Across the country, we continue to see growing interest from Christian schools that want to better understand what Christ-centered entrepreneurship can look like in action.

Because of that increased demand, we are excited to share that this year, instead of hosting one Entrepreneurship Symposium, we will be hosting two.

The Entrepreneurship Symposium is one of the best ways for your team to get energized, inspired, and equipped as you imagine what a thriving entrepreneurship program could look like at your school. Rather than simply talking about entrepreneurship in theory, these events are hosted at schools that are actively building and growing programs, giving you the chance to see real examples, ask practical questions, and begin envisioning next steps for your own community.

As always, we highly recommend sending a team of at least three people from your school. The best conversations often happen when multiple leaders, teachers, and decision-makers are able to experience the event together and return home with a shared vision.

This year’s symposiums will be hosted at two incredible schools:

Greater Atlanta Christian School
Atlanta, Georgia
November 12-13, 2026

Santa Fe Christian Schools
San Diego, California
March 11-12, 2027

Mark your calendars now and begin thinking about who from your school should attend.

If you would like more information or want to make sure your school secures a spot early, simply reply to this email and I would be glad to connect with you.

We are excited for what is ahead and grateful to continue walking alongside schools that are committed to helping students develop an entrepreneurial mindset for the good of others.

Attendees from the 2026 Entrepreneurship Symposium at Gilbert Christian High School.

One of the questions people often ask when they hear about a student-run business is, “So what happens to the money?”

It’s a great question, and honestly, it’s one of my favorite parts of the whole experience. When we help schools launch student-run businesses, we are not trying to create a pretend version of business for students. We want it to feel as true to life as possible. That means students begin to understand profit and loss. They track KPIs. They look at the cost of goods sold. 

The money makes it real. It gives them something to measure, something to debate, something to celebrate, and sometimes something to fix. When students see that one product has a better margin than another, or that waste is eating into profit, or that a small change in pricing can change the entire business, they are no longer learning entrepreneurship as a concept. They are living it.

But the best part is what happens after the profit is made.

In a healthy student-run business, profit usually moves in three directions. First, students learn to pay back the capital it took to launch. Many schools provide an interest-free loan so students can get started, and part of the students’ responsibility is to understand that capital and work toward paying it back. 

Second, students learn to reinvest. Most student-run businesses begin as a minimum viable product but eventually, students realize they need better equipment, stronger marketing, better packaging, improved systems, or new products. Reinvestment teaches them that profit is not just something to pull out of a business but rather what allows the business to grow into what it was meant to become.

But the third bucket is the one that often creates the deepest impact: a portion of the profit is set aside to give away.

At North Cobb Christian School, I had the chance to watch this happen with the students running Higher Grounds, their on-campus coffee shop. They did not randomly pick a cause at the end of the year. They spent time researching different charities, organizations, and ministries. They considered where their money could make a difference, and then they chose a local ministry they wanted to support with 10% of the profits from their year of operating the business.

Other schools have used their profits to support global missions, local ministries, community partners, and organizations serving people in developing nations. The details look different from school to school, but the lesson is the same: profit is not the enemy of purpose. In fact, profit can make purpose possible.

That is one of the most important lessons a student-run business can teach. We want students to understand that profit is good, not because it gives us permission to be selfish, but because it gives us the opportunity to be generous. When students decide ahead of time that a portion of their profit will be used for the good of others, they begin to see business through the lens of stewardship.

They learn that ownership comes with responsibility, that work can create value, and that business can be a force for good in the world. And when that lesson takes root, the business becomes much more than a coffee shop, a school store, or a product line. It becomes a laboratory for formation.

That is where the money goes. And more importantly, that is what the money teaches.

Students at North Cobb Christian School giving a meaningful contribution out of their profit to a local ministry.

Last week, I had breakfast with a former student named Connor Sheehy.

Connor was part of the first group of students who meaningfully launched the Leaning Eagle Coffee Bar at Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy. The coffee bar originally began in 2013 as a rolling cart, which was really our first prototype. It was scrappy, imperfect, and experimental. In many ways, it was our minimum viable product before we knew how often we would eventually use that language with students.

But in the fall of 2015, everything changed. The coffee bar moved into its permanent location in Miracle Commons, the central gathering space of the high school. What had once been a rolling cart became a full-fledged, permanent coffee shop. And if you walk into Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy today, all these years later, you will still see that coffee shop operating in the same location.

To help lead the process, I chose twelve seniors to oversee real business operations, work together as a team, solve problems as they emerged, and try to turn an idea into something that would last.

Connor was one of those students.

