Entrepreneur Student Brainstorm Business Ideas

Early Innovators Program at SAP

The SAP early Innovators Program is a joint pilot project between the software giant SAP and GA.  Thirty students middlea nd upper school students spent the day at SAP North American Headquarters in Newtown Square where they had the opportunity to practice Design Thinking and entrepreneurship by working with SAP's Value Assurance and Social Selling professionals to solve challenges related to leveraging social networks for engagement and branding. Charrele Robinson-Brown a GA parent and SAP's Director of the Innovation Team  - Global Marketing, Experiential Marketing & Strategic Programs has been working for over a year to bring the program to fruition. In addition to three work sessions designed around team building, design thinking, and business challenges, the students teams met to decide how to spend the $5000 gift SAP made to the school.  The professionals at SAP were so impressed with our students comportment, creativity, and business savvy, that Ms Brown remarked, "I would hire any one of these students.  They are just amazing.  And I can see SAP adopting many of their ideas."

New Entrepreneurship Club in the US

Grant G. US student president of the Entrepreneurship Club is seen signing up students at GA's recent activities fair. This new club will provide students with access to Shark Tank simulations, Branding and Marketing Advice, Business Model Generation, Start-Up Practice, and guest entrepreneurs.

MS Career Day Offers Students A Lens Into Entrepreneurship and Business

Middle School students had the opportunity to hear Sam Lehr, Matt Paul, and William Capers - alums, friends and parents of GA - share their hard won wisdom about what it means to be an entrepreneur in today's global economy and how to build a successful business. Students were eager to hear about connecting their passion to work, establishing priorities  and finding balance in start-up culture.

US Students Work to Market Healthy Eating Strategies

Upper school students enrolled the Branding and Marketing mini-mester are working on a designing a campaign to help teenagers embrace healthy eating options at GA. In the first of a series of meetings scheduled  throughout the spring, Chef Luke and Leigh Serra of Health and Wellness walk students through their client needs.

5th Graders Reflect on Comments from Alum Entrepreneurs

Earlier this year,  GA hosted alum entrepreneurs for discussion session with lower, middle, and upper school students. Passion, risk taking, and a new attitude toward failure were only some of the remarks that resonated for students across the school.  Above is a collection of some of the reflection comments of 5th graders in Phy Chaveau's class.

US Student Entrepreneurs Hear from Root Stock Racing's Abby Perkiss

Abby Perkiss, History Professor at Kean University and co-founder of Root Stock Racing, an adventure race planning and community building not for profit located in the Philadelphia region met with students from the Entrepreneurship class to speak about the company, and her journey from passion to profit, and the power of building the right brand. Along with her husband,  GA upper school history teacher Brent Freedland,  Root Stock will begin to roll out their races in 2016.

GA at Greater Philadelphia Youth Entrepreneur Expo

GA Upper School students participated in the Greater Philadelphia Youth Entrepreneurship Expo in the spring competing with regional high school students for best new business ideas.  Both attended Ashoka Catapult earlier in the year and have since developed business models. H McDonnell '16 of Threaded (a clothing company that generates income for non-profits) and A Seidman '16 of Sensei (a sensor for wheelchairs) developed two of the most exciting and winning business ideas at the event.

Entrepreneurship Event in Upper School

Germantown Academy’s Upper School Entrepreneurship Class had the tremendous opportunity to hear and learn from several alumni entrepreneurs prior to spring break in the Honickman Auditorium, including Patrick Fitzgerald ’93 (DreamIt Ventures, Lecturer at Wharton), Rich Podulka '95 (United American Builders Inc.), Krista Sherkey ’98 (Streamline6 Communications, LLC), and Mason Wartman ’06 (Rosa’s Fresh Pizza).

"We are finding more and more opportunities for bringing GA’s alumni back to campus to interact with, share life stories, and help mentor our students as well as reconnect with our faculty,” said Director of Alumni Relations Heather Durkin. “It is so rewarding to see how much everyone involved takes away from the experience. These sorts of activities enhance the students’ understanding of how their education applies in 'real life' and how an alum can connect to today’s GA.”

Each graduate had the chance to share how he or she built their businesses and what they’ve learned along the way. They also participated in a question and answer session with the students.

The Entrepreneurship Class was offered for the first time this year as a first semester mini-mester course. Its companion class during the second semester is Marketing and Branding.  Several other classes have been developed in a strand of Business, Management, and Entrepreneurship programming taught by Tony Garvan, Tom Taft, David Martin, and Chidi Asoluka's New Community Project which focuses on social entrepreneurship.  Students from all of these content area participated int he event which was designed to build a community of students with like interests who can share in and build on each others work.

Entrepreneurship at Middle School Career Day

Seventh Grader Sasha C. has a lot in common with Mr. Matt Paul, of Matt Paul Sports, both are entrepreneurs.  Sure, Sasha isn't running her own company just yet, but it was her entrepreneurial thinking that gave birth to the first Middle School Career Day.  Bayard Templeton, 7th Grade Head Advisor, reports "We are at a time in our middle school where student-initiated causes, events, and solutions to problems are more present than ever. As teachers, we try to contribute here and there and support when we can, but the bottom line is that more and more things that are getting done here at GA are getting done because students are at the center of it. Career Day is a culmination of an unprecedented amount of work and organization by a seventh grader, taking a unique idea and running with it much farther than many would have expected. With the support of classmates Lauren Purcell, John Karr, and Lily Ernst, Sasha Capers is the reason this event is happening."

"Over the last few months, Sasha has called meetings with the student government reps and faculty advisors, looking at both the “nuts and bolts” of how the day would run, as well as the bigger vision of what this day should be about. She walked across the parking lot to Goodman House to meet with Mrs. Zighelbohm to strategize the best ways to find speakers. She wrote each one of the speakers emails to ask for and encourage their participation. And at 8pm last night, Sasha was still responding to emails as last-minute needs arose."  

Of the sixteen professionals that took time out of their busy schedules to meet and inspire GA's 7th graders, one Matt Paul, spoke to the joys and challenges of being an entrepreneur.  Matt Paul Sports, aims to "transform the lives of young people through the power of sports."  Students interested in "being their own boss" sat in rapt attention as they heard about the success and (necessary pitfalls) of running our own business and scaling it over time.