THE SANDS CENTER FOR ENTREPRENEURIAL LEADERSHIP
Celebrating
10 Years
of student creativity, passion, and commitment to making the world a better place
INTRODUCTION Stacy Perper Methvin ’75 Springside School and Springside Chestnut Hill Academy Trustee 2006-19 Vice President, Shell Oil Co. (ret’d)
Ten years ago, Priscilla Sands had an idea–expand the curriculum for our students with the goal of teaching new skills necessary for success in the 21st century. She tested her initial concepts with visionary educators and the feedback was consistent–entrepreneurial skills, robotics, and critical thinking will give our students a head start. I was privileged to be involved in those early days, given my trustee role, and watched teachers creatively implement this new curriculum. Their personal investment of time in learning design thinking and flexibility as new ideas were incorporated were impressive and inspiring. Under the astute guidance of Ed Glassman, the curriculum has evolved significantly to where we are today. Unlike many schools that may offer these courses as electives, CEL concepts have been knit into the fabric of the daily lives of students at SCH. From Kindergarten through their 10th grade Capstone project, every student is exposed to the ideas and given the foundational tools to be successful at launching a small business if they desire. Most importantly, they learn teamwork, resilience, poise under pressure, and how to set goals and deliver on them. SCH students have an amazing opportunity to make their ideas come true and ultimately be the leaders that will make this world a better place for everyone. Congratulations to everyone who has been a part of this journey. May the next 10 years be even more impactful!
TABLE OF CONTENTS
THE BIRTH OF AN IDEA. Ed Glassman and a Venture Accelerator student work through a project idea using CEL’s signature sticky notes and dry erase marker.
The Origins............................................................ 2 Richard Hayne
“Why Entrepreneurship?”.................................... 4 Ed Glassman ’03
Imagining the Impossible...................................6 Priscilla Sands
Learning Creativity through..........................8 Entrepreneurship Youngmoo Kim
Imperfect Pitch...................................................10 Annabel Grove ’17
The 6th Grade Social Entrepreneurs of SCH....... 12 Julie Knutson
Being the Entrepreneur of Your Life ..........14 Charles Sacco
“I Wish I Had This Experience When ..........16 I Was Young” Mark Greenberg ’93
The Entrepreneur’s Way...............................18 Ellen Fishman
It Takes a Village: The Value of................... 20 Mentorship Rekha Dhillon-Richardson ’17
CEL, Engineering, and Technology.............22 Peter Randall ’69
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THE ORIGINS An Interview with Dick Hayne P’08, P’11, GP’26, GP’28, GP’29, GP’31, GP’33
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Chairman and CEO, Urban Outfitters Former Board Chair, Springside School and Springside Chestnut Hill Academy
: WHAT WERE THE ORIGINS OF THE CEL PROGRAM? WHY WAS IT CREATED?
DH: Priscilla Sands and I would sit down regularly and talk about school issues—what was going right and what we could do better. At one point I said to her, I really think we should have a course of study on entrepreneurism. I think it would be very beneficial for the students to learn about entrepreneurship and have an opportunity to start a business. I have learned more from having and growing a business than any other thing I've ever done, and I said I think that other people would have a similar reaction.
they made $10 or $12. From that, you can teach them just about anything there is to know about business. At first they’re going to think this is great, they just made $12. You can say, well, did you really make $12? Who bought the lemonade? Who bought the cups? And you can see their enthusiasm quickly turn to almost dejection when they find out they actually lost $12. But that is okay. They have to figure it out—how are they going to turn that $12 loss into a $12 gain? An awful lot of people don’t get to engage in this way of thinking, and I think it’s to their deficit. I give Priscilla an awful lot of credit because she took my idea, let it percolate for maybe a month,
Stanford d.school and design thinking, I realized, yes, there is a lot of application for a broader way of thinking about entrepreneurship. And so we discussed it in more detail and, credit to her, she did it. She came up with a program that combined what she was thinking with some of the things that I was thinking.
Q: HOW CLOSELY DOES DESIGN THINKING ALIGN WITH ENTREPRENEURSHIP? DH: I think it overlaps enormously. Design thinking is a very useful tool for going about solving problems, and that’s what we do every day as business people. When we’re confronted with
DESIGN THINKING IS A VERY USEFUL TOOL FOR GOING ABOUT SOLVING PROBLEMS, AND THAT’S WHAT WE DO EVERY DAY AS BUSINESS PEOPLE. It doesn’t matter if it’s some simple business like a lemonade stand and someone is eight years old. You learn an awful lot from the very beginning. With my own kids I saw how their eyes got big when
and, after I’d actually forgotten our discussion, she came back and said I’ve worked on it and here’s what I’ve come up with. What she then described was something more far reaching than what I had originally envisioned. She applied the idea of entrepreneurship across a much broader range of activities. At first I thought, well, that’s not really what I had in mind. I was more focused on the business end of it, but as she started describing the
problems, we can’t just throw up our hands; we have to dig down and think, how am I going to solve this? Design thinking actually works in real life. Businesses use it constantly, whether they know it or not. And, as I said, it’s quite effective.
Q: WERE THERE CHALLENGES IN GETTING PEOPLE’S BUY-IN AROUND CEL?
DH: Yes, there were a number of groups that had to be convinced. I can remember some board
DESIGN THINKING IN ACTION At the sophomore Capstone Showcase, a student displays his prototype for a project developed through the design thinking process.
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members scratching their heads and thinking, “What is this thing called CEL? Why are we spending money on this?” I think that probably was because I wasn’t as eloquent a speaker as I could have been in explaining why I thought it was important, but obviously I’ve always been supportive of it and very enthusiastic about it, and I think this sort of carried the day. My biggest concern at the time was not being able to convince many of the parents and faculty that this was indeed a worthwhile endeavor. There’s a certain amount of caution in the academic mind compared to the business mind, so I was concerned that the academic groups, particularly the humanities faculty, wouldn't accept the idea of design thinking. And I do think it is more difficult for them to Incorporate it into what they do on a daily basis, but not impossible. Over the past 10 years, I’ve been pleasantly surprised to see how so many of the faculty have come around to appreciating the importance of the design way of thinking and, to some degree, integrating it into what they do. I don’t think it’ll ever be totally like “this is the way we do everything,” but I think it’s a meaningful part of most of the course material that is offered at SCH, and so I think it’s been wildly successful. From the parents’ point of view, I think it's been even more successful. When I would come in for CEL Demo Days, the moms and dads would just be amazed—”My son or my daughter does that? They’re programming a computer?” When they see something like that they’re completely sold on the idea of CEL because they intuitively know that that's what kids are going to have to do and learn when they grow up and go out into the world and get a job. No matter what the job, that kind of background is going to really help them.
Q: WERE THERE SPECIFIC GOALS OR OUTCOMES YOU WERE LOOKING FOR?
DH: From my point of view, I was hoping that we could get to the point where every student, no matter what grade or what point of development, would have an opportunity to start their own business and be able to learn from that. I didn’t care if it was an Internet company that someone in 11th grade was starting or, as I said, a lemonade stand that somebody in 3rd grade was starting. The level of the business didn’t matter to me. What mattered was that they could start it, develop it, and be taught how it really functions, how it really works. I thought that that would be very important for them to understand throughout their entire life. So that was my goal, and, as I said, hats off to Priscilla; she had a much broader goal of how to use design thinking in just about everything one does. She was a very big advocate of its applicability across all activities.
Q: AFTER 10 YEARS, DO YOU FEEL THAT INNOVATION AND CREATIVITY—THE WHOLE CEL GESTALT—HAS BEEN WORKING IN EDUCATION?