Now he is 28 years old, fully into adult life, and far enough removed from high school to see the experience with a kind of clarity that students rarely have in the moment. As we talked over breakfast, I asked him what he remembered most from that year and what, if anything, had stayed with him.

His answer was fascinating–he said that one of the biggest lessons he carried from the experience was the realization that you are not going to be great at everything the first time you try it. In fact, the things that matter most are often the things that feel difficult, unfamiliar, and uncomfortable in the beginning.

He then talked about the importance of being unafraid to fail. He talked about the need to take risks. He talked about the reality that life often rewards the people who are willing to step into hard things before they feel fully ready.

That hit me because this is exactly what entrepreneurship education should do.

The best entrepreneurship programs are not merely about helping students start businesses. They are about helping students become the kind of people who can move toward hard things instead of away from them.

They teach students that comfort and growth do not coexist.

When students are given real responsibility, they are pushed out of the safe and predictable spaces where everything is already structured for them. They have to collaborate. They have to communicate. They have to solve problems that do not have obvious answers. They have to receive feedback, adjust, try again, and keep moving.

Growth happens when students are trusted with real work.

Connor is proof of that. Ten years later, he was not reciting vocabulary from a class. He was describing a way of thinking that had shaped how he approached life. He remembered being stretched. He remembered not knowing exactly what he was doing. He remembered learning that he could step into something hard and grow through it.

That is the long-term power of entrepreneurship education.

We do not always get to see the full impact in the moment. Sometimes it takes years. Sometimes it takes a breakfast with a former student who is now 28 years old to remind us that the work mattered more than we realized.

But when students are given the chance to build, lead, risk, fail, and grow, they carry those lessons with them.

And if we want students to be ready for the future, we have to stop designing educational experiences that keep them comfortable.

Let’s go!

Ten years later, Connor reminded me why entrepreneurship education matters.

One of the clearest patterns I have seen in schools across the country is this: the schools gaining the most momentum are not the ones treating entrepreneurship as a single class, a single teacher, or a single student-run business.

They are the schools beginning to see the entrepreneurial mindset as something that can shape the entire culture of learning.

That matters because the entrepreneurial mindset is not just about starting businesses. It is about helping students think differently. It teaches students to approach challenges with a growth mindset. It helps them develop grit when the work gets hard. It gives them a healthier view of failure as something to learn from rather than something to avoid. And it trains them to look for opportunities where others may only see obstacles.

This is why I am excited to be at North Cobb Christian School in Atlanta on June 3–4 for The Entrepreneurial Classroom, a professional learning experience for Christian educators.

Most of the time, I come directly to a school and provide this type of training for the faculty. But this event is different. North Cobb Christian School is opening its doors and inviting educators from other schools to join us for a day and a half of practical training focused on building the entrepreneurial mindset in the classroom.

The training will take place:

Wednesday, June 3
8:00 AM – 3:00 PM
Breakfast and coffee provided (lunch on your own)

Thursday, June 4
8:00 AM – 12:00 PM
Breakfast and coffee provided (dismiss by lunch)

This experience is designed for K–12 teachers and administrators who want to help students move from passive learners to active thinkers, creators, and contributors. We will focus on practical classroom strategies connected to entrepreneurial mindset development, growth mindset and “not yet” thinking, grit and perseverance, healthy risk-taking, reframing failure, habit formation, collaboration, and student-run business incubation.

But underneath all of that is a deeper purpose.

For Christian educators, this work connects directly to the kind of transformation Paul describes in Romans 12:2. We are not simply trying to help students complete assignments. We are helping them renew the way they think so they can better understand their gifts, solve real problems, create value, and serve others well.

Students need more than information. They need to become proactive problem solvers. They need to communicate clearly. They need to collaborate with others. They need to persevere when they hit a wall. And they need to see themselves as capable of creating solutions in a world that desperately needs thoughtful, faithful, courageous leaders.

That is the heart of the entrepreneurial mindset.

This training will also give educators a chance to hear what is happening in schools around the nation that are embracing this work and building programs that give students real ownership, real responsibility, and real opportunities to grow.

If your school has an entrepreneurship program, is thinking about starting one, or simply wants to strengthen the way students engage with learning, I would love for you to join us.

You can register here: bit.ly/register_nccs

Or reach out to me directly at Stephen@SeedTreeGroup.com with any questions.

I hope to see you at North Cobb Christian School in June.

More details about this professional learning experience.

What’s the point? That’s the question I think every school should be asking before launching an entrepreneurship class, building a student-run business, or adding another program to the schedule.

What’s the point of teaching entrepreneurship? What’s the point of helping students build businesses? What’s the point of teaching the entrepreneurial mindset?

