Entrepreneurship Students Engage in Real-World Business Planning

Entrepreneurship Program Coordinator Melissa Freed. “Our Entrepreneurship students are helping the Gather leadership team with business ideas that will support both employee and customer retention in their downtown Arts District location. This project exposes our students to a different business model than anything we've worked on before. Additionally, the space is buzzing with entrepreneurs, and our students have heard from several business owners.”

Entrepreneurship student Charlotte Olexy ’24 added: “I have really enjoyed helping solve the difficult issue of parking at the Gather location in the city because it requires thought, research, and group collaboration; these skills help me grow as a successful entrepreneur.”

The goal of the Upper School Entrepreneurship Program is to give students real-world business experience. This fall’s Entrepreneurship project, partnering with Gather co-working spaces, is exceptionally relevant in our post-pandemic culture.

“Many people are tired of working from home and are looking for communal spaces to work,” said

The Gather partnership follows Ms. Freed’s successful formula for an Entrepreneurship project: immersion in a local business (its goal, successes, and challenges), group work guided by the organization’s employees and Steward faculty, and student pitches to the business executives. Every project includes the possibility that the organization may choose to implement the winning student group’s ideas.

This winter, Entrepreneurship students Gates Fox ’23 and Henry Bearden ’23 will be thrilled to see their winning idea for Saxon Shoes come to life. The students partnered with Saxon in the 202122 school year. Thanks to Gates and Henry, the shoe company will host a student art gallery that includes a contest. Participants will receive a coupon good for purchase from the locally owned shoe store. Gates and Henry will be part of a cohort that graduates with an Entrepreneurship endorsement on their diplomas.

The Entrepreneurship students are also looking forward to their spring project, which will feature Recognizing Children’s Gifts Behavioral Health Network, which is owned by Steward parents Tarsha and Sherman Adkins (parents of Gabby ’31 and Jordyn ’25).