Socially Innovative

“Entrepreneurship is more accessible than it seems. Furthermore, opportunities for contribution to society can exist in unexpected places.” — Angelina Wong ’22

The Social Innovators Program (SIP).

The name sounds tailor-made for George School. In fall 2020, two dozen George School students joined this twelve-week program that provides university-level, real-world opportunities for students interested in merging an interest in entrepreneurship with the desire to make a positive impact on society.

The program is offered by the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy and Schoolyard Ventures, in partnership with select high schools. George School was a natural fit.

“We look for school partners who are invested,” says Executive Director Rich Sedmak, “but George School students came to the conversation already having given a lot of attention to social impact. They already had a lot of awareness.”

This was especially helpful in the program’s first phase, when students join small cohorts with faculty mentors to learn about the basics of entrepreneurship and design their own projects.

There is often some “idea anxiety,” Rich describes, as students feel they “have to have a huge idea. Curing cancer is a noble idea but not a good project.”

Students consider what they are interested in, come up with a first draft for a project, reach out to people for information interviews, and create “real-world experiments with feedback loops. The idea serves as the context for learning the skills.” The real goal is to develop not just a successful venture, but a successful mindset and process to follow again and again. A certificate in social entrepreneurship from Penn is another nice reward.

In a sign of the times, Ben Berman ’21 created a phone app competition, called the Zoom Boom Challenge, to keep students engaged and productive while learning remotely. Spurred by two years of George School economics, Ben is interested in business and saw SIP as an opportunity to test the waters. “Never in a million years did I think part of my homework would be setting up Zoom interviews with CEOs and doctors, creating my own functioning app, crowdsourcing about user interface, and maintaining a successful venture. However, I was not alone… The instructor and assistant were amazing. They reminded me a lot of how our teachers are so receptive and dedicated to their students’ growth at George School.”

Piano student and instructor Angelina Wong ’22 piloted the Cadenza Learning Management System, a feedback platform to help students make more progress between piano lessons.

“My project ties together my two most prominent interests: music and computer science,” both of which she pursues at George School.

Incorporating what she learned in her IB psychology class and doing initial testing with students she taught in a summer program through the Andrew Bourns Social Justice Endowment Fund, she feels the project was a success.

“The strategies I sought to integrate into my system seemed to significantly boost productivity and motivation.”

Edwin Onyango ’21 enrolled in SIP because it “seemed like a chance to connect my creativity to productivity.” He developed his project, BlisterGo, with the help of his cohort, who told him of “problems in the athletics field that I wasn’t aware of.”

Now his all-in-one kit for treating blisters meets a real-world need. “The community aspect enhanced at George School has never seemed more important than when we worked together in groups to help refine our ideas.” Elliot Petrosky ’23 created a digital book club of sorts called Scientific Lecture Circuit. This initiative is a forum where students who are interested in science gather weekly to talk about current scientific topics in the news and learn from each other.

“While working on this project I discovered that I really enjoy science communication as well as discussing scientific interests and ideas. My Intensive Biology class helped me focus my project on scientific communication and it gave me a good foundation of knowledge for the subject. My Holistic Health class helped me make a communication system via social media.”

Like Ben, Elliot was thankful for the mentors involved in the program. “What surprised me about the program was the willingness of the mentors to help. Like our teachers at George School, our mentors would take time to meet with us and check in on the progress of our projects.”

Using her own experience of coming to George School from Afghanistan as inspiration, Nadira Talayee ’22 created International Education for Everyone, an advising system using Zoom and Skype to help Afghani students apply to international boarding schools. Two students she advised applied to study abroad, and she is hoping that the knowledge she shares will spread.

The Social Innovators Program “taught me to see problems as opportunities to make a change and grow,” says Nadira. The problems she seeks to remedy are gender inequality and a lack of education for girls in Afghanistan.

“As a girl at George School, I am already getting a better education,” she explains. “As IB students, we learn to be caring, thinkers, inquirers, risk-takers, and communicators.” She hopes to “use the leadership and business knowledge and perspectives gained from this program to improve the lives of girls and women.”

This, of course, is just a sampling, but across the board, George School’s participants are happy they enrolled in the Social Innovators Program. And the program is equally happy that George School is taking part.

According to Rich, “George School has the most international student body of any of our existing partner schools,” and the breadth of world experience enriches everyone (a lesson well known at George School). “The international perspective was great. As a result of working with George School, we will be adding more international partners to add value to the cohorts.”

Associate Head of School and program liaison Scott Spence is also heartened by the charter class’s success. “We are excited to keep the partnership going,” he says of a program that, like George School, sees value in helping students blend social awareness with applied learning.

Future participants will realize, as Angelina did, that “Entrepreneurship is more accessible than it seems. Furthermore, opportunities for contribution to society can exist in unexpected places.”

Other Social Innovators

Fall 2020

Aaron Yager ’23

Personal Practice

Anjali Kunnatha ’21

Project Dalit

Arran Goldman ’21

Trails R Us

Aqua Withers Carello ’21

Embracing the Power of the Youth Vote

Ayzia Alexander ’21

Writing 404

Carol Lu ’21

Learning Languages

Chase Quijano ’22

The Strum Mapping System

Denys Sharpylo ’22

OffBooks

Eric Ke ’23

The Foot Defender

Forest Ho-Chen ’22

Simplified and Leveled Sheet Music

Gio Restituto ’21

Network

Grace Williams ’23

The LGBTQ Senior Housing Initiative

Hannah Davis ’21

Fitness for Fun

Ian Liu ’21

Project Scholarship

Pranav Sabapathi ’22

Water Crisis Funding

Sevde Guleryuz ’23

Through the Grapevine

Stephen Hill ’23

InfoPlanner

Varun Mani ’22

Traveling Through Time