DH: The foundations of education were religion, and there’s precious little change when it comes to religion. And for good reason. Institutions of education are therefore not usually particularly active in the world of innovation and change. Most educational institutions don’t like change; they like constancy. And I think they do that at their own peril. Now, there’s change that is wild and totally chaotic and then there’s change that is a little bit more methodical, even though there’s always an element of chaos. I think that, particularly in the era in which we live, if you’re not changing, you’re not going to be relevant for very long. There’s no reason to think that education isn’t impacted by this as well. The ability to use design thinking is one of those step functions that really allows people to
tame the crazy changes that are happening. It’s a process and a way of thinking that allows people to adapt. So I think it’s very important that education does change, does innovate, that we educate for students’ future, not our past.
Q: AS YOU LOOK BACK, WHAT ARE YOU MOST PLEASED ABOUT OR PROUD OF ABOUT THE PROGRAM?
DH: The thing I’m most pleased about is that the students like it and have responded. They understand the relevance of it intuitively. They’re in the middle of it. I remember going into one session where the students were in small groups in the auditorium working on solving a problem. They were so engrossed in what they were doing, and having such a good time doing it, that I was basically invisible to them as I walked among them. In the end, isn’t that what learning should be? So that’s what I’m most pleased about. And of course I’m pleased that the whole thing has worked out, at each level, from the board to the parents to the faculty and students. Today, CEL has a life of its own, where, if we were to say we’re not going to do this anymore, I think a whole bunch of people would go, “Are you kidding? Why would you stop doing this? It’s so important to the school”—important from every aspect—from enrollment to the kind of education that the kids get, to students getting into the college of their choice, to positive feedback from alumni. So I can’t imagine it not being there now. I’m very proud of what the team has been able to do. I think it’s helped SCH in its standing, the way people look at the institution. Now the question is—and this is for better minds than my own—what’s the next step? What is the continuation of this, how can we do more things with it, and how can it be a better learning tool? Springside Chestnut Hill Academy
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“WHY ENTREPRENEURSHIP?” Edward Glassman ’03, P’35
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Executive Director, Sands Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership
s the executive director of the Sands Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership, I am fortunate enough to work with hundreds of budding young entrepreneurs, engineers, and designers each year. No matter what the project, our mission as educators remains the same: to instill in our students an entrepreneurial mindset. Each day, we create opportunities, case studies, and hands-on projects that challenge our students to become more resourceful, to apply creative problem solving, and to tackle real-world challenges, at SCH, in their local community, and even across the globe. And above all else, we challenge them to be resilient in the face of adversity. The work that goes on in CEL changes lives and sets career paths. It’s so much more than business; it is a powerful framework for the future of education. The most common question I’m asked about my work is “why entrepreneurship?” Some maintain that this topic is not developmentally appropriate for kids, or that it’s too difficult to measure the outcomes. At SCH, this has not been our experience. But, as a rule, schools are not a natural environment for nurturing entrepreneurship. In fact, some children who grow up to be entrepreneurs have habits that most schools don’t value. According to Margot Bisnow’s research in her wonderful book, Raising an Entrepreneur, many young entrepreneurs question the rules and challenge authority. They want to do things their own way. They get bored and lose focus when the task at hand doesn’t interest them. This approach doesn’t square neatly with a traditional school environment, which puts more emphasis on remediating kids’ weaknesses than finding and supporting kids’ strengths. But if you can make it work, if you can commit resources and time to supporting and building a student’s entrepreneurial mindset, it connects with every modern pedagogical tenet that we value as educators. Fortunately, that is the exact commitment that SCH Academy has made for the past 10 years. We went beyond just building a Makerspace, despite how trendy that option was at the time. We focused most of our energy on people—the students and faculty who would be in those spaces every day.
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Students begin their CEL work as early as Pre-K. Each year, these young students tackle a problem or challenge they see here at SCH or in the broader community. For example, our Pre-K girls work to protect sea turtles with the Wetlands Institute in Stone Harbor, NJ. Our 3rd graders write and illustrate original children’s books to share with our youngest students. Our students build empathy through understanding the needs that their solutions must address. They reflect on the process of problem solving, not just the final product. One major goal of these projects is get our students to a place where they ask, “Why are things this way?” and “What can I do to make a positive change?” Then, in 5th grade, students begin our formal CEL curriculum. Every SCH student takes a multi-year sequence of hands-on, project-based courses, extending from 5th through 10th grade. These courses run the gamut from Social Entrepreneurship to Graphic Design to Digital Publishing. The CEL curriculum is ever evolving, and while the courses may change, the mindset we teach does not. We expose our students to new ways of thinking and doing. We show them the variety of tools that they can use to bring their ideas to life. We strive to help them find new passions and meaningful problems to tackle. In 10th grade, students complete the CEL curriculum with the Capstone course—a unique, self-directed project-design experience. With the support of dedicated faculty mentors and access to specialized studios, students bring ideas inspired by their personal passions to life using the business, design, and technology skills learned in their previous CEL classes. After 10th grade, students may elect to continue their entrepreneurial work through the Venture Accelerator. This culminating experience gives students the chance to fully launch the ideas they have investigated, tested, and prototyped through the Capstone. Venture Accelerator students connect with various mentors
MOMENTS IN CEL Top left: A CEL mentor works with students on their venture. Top right: CEL Executive Director Ed Glassman interviews a sophomore student about her project during a Capstone Showcase. Center: Post-It Notes with ideas cover a whiteboard delineating the stages of the design thinking process. Bottom left: The principal of Arcadia School of Dubai meets with alumni entrepreneurs to hear about their CEL experience. Bottom right: A student works on his project prototype.
and investors, hire staff, file for trademarks and legal business entities, sell in the marketplace, and raise initial start-up capital. These ventures have generated hundreds of thousands of dollars in start-up funds in support of the students’ social impact initiatives and for-profit businesses. The best way to answer the “why entrepreneurship?” question, however, isn’t with pedagogy or data. It’s through the stories of our students using their energy, passion, and creativity to address real-world problems. I could tell you about the senior who presented to a UN subcommittee in Geneva about her organization, Girls Climate Summit. (She has just graduated from college and you can read her essay later in this piece); the freshman who worked with Nike designers to design expandable shoes for children in third-world countries; or the junior who developed a mobile app that translates dog barks into English commands. It’s the diversity and creativity of these projects that reinforce the core principle of CEL—entrepreneurship is about far more than starting a business. It is a thoughtful, measured, and courageous approach to solving the world’s gnarliest problems. I can’t take credit for this idea though; the students taught it to me. When I first began my work at SCH, I was expecting to teach a series of courses on business and finance. Instead, I learned that entrepreneurship, to our kids, is so much more than acquiring skills. It’s about empowerment. An entrepreneur is motivated, inspired, and ambitious. They take risks to do something they love, and use trial and error to succeed. This is why I’m grateful every day for the opportunity that SCH Academy has afforded me, my fellow faculty members, and our students. Ten years of diligent work, belief, and trial and error has blossomed into thousands of stories of student creativity, resilience, growth, and real-world impact, confirming the belief that inspired CEL’s creation—that we can both “imagine the impossible” and achieve it.