And the answer is bigger than simply having a business program.

Our students are entering a world that is changing at a staggering pace. And I do not simply mean the world has changed from twenty years ago. I mean the world has changed dramatically in the last three years. Artificial intelligence, shifting career pathways, economic uncertainty, cultural instability, and constant technological disruption are reshaping the future our students are preparing to enter.

In that kind of world, the students who flourish will not simply be the ones who learned how to play the traditional school game well. They will be the students who can think differently, who can face uncertainty without shutting down, who can see problems as opportunities, adapt when the plan changes, work with others, communicate clearly, solve real problems, and keep going when something does not work the first time.

In other words, entrepreneurship education is not just about entrepreneurship; it is about durable skills for life.

When students build a business, they are not only learning how to sell a product or track revenue. They are learning how to notice problems, listen to customers, test ideas, manage responsibility, work through frustration, make decisions, and adjust when reality does not match the plan.

They can learn to look for patterns, to ask better questions, and to move toward problems instead of away from them. Ultimately they can learn that failure is not the end of the story, but part of the process of growth.

At Seed Tree Group, we define that mindset through four core attributes: growth mindset, grit, redefining failure, and opportunity seeking. These are not abstract ideas. They become real when students are placed in environments where they have to practice them.

The line gets long. The customer is unhappy. The inventory is wrong. The marketing does not work. The team disagrees. The revenue is lower than expected. The idea that looked great on paper suddenly needs to be adjusted. And in those moments, the learning becomes real.

That is why this work is so transformative when schools take it seriously. It does not just create a class students enjoy. It can increase engagement, strengthen academics, build confidence, reveal gifts, and awaken a deeper sense of purpose.

The goal is that every student would begin to see themselves differently. That they would discover they are capable of building, solving, leading, creating, adapting, and contributing. That they would begin to understand that the problems around them are not just obstacles to complain about, but opportunities to engage.

So when schools think about entrepreneurship education, I would encourage them not to think first about a class, a club, or even a student-run business. Instead, think about the kind of graduate who will walk across the stage not just with knowledge, but with courage, resilience, creativity, communication skills, problem-solving ability, and a deeper sense of purpose.

If your school is ready to explore entrepreneurship education as more than a class, I would love to help you think through what it could look like as we build something that lasts.

Entrepreneurship students during one of the program's engaging networking events.

When I first began building the entrepreneurship program at Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy, I was doing most of it alone.

There was no national network of entrepreneurship teachers I could call. No shared playbook, no monthly group of educators trying to solve the same problems, no community of schools experimenting with student-run businesses, mindset formation, curriculum design, and program growth.

So I figured it out as I went. I wrote curriculum. I built systems. I tested ideas. I made mistakes. I revised the model. I learned by doing, but much of that learning happened in isolation.

And that is one of the reasons our June training has become so important.

Each summer, educators from Seed Tree schools across the country come together for three days of deep training, practical planning, and meaningful connection. Yes, we spend time on curriculum, classroom implementation, student-run businesses, coaching students, and the Christ-centered entrepreneurial mindset. Those pieces matter deeply.

But one of the most powerful parts of the training is what happens when teachers realize they are not building alone but are instead stepping into a network.

Seed Tree programming is now being used by schools in more than 21 states, and every one of those schools becomes part of a much larger learning community. A teacher who thought she was simply launching one class begins to see how that class could become a program. A school that was planning one business begins to imagine a pathway. A leader who felt the weight of building something new begins to realize there are others walking the same road.

And it matters because entrepreneurship education should not be built in a silo. After the June training, monthly mastermind calls continue the collaboration and keep the learning grounded in real implementation

In one school, students are launching a coffee business. In another, they are running a spiritwear store. In another, they are building a food concept, managing inventory, tracking revenue, refining operations, or preparing to pitch school leadership for an interest-free loan.

These schools become laboratories.

The insights from those laboratories strengthen the entire network. What one teacher learns through trial and error helps another school move faster. What one student-run business discovers becomes wisdom the next school can build on.

Seed Tree provides the framework, curriculum, coaching, and structure. But the real power comes when educators take that model into their own schools, test it, adapt it, and bring what they learn back to the community.

That is why the June training is not just an event. It is an entry point into a network.

If your school is exploring entrepreneurship education, strengthening an existing business program, or building a student-run business pathway, I would love to talk with you about the June training and the broader Seed Tree program.

Let’s build something that lasts.

Our 2025 June training cohort of rockstar teachers.

Sometimes entrepreneurship starts with a pitch competition, a polished business plan, or a big idea that sounds impressive from the beginning.

And sometimes it starts with lunch.

