Introducing Startup Corps
Christian Kunkel
Missioneurs has always been a great support network for Startup Corps and many of you have already been involved as mentors and in other capacities. We thank you for all your time and efforts this past year in making the program a huge success. For the rest of you who do not yet know about the organization or know very little, we wanted to make sure we introduced ourselves and you know what we are up to in the community. We hope that as the word spreads that you will continue to hear about us directly from your colleagues who get involved, at networking events, with MyDunkTank dares and through other media sources. In the mean time, here is the basic premise.
Startup Corps is a
non-profit business incubator and mentoring program for high school
students.
Students learn the skills of entrepreneurship from experienced
entrepreneurs (you) then apply them by planning, launching, and managing
socially and environmentally responsible businesses. The program helps
students develop an entrepreneurial mindset, a bias for action, and
personal skills such as resiliency, leadership, conflict resolution,
networking, communication and creativity all in the context of starting
and managing a real business. We just finished our first year of
delivering the program in partnership with the Science Leadership
Academy where we had 7 businesses started, $3500 in startup capital
distributed, and 30 volunteer mentors sharing with the students. For
next year, we plan to deliver the program at five schools around
the city starting in September. Long term, we hope to deliver the
program in 25-30 locations around the city so that hundreds of students
are developing entrepreneurial skills and are taking concrete action to
develop ethical businesses.
In order to achieve this vision, we
will need the
expertise, help and support of the entrepreneurial community (again,
you). At this point, we are trying to build our network of
entrepreneurs who care about youth education and are willing to share
their experience as a guest mentor. All that is required to be a mentor
is a two hour
commitment to visit one class, but we would love to have you visit
multiple classes or consider being the primary teacher of one class
throughout the year if you have more time you want to commit. If you
are
interested in getting involved or want to know more, please write back
and we will be happy to welcome you to the team.
We are excited to be a part of the
continued, exciting growth and development of the entrepreneurial
community in Philly. We hope you will join us as a leader in supporting
the young, aspiring entrepreneurs of the city who are becoming a part
of the
charge sooner than many of us realize.
Lead
on,
-----------------
Christian Kunkel
President
Startup Corps
(c) 215-512-1030
chri...@startupcorps.org