IMAGINING THE IMPOSSIBLE Priscilla Sands Head of School, Marlborough School Former Head of School, Springside School, and Former President, SCH
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en years ago, a group of educators began a wide-ranging discourse about the evolution of education and what ideas lurked on the horizon. We met often, scribbling endlessly on the glass boards that hung in my office. There were many partners in this new venture who shared the question:”What if?” We soon realized that our work and research were fueling many different iterations of this idea, which was heretofore unnamed. Our passion ultimately delivered the opportunity to incubate innovation and creativity at a school-wide level. We wanted students to see themselves as budding entrepreneurs, able to engage in design thinking and empathic question-asking. From hope and idealism SCH’s CEL was born; to paraphrase Steve Jobs, we wanted to make a dent in the universe. Or at least at SCH. The first piece of CEL furniture was a funky table hewed from one of our campus trees. It became our guiding symbol, and with the space, the table, and the enthusiasm of many, we began to plot the course offerings that would further our mission. Several teachers became early adopters. Over three consecutive summers, this core group attended The d.school at Stanford University in order to understand and ultimately train other faculty in design thinking. I remember that milestone day of professional development in 2012, when these “early adopters” trained and inspired a full house of faculty, administrators, staff, and trustees. Everyone came away believing that herein lay the possibility of disrupting education. Teachers brought it back to their classrooms while administrators employed design thinking as a way to facilitate buy-in for change. We all embraced Carol Dweck’s research into what it takes to develop a growth mindset. The Board of
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Trustees added its hearty endorsement, as well as expertise. Dick Hayne, former board president and founder and CEO of Urban Outfitters and all its offspring, was one of the significant visionaries for CEL. He would critique our progress and offer his advice or thoughts. It was an honor to have such a successful businessman, and a consummate entrepreneur, to guide me. Dick and I would meet in the late afternoon, and I would pepper him with all of the questions we had accumulated. He was a critical voice in this process as he had created a wildly successful brand through his disruption of the world of retail, and I wanted to learn how he did it and how he caused disruption. I was immensely grateful to have this amazing mentor as he poked holes in my thinking and planning and encouraged us when we were on the right track. He challenged us to imagine the impossible. It is hard to believe that the Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership has been a living, breathing program for a decade. To those who currently work in the CEL, you have taken a nascent program and developed a curriculum that is progressive, salient, and supportive to so many students, some of whom discover their true passions in this remarkable space. It has been an opportunity differentiator in a highly competitive market for new students, and its existence has been a model for other schools.
THESE PAST TWO YEARS HAVE BEEN A TESTAMENT TO THE POWER OF HUMAN INGENUITY AND TO WHAT INNOVATIVEMINDED SCHOOLS LIKE SCH CAN DO.
Under the leadership of Ed Glassman, CEL’s executive director, the program has blossomed, flourished, and thrived, surpassing all expectations. These are the characteristics that educators strive to instill in their students and that the future needs more than ever. I had the good fortune to watch the first generation of innovators and accelerators, and what a thrill it was. We could not have predicted that the 2020 COVID Pandemic would become the catalyst for an explosion of creative out-of-the-box thinking. Innovation was everywhere, from vaccine development and mass distribution of products to advancements in remote meeting apps. Schools like SCH that had prioritized innovative thinking were able to turn on a dime and adapt programs and technologies that enabled them to provide a seamless education remotely. These past two years have been a testament to the power of human ingenuity and to what innovative-minded schools like SCH can do. I am currently head of a very different type of school, but I have found great similarities in the problems, challenges, and opportunities that we face. All schools have students who manage to go unnoticed, are bored, or struggle with a traditional school structure. Often, these students have outside interests that are all consuming. It is where their heart and energy reside. Whether it is through
boredom or a calculated method for keeping the demands of school at bay, they become adept at living under the radar while discovering a passion that supercedes class time and conventional academics. These are students who may use their considerable intelligence to subvert their education. For them, a place like CEL offers the opportunity to chase down a dream. So thank you to CFO Frank Aloise, Chief Innovation Officer Pete DiDonato, former Head of Upper School Christine Heine, former Director of Admissions Liz Harris, former Dean of Upper School Kathleen Tkac, and the incomparable Assistant to the Head of School Maria McNichols for keeping the magic flowing. The good news is that the current CEL team will continue to morph and change the program based on the mandate of supporting a growth mindset for our students. I am so proud of all that SCH is accomplishing and so grateful to have had my time at both Springside and SCH coincide with the birth of CEL. It was a formative time in my career, and I remember it as one of the shining lights in my 26 years as a head of school.
THE BEGINNINGS OF CEL Above left: Students work around one of CEL’s long tables inspired by the program’s first piece of furniture recycled from a campus tree. Right: SCH faculty reflect on their experience at the end of the school’s first design thinking workshop.
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LEARNING CREATIVITY THROUGH ENTREPRENEURSHIP Youngmoo Kim P’26
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Director of the ExCITe Center and Professor of Electrical Engineering, Drexel University Co-chair of the CEL Task Force, SCH Board of Trustees
reativity and entrepreneurship appear to go hand in hand. We hear these buzzwords everywhere, particularly in education and learning research. Still, the common belief is that “creative” people are born with a special gift or ability and that creativity makes successful entrepreneurs. Of course, some of the best-known entrepreneurs are highly creative, but correlation is not necessarily causation. While creativity may lead some down the path of entrepreneurship, I’m convinced the opposite is true as well—the entrepreneurial process develops and nurtures creativity. Creativity is much more than the ability to generate novel or “out-of-the-box” ideas. We’ve all had ideas for something new—a new tool or a solution to a problem. Ideas are easy, but we seldom act on them. Harder still is turning action into something real (a device, an artwork, a service, etc.). But that’s what creativity is, the understanding of how to create— how to go from an idea to action to making or expressing something original. It’s certainly not easy, but it’s not magic either. It’s a skill that, once learned, can serve young people well throughout their education, their careers, and their lives. Creativity can be taught and learned, not through a lunchtime seminar or brain games, but through practice. By engaging in the entrepreneurial process through the Sands Center for Entrepreneurial CEL 10th Anniversary Book
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Leadership, SCH students gain this practice while pursuing their interests. Some entrepreneurship programs and competitions focus solely on “the pitch”—the superficial presentation of an idea. Like Shark Tank, it’s a show, and if you present well, you’ll be rewarded (a prize or investment capital). Although learning to pitch is important, at CEL it is the outcome of a much deeper interrogation: What are the underlying causes of a problem or challenge?
CEL IS AN EXPRESSION OF THE SCHOOL’S COMMITMENT TO PUSH THE BOUNDARIES OF LEARNING FORWARD. SCH IS AN ENGINE OF INNOVATION. What are potential solutions? Which of those solutions can be feasibly implemented? And what will those implementations take? The process is about transforming a potential solution into something concrete and following the myriad steps that it will take to move from concept to design to prototype to solution. Oftentimes, the final artifact isn’t even close to the original concept, but the process necessarily shapes thoughts into a tangible and more
useful form. Through CEL, all SCH students develop an understanding of the pathway from concept to construct. They learn how to create. In education at all levels, we tend to group learning into distinct subjects and disciplines. But our lives and livelihoods aren’t organized like that; they’re messy and require us to cross boundaries. Similarly, the path from idea to implementation involves multiple skills and disciplines. Some ideas are best expressed through words and text. Most projects will also require drawings, photographs, and visualization, and perhaps precisely drafted design specifications. Some will use music and sound to evoke a particular feeling. A project may require specific knowledge of biology, engineering, climate science, or a social issue. For SCH students, these investigations naturally and authentically lead them to deeper explorations of the disciplines, knowledge, and facilities available at SCH. It’s one thing to be told a field or area of knowledge will “be important.” It’s entirely different to discover why it’s important for solving a problem you’re invested in. Expertise matters, and the entrepreneurial process challenges students to more fully understand what they know and what they don’t. What we’ve found in many examples in academia, research, and industry is that new ideas and impactful discoveries happen frequently when you cross the boundaries between disciplines, for example, when you combine scientific and artistic thinking.
PUZZLING THROUGH THE CONCEPT-TO-CONSTRUCT PROCESS CEL venture partners discuss the steps they will need to work through in order to complete their Capstone project.
At the turn of the millennium, few imagined such concepts as “social media” or “smartphones,” but they permeate our lives today. They both are the result of the intersection of technology with the human need to connect, create, and express ourselves. The creative process is necessarily interdisciplinary. From my experiences as a university educator, I can tell you it’s rare for students to enter college with the ability to harness knowledge from different subjects in order to translate an idea into an implementation. CEL provides students with a unique window into understanding and applying this interdisciplinary knowledge. It empowers them to develop their own ways of expressing their ideas. While it’s hard to believe CEL is already in its 10th year, at the same time it’s difficult for me to imagine SCH without it. It has become a distinctive and essential part of an SCH education. Like the school’s groundbreaking and prescient adoption of robotics and new media into its curriculum, CEL is an expression of the school’s commitment to push the boundaries of learning forward. SCH is an engine of innovation. Sci-fi author William Gibson wrote, “The future is already here—it’s just not evenly distributed,” meaning that some lucky folks get a glimpse of the future before others. I believe CEL represents the future of learning, and those involved are privileged to experience that future, now.