That is what happened at Little Rock Christian Academy this year when students in the entrepreneurship course began moving through the opportunity-seeking phase of the class. In November, they were learning to pay attention to the problems and frustrations around them, not as things to complain about, but as possible invitations to build something useful. One of the opportunities they noticed was simple: students wanted better lunch options.

From there, the idea began to take shape. The students researched what was possible, studied the timing of the school day, thought through equipment needs, considered what kind of food they could serve well, and eventually landed on a smash burger business. That meant purchasing a large Blackstone, building an ordering system, figuring out prep and cleanup, managing inventory, setting prices, and turning a student idea into an actual lunch service.

The result became the Warrior Grill.

Their grand opening was a success, but like most real businesses, the learning did not stop once the doors opened. During one of their early launches, the grill lost heat, orders backed up, students were waiting, and the team had to manage customer frustration in real time. There were delays, interpersonal tensions, operational problems, and all the uncomfortable pressure that comes when people are counting on you to deliver. In other words, it became real.

That is what makes the student-run business model so powerful. Students are not just learning about entrepreneurship from a distance. They are experiencing what happens when the system breaks, the line gets long, the grill cools down, the customers get impatient, and the team has to decide whether they will make excuses or make adjustments.

By their third lunch service, they had made major improvements. They began prepping earlier, changed the order flow so students were waiting in line before ordering instead of crowding around after ordering, simplified the process when a smaller Blackstone was unavailable, and reduced the longest wait time to about four minutes. On that day, they served 122 burgers, generated approximately $1,100 in revenue, and showed just how much learning had already taken place.

That is not just a burger story. That is a systems story.

It is also a financial literacy story. After only a few services, the Warrior Grill had already paid back its startup debt and moved into profitability. The students were looking at receipts, inventory, cost of goods, margins, revenue, and profit, not because those words were on a vocabulary list, but because the business required them to understand what was happening.

They were asking better questions because the work demanded better questions. 

That is why opportunity seeking matters.

We often tell students to be creative, innovative, and entrepreneurial, but we do not always teach them how to notice. We do not always train them to pay attention to friction, listen for repeated complaints, observe what people need, and ask what could be better. Yet some of the best ideas begin right there, close to home, hiding in plain sight.

And that’s when they got the call asking if they could serve not 100, not 200, but 500 burgers at the annual yearbook distribution day–and they said yes.

That is the power of entrepreneurship education.

If your school is ready to help students build this kind of mindset through real-world entrepreneurship and student-run business, I would love to help you think through what that could look like.

Little Rock Christian Academy and the Warrior Grill.

Last week, I had the opportunity to attend the Entrepreneurship Certificate graduation ceremony at Grand Rapids Christian Schools, and as I sat there listening to the stories and watching nine seniors receive their certificates, a clear realization settled in:

This is what it looks like when entrepreneurship moves beyond a class and becomes a program.

Nine graduating seniors earned the Certificate of Entrepreneurship, representing over six semesters of work in the program. These students did not just take a course or participate in a project. They walked through a full sequence of formation, beginning with the foundations of entrepreneurship and continuing through customer discovery, marketing, leadership, sales and revenue, and the building of real ventures.

And now, they are ready to go.

What makes this especially powerful is how the program has been built over time. Under the leadership of Kevin Van Harn, Grand Rapids Christian Schools did not try to do everything at once. They started with a simple, manageable idea: a vending machine business. From there, they expanded into additional ventures like the Logo Loft, a spiritwear business, Gone Boarding with surfboards and skateboards, and adventure-based programming.

Now, the result is a program with over 70 students enrolled for next year, multiple student-run businesses operating at once, and a clear pathway for students to move from introduction to mastery. This is no longer experimental: it is embedded. It is one thing to launch a class. It is another thing to build a business. But what we are seeing more and more in schools adopting the Seed Tree program is something deeper: a full-fledged entrepreneurship program that creates continuity, progression, and real outcomes for students.

The Certificate of Entrepreneurship is a reflection of that. Yes, it goes on the transcript, but more importantly, it represents something that students will carry with them long after graduation. It reflects mastery in the entrepreneurial mindset, including growth mindset, grit, redefining failure, and opportunity seeking. 

One year ago, we celebrated a similar milestone at Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy, where one-third of the graduating class earned the Certificate of Entrepreneurship. Now, we are seeing other schools reach that same level of maturity, where programs are not just launching, but sustaining and producing lasting impact.

If you are thinking about entrepreneurship in your school, the goal is not just to create a class or even a single business. The goal is to build a program that can grow over time, develop students in a meaningful way, and ultimately create outcomes like this.

