2023 Entrepreneurship Camp Participants Address Challenges With Sustainable Solutions

Sixteen Prep for Prep rising 8th and 9th graders learned how to use design thinking, social innovation, and problem solving to address problems in this summer’s Entrepreneurship Camp. 

During the first week of the five-week program, students visited the United Nations and learned about its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which recognize that ending poverty and other deprivations must go hand-in-hand with strategies that improve health and education, reduce inequality, and spur economic growth, while also tackling climate change and working to preserve our oceans and forests. The students then learned how skills such as design thinking and problem solving can be used to create business that can meet the SDGs. They also had the opportunity to hear from professionals, including Simon Gluck of Family Office Insights and Maci Peterson Philitas, Vice President, Emerging Wealth Strategist at Bernstein Private Wealth Management and visit organizations such as the Centerbridge Foundation, a global alternative investment management firm. 

Armed with an understanding of SDGs and an entrepreneurship curriculum designed and executed by Cambio Labs, students were tasked with identifying an issue that resonates with them and determining a viable solution that incorporates the SDGs. The students developed pitches for seven different businesses; the top three were presented at an exhibition at the Nightingale-Bamford School Tuesday, August 1 and Monday, August 7. Representatives from Company Ventures, a seed-stage venture firm, judged the top three ideas and chose Smart Pantry as the winner. 

The following are the top three business ideas: 

Sarah C. (XLIV), Jordan E.-W. (XLIV), Yasmin F. (XLIV), Sofia M. (XLIII), Nkosi Z. (XLIV)

Smart Pantry uses machine learning to develop algorithms restaurants can use to make smarter purchasing decisions. Reducing food waste and its environmental impacts, this business also helps restaurants increase their efficiency and reduce costs.

Jayden G. (XLIII), Aryan I. (XLIV), Logan P. (XLIV), Dawood S. (XLIII), Evan X. (XLIV) 

Permy Pave reuses discarded tires to create permeable pavement, ameliorating the negative impacts of stormwater runoff in cities and generating a new source of water which could potentially offset the impacts of the Urban Heat Island Effect.

Nanaadjoa A.-W. (XLIV), Brea F. (XLIV), Syeda H. (XLIV), Anisah R. (XLIV), Liam R. (XLIV), 

Stitch Style embraces circular economy principles in fashion, disrupting the fast fashion industry by extending the lifespan of quality textiles, and teaching a new generation the skills to repair and create their own garments.

Students who completed the inaugural Entrepreneurship Camp last summer and this year’s program had the chance to participate in Entrepreneurship Camp 2.0, a two-week program that builds on the skills learned in the previous program. The small but mighty group of eight students developed business ideas and then went out into the neighborhood surrounding Nightingale to get feedback. In addition, they took field trips to The Tenement Museum, the Highline, the Museum of New York, and the Color Factory to broaden their thinking.