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IMPERFECT PITCH Annabel Grove ’17
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Associate Marketing Analyst at PepsiCo (Water+ Portfolio)
t’s hard to believe that my venture, Philly Phit, was in the CEL Incubator over five years ago, because, honestly, the experience has crossed my mind nearly every day since.
The CEL program was not what it is now—a fully integrated and comprehensive part of SCH’s curriculum where kids 5th-12th grade can experience the wonders and woes of entrepreneurship everyday. When I joined the Incubator, it was kind of a running joke among classmates as something “try-hards” joined if they wanted more work and something to get them into college. However, that thought never really crossed my mind until I was filling out college applications and had to answer the question “What has had the greatest impact on your life?”—and it was the easiest question of them all. So, in the end, I am grateful for CEL for helping me get into college. For showing me a whole world outside of my own. And for teaching me what passion is. And by far, most importantly, for giving me the kind of motivation one can only find through utter, beautiful failure. Philly Phit—a nonprofit designed to transform nutrition education for underserved students in Philadelphia (Every good venture has a tagline I learned.)—was born and raised at SCH. Thanks to CEL, I was able to turn this loose concept into a fully functional reality. I recruited 35 wonderful SCH students as volunteer-mentors; I worked with the trusted Ms. Fish [SCH PE chair] to create a curriculum that combined nutrition education, games, and physical activity; I partnered with the Boys and Girls Club in Germantown to instruct their Kindergarten class; and I guilted four teachers into driving us there twice a week. Soon enough, into my sophomore year of high school, Philly Phit was up and running to help make kids’ days and futures a little brighter. There you have it—that was it. The shiny part at least. Underneath it all were study halls and lunches spent on hair-brained business plans, matching volunteer schedules, creating logos, brand concepting, trying to build a semi-functional website while pretending to understand the coding course I promised Mr. CEL 10th Anniversary Book
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Glassman I would take, and reminding myself I was too far in to give up. All that, paired with a whole lot of help from my ever-patient, saint-like mentors, made Philly Phit possible. And the kids that we worked with made it ever so worth it. One of the biggest hurdles I encountered was finding funding (which may sound familiar to those in the nonprofit world). To address this tiny little issue, CEL helped me seek out opportunities to pitch in front of potential investors. After several pitches on SCH turf, Mr. Glassman convinced me I was ready for the big leagues—a pitch at the University of Pennsylvania to an organization named GenHERation, which mentors female high school students into the best and brightest entrepreneurs. After a summer break to “prepare” by not actually opening my laptop at all, I walked into Wharton’s grandiose, spaceship-like Huntsman Hall ready for my venture to take off. In reality, I arrived to the pitch competition completely unprepared and quite frankly a little cocky. Soon, my time to pitch came after watching dozens of young women present unbelievably well-crafted slides (of which I had none), and in full honesty it could not have gone worse. I not only misspoke what I wanted to present, I ended up not really saying anything at all. I stood there, frozen and red-faced, as more than 50 people watched me stutter over my second sentence for an eternal few minutes. My scribbled index card quickly became illegible in my sweaty hands and I knew it was over. I walked off the stage, horrifically mortified and vowed to never enter the building again. This vow, of course, proved to be very untrue, as I attended classes in the very same building for all four years of college. Ironically, one of the lectures I attended in this building at the beginning of my sophomore year at Wharton hosted a fabulous guest speaker who was none other than
LEARNING ABOUT NUTRITION AND HEALTH THE FUN WAY Right: Students at the Philadelphia Boys & Girls Clubs listen to Annabel as she explains the benefits of exercise. Opposite page: A student learns about foods through a colorsorting game.
the founder of the company that turned female high school students into the best and brightest entrepreneurs—GenHERation. I decided to face my fear and introduce myself to her and thank her for speaking to us, mentioning I had admired her company since participating in their pitch competition years ago. To which she replied that she attended the pitch competition I participated in and remembered exactly who I was and all about my venture, and then I blacked out anything else she said as my mortification returned. It was that bad. And yet, it made me so much better. I came to two conclusions right then and there, as I learned that my most embarrassing failure was not only public and noticeable, but memorable: first, you can never be overprepared; and second, I was going to become the best public speaker I had ever met. I went directly to the class registration office and signed up for a life-changing public speaking course. As my stuttering dwindled, my venture ideas multiplied. The next semester, I placed 3rd in an MBA-level pitch competition course that I wasn’t even technically allowed to be in. I met with Red and Blue Ventures and joined Wharton’s Entrepreneurship community where I developed and pitched ideas throughout my college career, one of which has turned into a patent-pending. While I have a long way to go, I was lucky enough to get to work on my goal from that day on, thanks to the spark CEL started almost six years prior. This story is not confined to a CEL flashback—this is the story I told in the interview where I got my job. I now present monthly to PepsiCo’s Marketing Department across their water brands and am known as one of the best presenters on the team as its youngest member. So, thank you, CEL, for getting me into college. And my first job. And into my greatest passion. Thanks to you (Mr. Glassman and team), I am not done yet. And I will never bring a scribbled index card to a slide fight again.
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THE 6TH GRADE SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURS OF SCH Julie Knutson Author specializing in history, humanities, and the social sciences Co-teacher, SCH 6th Grade Social Impact Course
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t’s a Thursday morning in early December of 2021 at Springside Chestnut Hill Academy. Paris Gramann, my 6th grade Social Impact co-teacher, and I have met with our new cohort of students for all of two class periods—a cumulative total of 110 minutes. Already, she’s forwarded me an email—sent to her by one of our students en route to school—that captures the essence of CEL’s entrepreneurial mindset. The two-sentence note reads as follows: Hi Ms. Paris, I am on my iPhone so this may be quick, but I was thinking of a water filter prototype for CEL. Unfortunately, this is a bit lengthy but I want to talk about it for a possible water filter that can help homeless people with affordable pricing. Experimentation and prototyping. Creative problem solving. A thoughtful willingness to put an idea out into the world. All from a 12-year-old who is
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ready to make change and eager to make our planet better for all its inhabitants. It’s a short message, but one that captures the attitudes and traits required to move the needle on the big issues and challenges that face our world . . . and shows how the students of SCH are embracing this work. Rewind to May of 2019. At that time, I’m writing a young adult nonfiction book titled, Global Citizenship: Engage in the Politics of a Changing World. Throughout my research process, I scour .orgs and .govs for educators and students at the vanguard of social engagement. While on the site of the microfinance organization Kiva, I come across a profile of a middle grade course at Springside Chestnut Hill Academy in Philadelphia. In this unique class, according to the site, students learn about microfinance and host a craft fair to raise funds to invest in Kiva microloans. I follow the click path, land on the course website, and am floored to learn more about this 6th grade class that introduces the concept and practice
of social impact. Immediately, I reach out to the instructor, Rene deBerardinis. This was a class— this was a program—that needed to be profiled, promoted, and emulated. Rene was a willing partner in the writing process, sharing a bounty of information about the course’s underlying principles and its impact on students’ worldviews. We also came to discover that our work shared a common foundation—the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). While Global Citizenship took shape around acting on the SDGs, Rene’s course, in her words, asked “students to make decisions on who they will loan to through the lens of these goals.” In addition, the 6th grade classes “needed to support their lending decisions by applying the UN SDGs to their Kiva borrower situations.” This was real-world, inquiry-driven, problem-based learning at its finest, which I was delighted to profile in the book’s chapter on economic justice. As the book’s September 2020 publication date approached, I reconnected with Rene, who was just on the cusp of retirement. She invited me to pay the class a virtual visit, and introduced me to her incredibly dynamic successor, Paris Gramann. On a Zoom call that first pandemic fall, a new collaboration
PASSION AT WORK: In addition to their ‘SDG Hero’ biographies, students produce a range of other interest-driven projects.
