Conscious Entrepreneurship Program
2023-2024
A successful entrepreneur is a visionary, an initiator, an innovator, a challenger and a driver. Conscious entrepreneurs are those that use these attributes to positively impact the future by tackling the environmental, social, and political issues of our time.
Grade 11 & 12 students are invited to join the 2023-2024 High School Entrepreneurship Student Cohort lead by Robin Theiss. In this course elective, students from across North America will discover, together, what it means to be successful conscious entrepreneurs as they learn how to define problems, devise solutions for impact, identify opportunities to affect change, and turn their ideas into action.
Program Outline
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The primary objective of this course is to equip students with the skills and approaches to navigate and be change agents in a rapidly changing, complex future. In their capstone project, students put their new entrepreneurial skills into practice by researching and proposing a potential solution to one of the challenges they have identified and are most passionate about solving.
Modules include:
• Understanding Conscious Entrepreneurship
• Defining your passion
• Identifying needs in society
• Clarifying the gaps between what is needed and what exists
• Conducting primary/secondary research
• Crafting a message
• Deciding on a business model
• Developing a business plan
• Creating a prototype/Beta group
• Understanding marketing
• Appreciating servant leadership
• Measuring success beyond the bottom line
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Students wishing to pursue a conscious entrepreneurship project may enroll for a second semester. The course then shifts into personalized, project-based work, where students engage in deep, sustained inquiry; authentic and iterative research; critical analysis; and rigorous reflection, revision, and assessment as they journey through a self-designed product or service solution to a real-world problem. Through the engineering design process, students gather and analyze data to determine the effectiveness of their model or the accuracy of their hypothesis. Students will prototype and produce a public product in this seminar and have the opportunity to pitch to a live audience and panel of advisors to receive feedback.
Thank you to past panel advisors!
Johann Clapp
Johann Clapp is the co-founder of ThreeSixty Group (MerchSource), a company he started in 2000 with his college roommate and good friend. Over the past 20 years, he managed the transformation of MerchSource from a three-person company working out of a borrowed backroom into a 500-person Global CPG Company which owns the iconic brands FAO Schwarz, Sharper Image and Vornado. MerchSource ideates, designs, sources and distributes consumer products to the nation’s largest retailers, including Target, Amazon, Walmart, Costco, CVS & Macys. Johann graduated Magna Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa from the University of California at Irvine, where he received a B.A. in Psychology.
Adam Stinson
Adam Stinson is a published writer of small business strategy as well as a contributor to INC magazine. He is the founder of a real estate company that creates vacation rental in palm springs, He became an entrepreneur the moment he graduated high school, which lead him to drop out of community college and move up to LA to work at the marketing agency he start at as an intern before working his way up to senior partner in a 4 year span. During his tenure, K&J Growth - a digital marketing agency ranked the 28th fastest growing company in California in 2020. He retired from his position there and now he’s started an acquisition company centered on buying small software companies that indicate they have strong intrinsic economic value.
Jose Aceituno
Jose Aceituno came to the U.S. at the age of 5 without speaking English. At the age of 12, he got his first job folding newspapers at a local newspaper warehouse. By the age of 15, Jose worked at two pizza parlors 7 days a week until closing, and on the weekends, he held real-estate signage for new home buyers. He never took a break and utilized all the time he could.
"I worked all my life since I can remember, washing cars, mowing lawns doing whatever I could to make money as my family did not have any and we lived like most low-income families live today, maybe worse."
Jose began his career in civil engineering in 2004 without having any educational background and barely graduating from college. Jose borrowed $2,500 from his best friend's mom after showing her his “business plan” and began his business. For the first seven years, he had no money and worked three jobs until he finally was able to pay himself. Today, CHIEF Engineering Co. is the largest privately owned company within their trade in California and the West Coast and employs over 500 employees for close to 75 projects per day throughout Orange and Los Angeles Counties.
Jennifer Clapp
Jennifer Clapp is the co-founder of Active Culture, a Natural Foods Café she started with her husband and sisters in law. Over the past 10yrs Active Culture has grown from a single location serving only Frozen Yogurt, to 5 shops in California & Oregon with over 150 employees. Active Culture was founded on the belief that healthy food can taste amazing! Active has an incredible following & is a gathering place where friends, moms, professionals and students can come together and enjoy delicious food, day after day. Prior to founding Active Culture Jennifer was the Director of Operations for a consumer products company where she designed a line of make up products and a line of Children’s Books. Jennifer is happily married with three children Abbi (15), Sasha (13) and Sam (13).
Danny Othman
Danny Othman is the founder of 602 Coffee & Acai, a local coffee shop in Huntington Beach and Costa Mesa. It was founded in 2017 and after 3 years they’ve grown to 3 locations, one of which being a coffee roasting facility. 602 now provides coffee for over 5 other independent coffee shops and the company has over 40 employees and continues to grow and wants to become Orange county’s staple coffee and acai location. Danny decided early on he wants to be an entrepreneur since he comes from a family of business owners, with that decision he chose to drop out of college early and take the risk of opening 602 and focusing solely on his business. Prior to 602 Danny has worked in multiple coffee shops, taco shops and other retail businesses but came to the decision that he needs to be in control of his future and his own time.
Amy Bowman
Amy Bowman is the Founding Partner & Brand Owner of Avohass Avocado Oil, a CPG brand specializing in conventional & organic extra virgin avocado oil from around the world. Avohass launched in 2012 and has grown into a top tier brand at Whole Foods Market and other top retailers in the United States as well as one of Amazons top sellers in the avocado oil category.
Amy a Certified Holistic Health Coach, and her partner brought together their passion for food & health and created the brand Avohass. The journey began when after spending years in high-stress corporate industries, they both decided to start making health a priority and began educating themselves on health and nutrition.
The goal has always been to bring real & authentic products to market that would help people change their health, empower them to get in the kitchen, and take control of what they put in their bodies.
"My desire to give back to my community by providing high quality whole foods that are organic, affordable and GMO-free along with my passionate love of the avocado led me to creating my brand Avohass. It's a labor of love and my reward is knowing that people are using healthy products that make a difference!"
Prior to founding Avohass, Amy was head of Guest Relations & Concierge departments at luxury 5-star hotels including The Peninsula, Four Seasons, & the St. Regis. Amy is also a founding board member of Delta Centrifugal Castings & Texas Stainless Corporation in Temple Texas.
Please fill out the contact form to be notified about the next cycle.
Pricing: $345/student/semester
10% discount for schools registering 10 or more students