These nine students are stepping into their next chapter with a mindset and a set of experiences that will shape how they approach opportunities for the rest of their lives.

And this is just the beginning.

Hanging out with the 9 seniors receiving the certificate of entrepreneurship at Grand Rapids Christian Schools.

There is a part of the entrepreneurship journey that does not get talked about enough, and yet it may be one of the most important parts of the entire process.

Right now, Seed Tree schools all around the nation are wrapping up the year with their first student-run businesses and students are not just finishing the year–they are operationalizing what they built so it can continue beyond them. They are creating training videos, documenting systems, and thinking through all the small decisions that make a business actually function day to day. In other words, they are building a succession plan.

And this is where the laboratory comes alive. It is one thing to have a student come up with an idea, build a slide deck, and imagine what could be. But if the experience ends there, students can leave with an incomplete picture and never quite feel the weight of execution. They never fully wrestle with what it takes to move from concept to operation, from operation to growth, and from growth to sustainability.

Succession planning changes that.

When students have to prepare the business for another group to run next year, they are forced to understand it at a much deeper level. They have to ask better questions. What actually makes this work? What needs to happen first every day? What systems are essential and which ones are just nice ideas? This kind of thinking pushes students into ownership.

In a real business, it is not enough to build something that works while you are there. The real challenge is building something that can keep working, that can be improved by others, and sustained over time. That is what our students are learning right now in real time as they work to build something that lasts.

This is one of the reasons I believe so strongly in student-run businesses as a model for learning. The classroom can teach concepts, but a real venture that must operate, grow, and eventually be passed on teaches something deeper. Students discover that success is not just found in launching something exciting, but in doing the hard, thoughtful work of making it sustainable for the people who come next.

So as this school year comes to a close, I want to encourage school leaders and teachers to recognize what is happening in this season. This is one of the richest learning moments in the entire process. Students are moving all the way from ideation to creation to growth and now into succession. That full arc is rare in education, and it is one of the things that makes this model so transformative.

The businesses may be student-run, but the lessons are very real. And right now, all around the nation, students are learning what it means not just to build something, but to build something worth passing on.

Students are learning what it means not just to build something, but to build something worth passing on.

I was recently facilitating a workshop with a room full of board members and administrators, and as the conversation unfolded, a clear realization began to emerge:

The teachers were aligned. The administrators were aligned. The board was aligned. There was real agreement around what students need in order to flourish in the world they are stepping into, and there was no real debate about the fact that we are no longer preparing students for a world that is predictable, linear, and stable. We are preparing them for a world that is volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous, and in that kind of world, the ability to handle failure is not optional: it is essential.

The issue was not whether failure has value as a learning tool. Everyone in the room understood that it does. They understood that students need opportunities to struggle, adjust, recover, and try again. 

The missing link was the parents. That was the aha moment.

Many of the parents in our K-12 private schools have been shaped by an educational model where failure has felt dangerous. A bad grade can hurt GPA or a struggle in the classroom can feel like a threat to the future. So when schools begin talking about the importance of risk, iteration, challenge, and even failure, parents often resist.

That is why this conversation matters so much, especially in the private school world.

If schools are serious about preparing students for the future, then parents cannot be left outside that conversation. They need help understanding that failure, in the right environment, is not a threat to their child’s future. It is part of how that future is built.

This is one of the reasons entrepreneurship programming can be such a powerful part of a school’s formation model.

In entrepreneurship, students are doing real work which involves testing ideas, solving problems, making decisions, and trying to create something that actually works. And in that process, they often experience failure.

But they do this without the fallout.

Students can feel the frustration of a missed opportunity, the disappointment of something not working, and the challenge of regrouping and trying again, all within a structure designed for growth rather than punishment. They are learning lessons that matter, but not in a way that damages GPA, closes college doors, or defines them by one bad result.

In that sense, entrepreneurship gives students something many schools desperately need to create more often: a safety net for failure.

It is still real, but it does not crush.

And that matters because our students do not need a life in which nothing goes wrong. They need formation that prepares them for when things do. They need opportunities to develop what Nassim Taleb would call an “anti-fragile mindset,” one in which challenge does not simply test them, but strengthens them.

When parents begin to understand the why behind this, they often become allies much faster than schools expect. Once they see that this is not about being careless with their child’s future, but about preparing their child for a world that will absolutely require courage, adaptability, and resilience, the conversation begins to shift. The goal is no longer to avoid all failure. The goal becomes helping students experience the kind of failure that teaches, forms, and strengthens them.

That was the real revelation in the room for me.