JUST WHAT ARE THE SDGS?
THIS WAS REAL-WORLD,
These 17 goals for “people and the planet” range from “No Poverty” (SDG 1) to “Gender Equality” (SDG 5) to “Sustainable Cities and Communities” (SDG 11). For kids, tweens, teens, and adults, these problems can seem massive and incomprehensible. But with the tools and skills provided by CEL—opportunity seeking, creative problem solving, resilience, resourcefulness—they become something closer to achievable.
INQUIRY-DRIVEN, PROBLEM-BASED LEARNING AT ITS FINEST...
was hatched, one in which Paris and I would continue Rene’s evolving vision of crafting a trimester-long exploration of the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals.
problems that the SDGs address. Then, they seek out examples of social entrepreneurs who are resetting norms, advocating for justice, and remediating environmental wrongs.
Since then, Paris and I have co-developed a truly cross-disciplinary Social Impact course, one built on an exploration of the SDGs in local and global contexts. Students first study the 17 human-created
What exactly does this look like in the SCH classroom? Students flex their academic muscles as researchers, interviewers, and critical thinkers as they examine their communities for “SDG Heroes” or people whose everyday actions help bring the SDGs to fruition. These heroes range from family members and neighbors to older SCH students working on Venture Accelerator projects. We’ve had students profile vaccine developers, beekeepers, counselors, and LGBTQ housing advocates.
Guest speakers, such as local animal welfare advocate and author Jess Thedinga, are staples of the 6th grade Social Impact course.
To close the trimester, as Paris Gramann explains, “we engage students with a final ‘SDG Personal Project.’” Paris notes, “Students choose one or more of the 17 SDGs that they feel most connected to and create one of the following options: a performance, a card or board game, a collage, or a household audit of SDG friendliness.” Doing so reinforces that these 17 goals are intricately interwoven, and helps students commit to educating others about the global goals. Educators can’t shelter kids from the world they will inherit. We need to equip students with the skills to meaningfully engage with social issues, not just in the future, but now. Across the K-12 spectrum, that’s what CEL does. Cheers to a successful first decade, and here’s to exponentially more years of doing this work at SCH!
One of the best things about CEL is having the latitude to experiment, and the form that these biographies have taken is no different. Depending on the trimester, students have produced individual books, class anthologies, and collaged zines that highlight the profiled individual. Those works have then been placed on the online CEL shop—either as individual or anthologized eBooks—for family, friends, and community members to purchase. Carrying on the tradition started by Rene, the profits from all sales get reinvested by students in Kiva microloans. Springside Chestnut Hill Academy
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BEING THE ENTREPRENEUR OF YOUR LIFE Charles (Chuck) Sacco Drexel University Associate Dean for Strategy and Innovation, Charles D. Close School of Entrepreneurship Director, Laurence A. Baiada Institute for Entrepreneurship
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et’s face it. The world faces enormous problems. The pace of change is accelerating. Technology is rapidly advancing every industry, and the impact of globalization is increasing. We are in the midst of a worldwide pandemic and facing unprecedented climate challenges. The pace of change is not likely to slow down, and with it will come new problems that need to be solved and new needs to be fulfilled.
place. If we’re going to bring about positive change, entrepreneurs need to be everywhere, embedded in the threads of companies, government, nonprofits, and all types of organizations.
develop creative solutions, and more. If done well, there will be more students able to collaborate, experiment more, go out of their comfort zone, and persevere even when things look tough.
We all have the potential to be entrepreneurs, whether in big or small ways, if we look at problems around us, recognize opportunities to solve those problems, take action, and build community.
This is why Drexel University created a new school, the Charles D. Close School of Entrepreneurship, to help college students become the entrepreneurs of their lives. The first school at a university fully dedicated to teaching this subject, it goes broader
IF WE’RE GOING TO BRING ABOUT POSITIVE CHANGE, ENTREPRENEURS NEED TO BE EVERYWHERE, EMBEDDED IN THE THREADS OF COMPANIES, GOVERNMENT, NONPROFITS, AND ALL TYPES OF ORGANIZATIONS. So, how are we going to solve these challenges, and who will lead us into the future? We all certainly have a part, but mainly it’s going to fall on today’s students, tomorrow’s leaders—hopefully bright, entrepreneurially minded leaders equipped to solve big problems. As educators, it’s our job to prepare today’s students to be the “entrepreneurs of their lives”—to use their skills, initiative, and, most importantly, a strong “entrepreneurial mindset” to solve problems, build innovative solutions, and help make the world a better
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For our students, we can encourage this approach by helping them focus on and develop the key traits and characteristics of entrepreneurial thinking. What if they were more curious and apt to take action? What if they were more likely to seek opportunities, use creative problem solving, and have more resilience and resourcefulness? And what if they were more creative, more communicative, more collaborative? What might be the positive outcomes? The result should be more individuals equipped with the tools to see problems, recognize opportunities,
and deeper into entrepreneurial skill development, with the fostering of an entrepreneurial mindset at its core. Part of our vision at Close is that every student at Drexel will have at least an appreciation of entrepreneurship. We also want students to “start something” and be ready to launch their careers in any size organization with the skills to tackle the problems of today and tomorrow. To achieve this, we focus on helping students develop what we call their “power skills.” Using a tool called the Entrepreneurial Mindset Profile, we help them
LEARNING REAL-WORLD SKIILLS A Middle School boy works on the wireframe for his CEL project website.
develop an entrepreneurial personality—characterized by self-confidence, optimism, proactivity, and passion— and a set of skills, including persistence, future focus, flexibility, and originality. None of these things is specifically focused on starting a business. While many of our students will do that, we’re really aiming to help them develop themselves, to build towards a career, and to use their skills to do great work, whether working on a startup, in a startup, or for an established organization. But maybe college isn’t early enough. That’s why the Sands Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership (CEL) at Springside Chestnut Hill Academy is committed to developing an entrepreneurial mindset and skillset in its students, Pre-K–12. The CEL program enhances the school’s liberal arts curriculum with learning opportunities and classes that empower students to shape their futures and the world. It’s impressive that SCH’s approach to entrepreneurship is essentially an approach to problem solving. Like our program at Drexel, the CEL program prioritizes the development of key traits that comprise the entrepreneurial mindset, including opportunity seeking, creative problem solving, resiliency, and resourcefulness. Equipped with this mindset, students are prepared to take on exciting challenges rooted in their passions and graduate with a competitive advantage.
Educators and families alike can all find ways to educate, support, and develop the next generation of entrepreneurial leaders. This is why entrepreneurship programs such as those at Drexel and SCH are essential to preparing students to face the challenges ahead. There’s nothing more optimistic and empowering than being entrepreneurial. From their earliest years through to the start of their careers, students need to be equipped with a mindset that enables them to face and solve the world’s most significant problems—the ones that will make the difference in our, and their, future.
“I WISH I HAD THIS EXPERIENCE WHEN I WAS YOUNG” by Mark Greenberg ’93 P’23, P’25, P’28
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Founder and CEO, BuildEd Former Executive Director of the Sands Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership
ntrepreneurship has played a major role in my life. Born the son of an entrepreneur, I had the privilege of observing, learning, and then practicing under careful supervision. My older brother was excelling in sports, so my father decided that entrepreneurship would be something special we would share. Starting at age five and up through college, he would explain things, ask questions to elevate my thinking, encourage me to explore and try new things, and give me space to not only fail, but to do so with grace and learn from it all. It was routine to find myself watching Saturday morning cartoons while being asked by my father if the commercial promoting “buy two, get one free” was a good deal. He would invite me to meetings, talking to me before and after. He would push me to go pitch a local office supplier to buy my “artisan” pencils, knowing I would fail, but also knowing I would grow from it. Without my knowing, he created the structure and conditions for me to become the man I am today, and prepared me to help shape a program that, for the past 10 years, has been positively influencing other young people to think and act like entrepreneurs. There have been a few watershed moments in my life and one of them was being asked to lead the Sands Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership in its first year. At the time I was busy running a real estate company and education was not on my mind, but the opportunity to give to others what has proven to be so valuable in my own life was something I simply could not pass up. I was honored to be asked and to contribute in the ways I did, and I have been inspired to watch as leadership has advanced and the program has grown beyond what I ever thought possible. There are so many elements to entrepreneurship, but there are three foundational components that present an extraordinary growth opportunity—failure, risk, and alignment.
