’s list, released earlier this month.

“I was a little shocked. It really came out of the blue,” Farrow said.

Farrow was named to the list as founder and head of Let’s Innovate through Education (LITE), which he founded in 2013 in Memphis, Tenn.

“We work with low-income students on becoming entrepreneurs,” he said. “We do that through a six-month program where they build and launch ideas.”

The program helps students identify ways to help their communities through entrepreneurship. LITE has graduated 50 students so far.

Forbes reports that 100 percent of the students who have completed the program have graduated high school, more than 95 percent are on track to graduate college within four years and they have received an average of $260,000 in merit scholarships.

Farrow came up with the idea for LITE while he was working for Teach for America, a national program that tries to bring some of the country’s top college graduates into education and places them in schools in low-income communities for two years. That’s how he got to Memphis.

“I saw that my students needed more opportunities, and I created this curriculum,” he said.

LITE holds workshops throughout the year with local nonprofits and schools where students are encouraged to come up with ideas. Students are selected for the program based on the quality of their ideas as well as their creativity and passion.

“We started with three ideas when I started, then it was 10 and 20. Now, we are up to 50 ideas a year,” he said. “Our goal isn’t that they start a business in high school. Our goal is that they graduate college and come back to their community and launch a business.”

Farrow got an internship with Teach for America while he was in college at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., which he graduated from in 2013.

“That ended up changing my life plans from going to law school to becoming a teacher,” he said.

Farrow’s father Steve is a lawyer and his mother Carol teaches at Dalton’s Roan School.

Farrow says he is humbled by the honor of being one of Forbes’ 30 Under 30 but excited about what impact it could have on LITE.

“Now, when I try to get a meeting with someone, it’s something I can talk about. When they look me up, that’s something they will see,” he said. “It will give more credibility to our program. We’ve been recognized on a national level. Our goal is to get to 100 ideas a year and this should help us reach that goal.”