Everyone was aligned on what students needed. The challenge was not the teachers, the board, or the administrators. The challenge was helping parents see clearly what educators already know: in the right environment, failure is not something to fear. It is one of the most powerful tools we have for growth.

And when parents understand that, they do not just tolerate the model, they begin to champion it.

After a parent workshop, I had a chance to connect with a parent who is all in on helping students learn through failure.

On a recent trip to Phoenix, I had a chance to hang out with my friend and mentor Alex Judd. I first met Alex when he was hosting the EntreLeadership podcast for Dave Ramsey and was just preparing to launch his executive coaching business, Path for Growth.

Over the years I’ve known Alex—and I even hired Path for Growth to coach me while building the entrepreneurship program at Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy—I’ve learned a great deal about principles, standards, and operationalizing. But the teaching that has stuck with me most is what he calls “success statements.”

A success statement is a definition of what winning looks like. In other words, it spells out the desired outcome, the finished product. It is saying, “the floor is clean,” rather than simply saying, “sweep the floor.”

This concept has been revolutionary not just in my own life, but in the building of entrepreneurship programs, the growth of a business like Seed Tree Group, and the leadership teams I now have the opportunity to serve.

The real “ah-ha” moment came when I realized that much of my own leadership had been heavily focused on tasks—let’s do this, let’s check this off the list—and less focused on creating a shared understanding of what winning actually looks like.

Everyone wants to win, and yet so often in schools—and in business—we have only a fuzzy idea of what winning actually is. In a sporting event, winning is pretty clear. There is a massive scoreboard showing the current standing at any moment. But in schools and classrooms, there is often very little agreed-upon definition of success.

Of course we all want engaged students, but we do not always agree on what “engaged” means or looks like. We all want lifelong learners, but we have not always taken the time to define what that looks like or how to operationalize it. Using success statements transformed not only how I think about my day and my week—what does winning look like today?—but also how I help entrepreneurship teachers mentor students in the building of a business.

The student serving as CEO of the coffee shop needs to understand what success looks like in her role. The student overseeing inventory and ordering needs to understand what winning looks like in that area. When we take the time to define success clearly—and provide the support needed to achieve it—everything changes, from alignment to confidence to ownership. 

That is the power of a success statement. It brings clarity where there was once vagueness, direction where there was once motion without purpose, and shared victory where there was once uncertainty. And in a school, that kind of clarity does not just improve performance—it can transform culture. Reach out to me if you want to transform your school culture with the entrepreneurial mindset.

Hanging out with Alex Judd on a recent hike in Phoenix.

Every once in a while, I read a book or have a conversation that puts words to something I have been seeing in schools for years. My recent podcast with Jenny Anderson, co-author of The Disengaged Teen, was one of those moments.

Jenny made a compelling case that schools have become very good at producing achievers. We know these students well. They follow the rules, hit the deadlines, check the boxes, and jump through every hoop placed in front of them. And to be clear, achievement is not the enemy. We want students who work hard, pursue excellence, and take their learning seriously. But achievement alone is no longer enough.

What students need now is agency.

Jenny defined agency as the ability to set a meaningful goal and marshal the resources to achieve it. That is a powerful definition, and it gets right to the heart of what so many schools are missing. In a world shaped by uncertainty, complexity, and AI, our students need more than the ability to comply. They need the ability to think, adapt, take initiative, ask for help, solve problems, and move forward when the path is unclear.

That is why one of the most powerful ideas in our conversation was her framework of the four modes of learning: Passenger, Achiever, Resistor, and Explorer. The goal is not for students to live in Explorer mode every minute of every day. That would be exhausting. But her research found that fewer than 4% of middle and high school students regularly experience opportunities to step into that mode. 

That should stop all of us in our tracks–because Explorer mode is where students begin to come alive.

It is where learning becomes more than compliance. It is where students develop ownership. It is where curiosity grows. It is where struggle becomes meaningful. It is where students stop simply asking, “What do I need to do to get the grade?” and begin asking, “What can I build? What problem can I solve? What matters here?”

That is exactly why this conversation resonated so deeply with me.

For years now, I have been watching students come alive when school stops feeling like a checklist and starts feeling real. I have seen it through student-run businesses, entrepreneurial mindset formation, design thinking, problem solving, and collaborative work that actually matters. When students are given the opportunity to create something, serve someone, solve a real problem, and take ownership of the outcome, something shifts. They are no longer just playing school. They are growing.

And that growth does not happen in the absence of struggle. In fact, one of the most important parts of my conversation with Jenny was her reminder that struggle is not something to eliminate. It is something to steward. Too often, as educators and parents, we rush in to remove the discomfort. But meaningful struggle is where resilience is built. It is where confidence is earned. It is where students discover that they are capable of more than they realized.