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The Power of Failure In a world where schools and employers talk a good game about embracing and accepting failure, actual experiences for most of us land far from this espoused value. Make a mistake and break expensive equipment in a manufacturing facility and there will be no applause. Work in a restaurant kitchen and overcook an expensive cut of steak and you will likely be relegated to chopping vegetables. Yet despite the sometimes negative repercussions of failure, we all know that we learn more from our mistakes than from our successes. We also know the best way to build resilience is to take risks, put yourself out there, and if you fail, extract the lesson from it and move on stronger for it. Every aspiring entrepreneur can share stories about their failures—that time when they realized their idea was already out there, that someone had beaten them to it, or the time when they realized they couldn’t make payroll. These are the moments of truth all entrepreneurs face. Will you give up or step up, roll over or dig deep and grow through it, finding a way? That is how resilience is built, and it all starts with desire, an idea, and the willingness to dare to try. Entrepreneurs don’t talk about things; they do things. They take the first step and work like hell to keep moving. Discovering that you can survive failure and grow from it shapes lives.
Understanding Risk and Knowing When to Act Risk is inevitable. Even when not consciously aware, we are taking risks all the time. Even though entrepreneurs are often miscategorized as “crazy” risk takers, the good ones are risk underwriters. They go to great lengths to understand risk, and then calibrate their plan of attack accordingly.
PASSION AND MISSION ALIGNED Alumnus Bobby Williams ’19 created his Reine clothing line to advance his personal mission of showcasing and modeling different career paths for Black youth. “CEL gave me opportunities I could not have found elsewhere,” he says, “like getting a full ride to college, making powerful mentor connections, and launching my own business.”
Although CEL embraces risk as part of its students’ learning experience, they are not being taught to be reckless. They are not being told to just act and not worry about the consequences. The CEL experience is about helping students learn how to approach things with rigor and do their homework. The concepts and principles that underpin risk assessment are woven into core subject areas and applied, not just in entrepreneurial endeavors, but across other academic and extra-curricular activities.
it isn’t what they thought. If the path you choose does not allow you to be good or great AND to like or love the work, you will be forced to rely on discipline and willpower to persevere. When there is alignment, however, you no longer have to rely on willpower. You have purpose and joy on your side.
“I wish I had this experience when I was young” was something we heard regularly from parents in the early days of CEL, and the idea of learning early is a central component of the program’s design. Having the chance to start a venture when you are in Middle School or Upper School, when the stakes are low and failure is not fatal, is invaluable. Offering students the opportunity to approach potential interests as projects—with a beginning, middle, and end—helps to clarify for them what they might be good or great at, what they might like or love. Weaving in experiences that incorporate opportunity and risk builds critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration, communication, and other skills that will serve students for a lifetime.
Finding Personal Alignment Preparing students by allowing them to make mistakes and learn from them, and to use that and other skills to underwrite risks and deliver value is not enough. Yes, we can prepare them to be effective, resourceful, resilient people, but if they dedicate themselves to a path that is out of alignment with who they are, they will suffer avoidable setbacks and will fail to self-actualize. In my work, this is the most overlooked area. People learn how to perform well in a role or to launch a business, only to find that
Most adults spend a lifetime learning about failure, risk, and alignment, often falling short, and almost always enduring otherwise avoidable pain in the process. The fact that these foundational components are woven into the CEL student experience when minds are still forming is beyond rare. It sets SCH far apart from others, and most importantly, puts our students on a path to self-actualize. It was a privilege to be part of CEL. It has shaped my life and work every day since. Far more importantly, it is a powerful force in the development of the students at SCH, including my own children, for which I am endlessly grateful.
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THE ENTREPRENEUR’S WAY Ellen Fishman P’11, P’15
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Director, SCH Arts and New Media
ooking back, it is pretty incredible that the Sands Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership was created, has survived, and is thriving. Innovation in education takes incredible leadership and a lot of collaborative effort, and schools are not always great incubators for new approaches. I realize how blessed I am to have been part of the many iterations that it took to make CEL into a unique and essential program at SCH.
I remember my students and I frantically waiting for the last render of the animations as the sun was going down. We were pushing the edge of what was possible, and the students rose to the occasion. It was a dream come true watching the projector being put into place with a lift and seeing the first light shine on the 10-story wall. I learned how a shared artistic purpose can bridge the gap between students from different socio-economic backgrounds. It was a powerful performance and a powerful experience for all involved.
When CEL was being created, I emphasized the need for students to learn to be digital creators, rather than just digital consumers. I defined a The group of administrators who encouraged these collaborations new media sequence to teach coding, design and fabrication, was the same group who created CEL—former SCH President Dr. interactive media, and how to communicate with digital tools Priscilla Sands, Director of Development Jenny McHugh, Chief (video, web, etc.). In 2007, we created a New Media Department Innovation Officer Pete DiDonato, and CFO Frank Aloise. IT IS A GIFT TO WATCH and the school opened the Vidcast Studio, a center for music They were the dreamers who provided the leadership for big and video production, as a first step in getting professionalSTUDENTS FOLLOW THEIR things for the school. level equipment and software into the hands of our Upper PASSIONS AND GAIN THE School students. At the same time, there was a worldwide There were also other dreamers whose skills helped to build “Maker” movement happening, and as an Apple Distinguished CONFIDENCE THAT COMES the framework for CEL. I recently found a sketch of what was Educator, I had been exposed to how to bring coding, design, then called “The Innovation Center,” which was the result of WITH HARD WORK. and fabrication into a school setting. As the CEL took shape, we working with SCH’s former Director of Innovative Teaching hired experts to bring these new media skills to the students. Jennifer Vermillion; former Head of Upper School Christine My knowledge of new media came out of my own artistic work as a composer and interactive media designer. I am fascinated with performance and how technology can be used to involve and teach an audience. Before CEL was started, the school supported many of my community-based projects using new media, including a video projection mapped to the side of the Fabric Arts Workshop building across from the Philadelphia Convention Center in 2010. We worked with students from the Mural Arts Program on this project, and it was viewed by hundreds of convention goers who sat in the outdoor parking area (no longer there) once it got dark.
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Heine; and former Trustee, parent, and outside consultant Lee Nunery. These early brainstorming sessions were invigorating, and each of us brought our own expertise to the table. Dr. Sands was the driving force behind all of it. She soon reframed the center around entrepreneurship, pushed ahead, and hired the first director of CEL. Fast forward 10 years and today I find myself as invigorated by our work in the CEL as when we began. It has been around the long wood table in the CEL space that I have had some of my most fulfilling days as an educator. Imagine a group of educators who gain their energy from collaborative work. Ed Glassman, CEL’s
PROJECTIONS OF THE FUTURE Opposite page: Mural in Motion, a student-created animation projected on the walls of the Fabric Workshop, was one of the early new media ventures that informed the vision of CEL. Right top: A student explains her 3D-printed clothing to a parent at a Capstone Showcase. RIght bottom: CEL Executive Director Ed Glassman interviews a student about his designs for a rehab facility at a Capstone Showcase.
executive director, is our sometimes ringleader-sometimes peacemaker, asking the hard questions and getting back way too much information to process. My longtime colleague and friend, Peter Randall, chair of SCH’s Engineering and Robotics Department, is one brilliant man. I can only imagine Ed’s conversation at home after officiating between Peter and my often-opposing views of how to advance the program. Ultimately, we rally around the fact that we are creating the CEL experience for our students’ future, and recognize our own nerdy excitement when deciding what topics are key for our students in our changing world. This has meant that all teachers associated with the CEL need to be nimble to bring these experiences to our students. For my part, I have learned user-experience design for the creation of phone apps, how to design and prototype a game and virtual reality experience, and how to say, “I don’t know.” It has been my pleasure to work closely with our resident architect/ new media teacher, Juliet Fajardo, in the New Media Studio, one of five studios available to students to help them as they develop their Capstone projects. I have watched while she helped students figure out how to create a 3D-printed dress, design and build functional furniture, and even reimagine the design of a drug rehab facility. These students are an inspiration to me and the other educators in the room. It is a gift to watch students follow their passions and gain the confidence that comes with hard work. It is no wonder that many of those involved with CEL pursue their projects after leaving SCH. CEL will continue to grow and evolve through iteration, which I have learned is the entrepreneur’s way. My thanks go to Ed Glassman, who never says “but” and models the entrepreneurial spirit every day, and to Priscilla Sands who visioned this for our school.
