Entrepreneurial Education - Let’s Go!

By Matt Hannan, Faculty

The goal of the new EE program is to empower students to think differently about the opportunity and obstacles in their lives. The designer of our curriculum, Stephen Carter of SeedTree Group, outlines four major areas of renewed thinking that underpin all entrepreneurs: growth mindset, developing grit, redefining failure, and seeking opportunity. The overall goal is to suffuse the school with these educational values in general, as well as take a select group through a multi-year program that not only teaches these and other values, but puts them into practice through student-led businesses.

JRHS is already an agile and entrepreneurial school in many ways, and in no way does that compromise the spiritual or social treasures it contains. This program will be in addition to our excellent academics, biblical studies, and the vibrant spiritual life of the school. EE at Jesse for the first year will have two offerings of the Principles of Entrepreneurial Mindset class, as well as work with the College and Career program to periodically offer some of these principles to all the students. It is the desire of the Headmaster and the Director of EE that this be another piece in meeting our established Expected Student Outcomes, namely skill, and personal and professional development. In class, the students will begin to learn the above values through four principles: belief drives behavior, consistency compounds, investing your time, and constraints breed creativity. Right off the bat, students will begin to examine mission statements, examining existing ones and developing personal ones based on core values. They will develop goals, pursue personal growth, and learn to prioritize in a way that makes them forward-thinking rather than reactionary. 

On a personal note, I can't help but see an incredible need for thinking like an entrepreneur in our increasingly difficult, financially volatile, and shareholder-dominated world in which we live. Long gone are the days when any high school (or even college) graduate can walk into a career where they can provide for themselves, much less a family. It takes not only excellence and grittiness, but opportunity seeking, proactive, creative work. Many institutions are teaching passivity and reactionary thinking to their students. They are perpetuating a problem, where academic success and success in the real world are utterly disconnected. Our students need a solid biblical and entrepreneurial mindset to resist the negativity and hopelessness of many of their peers, and to distinguish themselves in the midst of millions of other young adults. I am so excited to pilot this program and to show them how these principles are god honoring and biblical, and to push them to go farther than they ever thought possible.

Enjoy this brief introduction video from Stephen Carter, Founder of SeedTree Group.