That is one reason entrepreneurial learning is so powerful. It gives students a laboratory for real-world growth. They have to collaborate. They have to adapt. They have to face setbacks. They have to communicate. They have to solve problems they did not see coming. In other words, they begin developing the exact muscles they will need in life after school.

Jenny also made a point that every school leader needs to hear: students disengage when they do not see the point. That does not mean every lesson must be perfectly personalized or endlessly entertaining. It does mean that relevance matters. Students want to know why their learning matters, where it connects to the real world, and how it prepares them to contribute in meaningful ways. And honestly, that is a fair question.

The schools that will thrive moving forward are the ones willing to answer it.

They will create more room for real-world learning. More room for ownership. More room for contribution. More room for meaningful risk. More room for students to build, reflect, fail, adapt, and grow. They will not settle for producing students who know how to follow the map. They will help students develop the compass.

And that is why this conversation with Jenny Anderson mattered so much to me. Her research gave language to what many of us are seeing in practice: students do not come alive when school only asks them to comply. They come alive when school gives them something real to own.

That is the future of learning. And I believe the best schools are just getting started.

Want to explore what this could look like in your school?
That is exactly the kind of work we are helping schools build through Seed Tree Group.

Click here to listen to the podcast episode.

One of the most important moments in the Seed Tree Group program happens around December of year one, when students make their pitch for the business they want to launch and operate on campus. 

What matters is that they are not asking for a massive investment to build something flashy from the ground up. Instead, they are asking for a small, interest-free loan that gives them just enough capital to start with a minimum viable product (MVP), test the model, learn from the market, and grow over time. 

That is intentional. We want students to learn that real entrepreneurship usually starts small, that every dollar matters, and that wise stewardship matters even more.

We frame this as a loan rather than an investment because we want students to feel the responsibility that comes with handling real money. When they know they need to pay it back, they plan differently, spend differently, and lead differently. 

They begin to understand that a healthy business is not just about making sales, but about managing cash flow, making disciplined decisions, reinvesting for future growth, and building something sustainable. Most of these loans fall in the $2,500 to $5,000 range, which is enough to launch a real business but not so much that students can afford to be careless. 

Every dollar counts.

At Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy, this approach led to remarkable results. The students running the Leaning Eagle Coffee Bar generated enough revenue to pay back the loan in the first year, but because the loan was interest free, they made the strategic decision to use that flexibility to help launch a second student-run business, the Blend smoothie bar. 

At the same time, a portion of the proceeds from Leaning Eagle went toward an intercession scholarship fund that helped students travel who otherwise would not have been able to do so. 

That is the kind of outcome we are after. Students learn how to repay what they borrowed, how to reinvest for future growth, and how to use business as a way to create opportunity for others.

This is why the interest-free loan matters so much in our model. It is not just startup money; it is a tool for formation. 

It teaches students to start lean, think carefully, lead responsibly, and build businesses that last. Across Seed Tree schools around the nation, we are seeing the same thing: when students are trusted with real responsibility, they rise to it. 

Students at Gilbert Christian serving symposium guests out of the Knight Life café.

One of the most consistent “tells” of a SeedTree school is this: the student-run business doesn’t show up in year three after everything is perfectly planned. It launches in year one.

That’s not an accident. It’s the result of a simple (but powerful) design: students enroll in an entrepreneurship elective, build the entrepreneurial mindset in semester one, and then they pitch a real business concept around December. 

The result is one of the most engaging learning experiences a school can offer—because it’s real.

Here are a few student-run business models that Seed Tree schools are launching around the country (plus a few pointers if you’re thinking about what might fit your campus).

1) The Coffee Shop

This is the runaway favorite for a reason: it’s scalable, repeatable, and it becomes a culture-builder fast.

Most schools start with a minimum viable product: a rolling coffee cart. Students serve iced lattes, coffee, Italian sodas, and other exciting products. Over time, the best versions of this model evolve into a permanent location: a true café environment with expanded drink offerings, food, and the kind of place that becomes “the heartbeat” of campus.

2) The Wood-Fired Pizza Concept

If you want instant energy at events, this one brings it.

This model shines at football games, basketball games, and big school gatherings. Many schools launch with an Ooni oven (simple, affordable, and perfect for proving demand). As volume grows, the program upgrades to a larger oven and a more robust serving setup.

A picture of the Smashburger being offered at Little Rock Christian Academy as part of their Warrior Grill concept.

Quick note—don’t miss your chance to be part of one of the most energizing events of 2026: the Entrepreneurship Symposium for Christian Schools. Whether you’re building an entrepreneurship program or ready to launch one, this gathering will accelerate your impact.