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IT TAKES A VILLAGE: THE VALUE OF MENTORSHIP
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Rekha Dhillon-Richardson ’17 Research Technician, University of California Berkeley
ntil I was eight years old, I lived along the stunning coastline of British Columbia, Canada, where I developed a profound respect for the natural world. I can remember many days hiking up mountains, exploring the coastal tide pools full of life, and being amazed by our planet’s wonders. As I grew older, however, I couldn’t help but notice that something was deeply wrong with humans’ relationship to the environment. I experienced it as a pit buried deep in my stomach that surfaced when I watched a large industrial truck emit thick black smoke from its engine, clouding the bright blue sky. It was the lingering guilt I felt when I passed countless empty lots strewn with plastic bags and other trash, carelessly thrown aside. And the more I learned about the fossil fuel industry, the more aware I became of the gravity of the problem our planet is facing and what humans have to do with creating it. When I started high school at SCH Academy and was introduced to the Sands Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership, a light turned on in my head. This program seemed like the perfect place for me to make a difference. After taking my CEL classes, I self-selected into what is now called the Venture Accelerator program. This program was designed to enable students to pursue whatever venture they desired, whether it be a business, product, or nonprofit, with the help of specifically paired mentors. The Venture Accelerator program helped to provide more of a structure to an idea and gave young people like me CEL 10th Anniversary Book
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the confidence to turn that idea into a real thing. As members of the program, we were taken seriously— we were treated like adults and our thoughts were valued and heard. This foundational work at the start of the program eventually paid off: in my 9th grade year, the Girls Climate Summit was born. I envisioned this summit as a one-day, free event focused on strengthening the knowledge and leadership skills of young women who were passionate about the environment. I wanted to facilitate this kind of experience for young girls because women are so often left out of the conversation, their experiences and knowledge often sidelined when important decisions are made. I was also aware of the fact that the devastation of climate change disproportionately impacts women across the globe in a variety of ways. I hoped that this event would inspire girls to get involved in the climate movement through a series of educational and actionbased workshops, speakers, and group activities. I knew it wasn’t going to be easy to pull this off, and quite quickly I was in over my head. I knew that it would be a great idea to have the summit, but I didn’t yet have a good sense of everything that would be required to make it happen. Things like securing funding, finding teacher and student support, reaching out to potential
speakers, planning activities and outlining schedules, coordinating food … and the list goes on. This is where mentorship became an important part of this story. Being paired with skilled mentors was one of the most unique, beneficial, powerful, and rewarding parts of being in the Venture Accelerator program. I was so lucky to have incredible mentors throughout my four years. Specifically, I want to highlight Anne Sudduth, co-founder and principal at Boyer Sudduth Environmental Consultants; Jamie Maguire ’78, former chairman and CEO, Philadelphia Insurance Companies; and of course, Ed Glassman ’03. Without these three, my project would have ceased to exist. They believed in me often when I did not believe in myself. They helped me to hone my ideas, work out logistics, and kept me on track for success. The lessons, both personal and technical, that I learned from them are invaluable. I cannot thank them enough for the difference they have made in my life.
CREATING CLIMATE CHANGE ACTIVISTS Opposite page: A whiteboard at the first Girls Climate Summit displays the many challenges participants identified related to climate change. Right: Rekha welcomes Girls Climate Summit attendees and speaks about the urgency of engagement and action.
After overcoming many obstacles, and learning so many things along the way, I was able to host three Girls Climate Summits in the springs of 2015, 2016, and 2017 at SCH Academy. Each year, over 100 girls from all around the City of Philadelphia gathered to learn, discuss, and problem solve. It was such an incredible and rewarding feeling to see something that you’ve worked so hard for pay off in a meaningful way. As I reflect on my time in CEL, one of the things that rings clear is that the skills and life lessons you learn in the Venture Accelerator program stick with you for the long haul. For example, I learned how to network and reach out to people in power—a skill that has come in handy! Doing a Demo Day pitch (an event where you present your project/idea to a group of potential investors) was critical in helping me develop my public speaking and advocacy skills. I also learned how to flesh out an idea, find its weaker points, and rework it. This program taught me how to be a good leader and how to effectively collaborate with others. I also learned that it’s all right to ask for help and that, actually, it should be encouraged. I gained the courage to take chances and seek out new opportunities, even if they seem scary and daunting at first. I figured out how to be resilient and how to move forward after a failure. All of this helped grow my confidence and allowed me to be the best version of myself.
What’s important to remember is that these skills aren’t just technical. They are character building, and I have applied them to many aspects of my life. They showed up when I was taking a rather difficult organic chemistry exam at Brown University, as I reached out to a senator during my internship with PennEnvironment, and while I was leading a group trip for the Brown Outing Club. I have found myself relying on these skills while applying for jobs during my senior year of college, and now, in my postgrad life. I currently work as a research technician in a developmental and regenerative biology lab at the University of California, Berkeley, studying the processes underlying heart regeneration after injury in zebrafish. If we could figure out the mechanisms by which zebrafish hearts utilize regeneration, then we would have a better understanding of how to facilitate it in humans. In its most fundamental form, research is based on problem solving and creative thinking. The skills and character traits that have been instilled in me through the CEL program have enabled and encouraged me to be the best scientist that I can be. I plan to apply to PhD programs next year, and I anticipate that these skills will be useful in that pursuit as well.
I strongly believe that any student would greatly benefit from participating in a CEL program. Quite simply, these kinds of programs are essential for building the next generation of young leaders and creative thinkers that our world so desperately needs.
AS I REFLECT ON MY TIME IN CEL, ONE OF THE THINGS THAT RINGS CLEAR IS THAT THE SKILLS AND LIFE LESSONS YOU LEARN IN THE VENTURE ACCELERATOR PROGRAM STICK WITH YOU FOR THE LONG HAUL.
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CEL, ENGINEERING, AND TECHNOLOGY Peter Randall ’69, P’16, P’18 Chair, SCH Engineering and Robotics
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t has been my pleasure to have been involved with the CEL program from the very beginning and to participate in the envisioning and design of what has become a very substantial and unique component of the SCH curriculum. Within CEL, my role has been to teach the technology-intensive classes, including robotics, electronics, programming, and technical product development. Predating CEL, and very much in the spirit of what CEL would become, was a program called Challenge, Exploration, and Creativity, a series of experiential courses offered in Middle School for Boys. All of the CEC courses, with some modifications, have been folded into the CEL curriculum. The CEC classes were guided by four key principles. First, we wanted to challenge students to solve problems that we knew they did not know how to solve. This required them to develop strategies in groups or on their own without prior instructions. Second, we wanted to reduce the cost of failure to encourage students to take risks and try something they were not certain of. To accomplish this, we made the CEC curriculum pass/fail. Third, we wanted to give students a sense of agency, so most projects provided an opportunity for student choice. In the end, it didn’t really matter what project they chose to work on as long as they were committed to it. We were much more interested in the process than the outcome. Finally, we wanted our students to have fun and for their learning to be joyful. My first CEL/CEC course was called Creative Problem Solving, which was offered to 8th graders. It involved a series of single-class challenges ranging from the physical (learn to juggle) to the intellectual (solve the Einstein RIddle) and everything in between. One of my favorite challenges, “Fermi Calculations,” was designed after Enrico Fermi, the physicist known for his ability to make accurate projections of complex mathematics in his head. For this challenge, we asked students to project how many blades of grass are found on a typical football field. By estimating the number of blades in a square centimeter, they could easily scale it up using simple math. While seemingly trivial, this problem introduced them to order of magnitude calculations and how to evaluate whether their answer falls within the realm of possible correct answers.
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Following Creative Problem Solving, we added a 6th grade course in LEGO robot design and programming. Again, we use the challenge-based learning model: design and program a robot to pick up “mail” (a small LEGO object with a loop on it), follow a route on the floor laid out with colored tape, and deliver the mail to another location. Students have to program their bots to sense the tape using a color sensor and to make decisions based on what it sees. For the culminating challenge in this course, which is based on Sumo wrestling, students have to design and program a robot to locate and push an opposing robot out of a four-foot circle circumscribed by a white line. The project involves multiple objectives. The primary defensive objectives are for the robot to detect the white line and ensure it doesn’t drive itself out of the ring while fighting back if the opponent tries to push it off. On the offensive side, the robot must use its ultrasonic sensor to detect the opponent and, using a combination of gears, levers, and whackers, try to push it out of the ring. Matches are often brief but VERY intense with much cheering and yelling. After each round, students are allowed time in their “pit” to improve their bots, defense strategies, and most importantly, their program logic. My first Upper School CEL courses were a series of skill-based courses for 9th graders. In my microprocessors class, I am particularly interested in showing
THEY ARE LEARNING THAT THE MOST DIFFICULT PROJECTS ARE OFTEN THE MOST FUN—AND CERTAINLY THE MOST REWARDING, THAT THEY CAN TEACH THEMSELVES THE SKILLS NECESSARY TO ACCOMPLISH THEIR GOALS, AND THAT THE ONLY LIMITS ON THEIR DREAMS ARE THE ONES THEY PLACE ON THEM THEMSELVES.
students the power and challenges of these ubiquitous little computers found throughout their world, from smartphones to home automation. Using a “learnby-doing” approach with very little direct instruction, we have students start right in by building circuits and programming a microprocessor using the “C” textbased language. In each class, we introduce a new project that scaffolds on the previous one, while adding a different challenge that asks students to extend their understanding into new areas. We often ask them to create something that we know they do not know how to do but which we are certain they can figure out if they put their minds to it. The sense of accomplishment they exhibit when the “lightbulb lights up” is terrific.
Over the past 10 years, CEL has evolved from an experimental series of projectbased classes into a full-fledged internationally recognized PK-12 curriculum that proves the power of opportunity seeking and problem solving as an educational model. Through CEL, our students are developing the skills and mindset that will enable them to confidently meet whatever challenges may lie ahead. They are learning that the most difficult projects are often the most fun—and certainly the most rewarding, that they can teach themselves the skills necessary to accomplish their goals, and that the only limits on their dreams are the ones they place on them themselves.
The ultimate CEL technology challenge is our 10th grade Capstone course. Each sophomore is given an entire semester to pursue a project of their dreams. They can write a book, record a composition, start a business or nonprofit, or design a product or service. Based on their choice of projects, students work in one of five “studios” where they have access to mentors, materials, and resources. Many projects end up in the Invention Studio, where we help them design, fabricate, assemble, and program. Whether they’re designing a custom iPhone case to hold an epinephrine injector or a remotely operated submarine capable of diving to 900 feet and installed with two computers, two cameras, and six motors, each student is driven by their passion for their project. Drawing on the skills they learned in their Middle School and freshman classes, they are well prepared to undertake this Capstone challenge, which completes the formal part of the CEL curriculum. Thereafter, if they choose to pursue their Capstone or some other project, they can enter the Venture Accelerator program, which is aimed at helping 11th and 12 grade students refine their product, raise funds, and bring it to market.
CREATIVE PROBLEM SOLVING Opposite page: A student holds her smartphone with a silicone epinephrine injector sleeve she developed in her Capstone course. Right: Middle School students get their first taste of real-world programming by developing code to drive their LEGO robot along a specific course.
Springside Chestnut Hill Academy
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CEL 10th Anniversary Book
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SAMPLE CAPSTONE PROJECTS
TRACK-A-BALL
CITY SNACKER
The smart and affordable solution to track your golf balls
A gift box designed to share the flavors of iconic US cities with anyone, anywhere
BIKE GENERATOR Phone charger for a bicycle
HAPPINESS OVER EVERYTHING
Student-designed Ventures
A hands-on activity book for teens to help them become more mindful and meditative
REMOTE-OPERATED UNDERWATER VEHICLE METERMOBILE App that simplifies city parking by tracking meter time and open spots
ALLURING CURLZ Ideal gel solution for curls
FEEL BETTER BOX Subscripton-care-box service for any time you are under the weather
A drone designed and developed with the purpose of exploring
SECOND-HAND PICKS
BEE DRONE
KIDZ ON WHEELZ
An online, carefully curated thrift store
ROAD FORK
An autonomous micro-drone that can polinate flowers
App that finds restaurants within your budget, maps a travel route, and makes reservations according to your ETA
DONUT CAFETERIA An interactive and multi-functional cafeteria design
RESCUE BEACON
SCHPIRIT
HOODREST
App that tracks and rewards school spirit
A hooded sweatshirt with an inflatable head/neck-rest insert
Personal locator signal equipped with long-lasting battery and solar charging
STREETSAFE App that facilitates safe walking in the city
INFINITY AND BEYOND
ANONYMOUS STORYBOOK A podcast series that gives an inside look at the daily lives of Philadelphians
Astronomy trivia app
HISTORIC PHILLY
GIRLGO!
Historical building preservation website
A rideshare service that provides a safer alternative for female customers
TSA SMALL HOUSE
STUDENT CONNECT An app that connects struggling high school students with student tutors
PACIFY A scheduling app promoting healthy time-management habits
Fully functional house that fits within the confines of a shipping container
GENDERPRISE Comic that showcases trans issues and experiences
KEEP THE MEMORIES
WOKE WHEEL
A line of military dog tags and police badges with pictures and/or quotes about someone lost in the military or law enforcement
Heart-rate-alert system to prevent drivers from falling asleep at the wheel
INFINITY FISHING FLIES
AQUAVIATO Collapsible water system to store large quantities of water in a household during natural disasters
SAFE DRIVING Device to help drivers ignore phone texts
On-the-go babysitting service that brings quality childcare to your door
WHO RUNS THE WORLD? GIRLS! Children’s book filled with diverse, incredible women to inspire young girls
FOLD-A-TURE Camping chair
SPOT App that helps drivers find available, safe, free street parking in their neighborhoods
THE REAL TEA Organic tea company, with a portion of every purchase donated toward providing clean water, food, and hygiene supplies for those living in refugee camps
SCH EATS Senior food delivery service
CLEAR CASES
Hand-tied flies for all species and sizes
A phone case for the new world made of 100% recycled water bottles
EPI-PHONE
VOLUNTEAM
Insulated Epinephrine (Auvi Que) Phone Case
Online community of teens matched to volunteer teams based on personality
H.E.L.P.I.N.G THE HOMELESS BACKPACK Backpack kits filled with essential items for those experiencing homelessness.
WASTE DIGESTER Food waste composter that generates clean energy
SPRINGSIDE CHESTNUT HILL ACADEMY | 500 WEST WILLOW GROVE AVENUE | PHILADELPHIA, PA 19118 | SCH.ORG/CEL