I’ll be honest, I love a great brick-and-mortar entrepreneurship program.

Give me a student-run coffee shop, a school store, a pizza oven, a messy whiteboard, and a group of students trying to figure out pricing while someone forgets the napkins, and I’m a happy man.

But one of the most exciting things I’m seeing right now is this: entrepreneurship education is not limited to a physical campus.

We’re piloting a Christ-centered entrepreneurship program with NorthStar Academy, an online school, and it has been incredibly encouraging. Students are building real businesses, learning practical skills, and growing in the entrepreneurial mindset in ways that are deeply connected to their actual lives. 

In this model, students are not all building the same business. 

They are building around their own interests, their own skills, and the opportunities right in front of them. Some are creating product-based businesses. Others are offering services. All of them are learning how to solve problems, create value, and serve people well. 

One of my favorite examples is a student in Germany who started building custom computers. He saw that many people around him were paying too much for computers, realized he had the skill to build them himself, and turned that into a business opportunity. That's the entrepreneurial mindset: see a problem, build a solution, serve people.

Now, if you hear “online school” and think, “Okay, but isn’t that isolating?” that’s a fair question. But that’s not what we’re seeing.

There is real collaboration happening. Students are working in small groups, sharing ideas, giving feedback, and helping each other think better. They’re also getting one-on-one coaching, which has been a huge strength of the program. 

Entrepreneurship education cannot be stopped. It meets students where they are, and it helps them become the kind of people who are ready to create, lead, and serve.

Let’s go!

Stephen and Stephanie Shafer, Head of School at NorthStart Academy

Quick note—don’t miss your chance to be part of one of the most energizing events of 2026: the Entrepreneurship Symposium for Christian Schools. Whether you’re building an entrepreneurship program or ready to launch one, this gathering will accelerate your impact.

I keep seeing it in schools all over the country: we’re quietly reimagining the STEM lab and Makerspace—not as a “specials” room you visit once a week, but as a launchpad for entrepreneurship.

You know the tools I’m talking about. The 3D printers that were exciting for a month and then started gathering dust. The Glowforge that everyone loves but no one quite knows how to integrate consistently. The BeaverBots that were purchased with great intentions… and now live in the corner like a reminder of a program that never fully took off.

Here’s the opportunity: those tools aren’t the problem. They’re actually the invitation.

Most STEM labs were designed around engineering, robotics, and design thinking. And that’s exactly why they make such a natural home for entrepreneurship. The best entrepreneurship education doesn’t start with “build a business.” It starts with formation. It starts with learning how to see problems clearly, care deeply about the people experiencing them, and take action instead of waiting for perfection.

That’s why design thinking and the entrepreneurial mindset have such a strong synergy. Both are rooted in empathy. Both prioritize problem solving. Both teach students to define what’s broken or frustrating before they rush to create a solution. And both carry a bias for action—because eventually, you have to build something and put it in front of someone.

That’s where one word becomes a culture-shaper in our schools: prototype.

Prototype is more than a STEM term. It communicates, “This isn’t final—and that’s the point.” When we normalize prototyping across campus, students begin to internalize something that changes everything: learning is a process, not a performance.

That English essay draft? Prototype.
That first graph you create before you refine it? Prototype.
That first timeline you build before you decide what events truly matter? Prototype.

And the more we emphasize prototyping, the more students start to believe that education is about progress over perfection. They stop treating mistakes like threats and start treating them like feedback. They learn to fall in love with the problem, not just chase a clean-looking solution.

This is also why your esports room might be one of the most underutilized learning environments on campus.

Rather than just another round of Smash Brothers, imagine students collaborating to build a Minecraft city with a clear vision, shared standards, and real constraints. Imagine them designing user-friendly Mario levels with rapid testing, peer feedback, iteration, and improvement. That’s not “just gaming.” That’s product design. And that’s entrepreneurship.

Yes, student-run businesses are a powerful pathway. They’re often the best laboratory for learning. But entrepreneurship education done well goes deeper than the venture itself. It forms students into opportunity seekers. It trains them to notice needs, generate ideas, test quickly, learn openly, and keep moving forward.

If you’re wondering how to bring new life to your STEM lab, your Makerspace, or even that esports room down the hall, I’d love to help you connect the dots in a way that’s simple, practical, and sustainable.

Students in a Seed Tree STEM/Entrepreneurship lab building prototypes

Quick note—don’t miss your chance to be part of one of the most energizing events of 2026: the Entrepreneurship Symposium for Christian Schools. Whether you’re building an entrepreneurship program or ready to launch one, this gathering will accelerate your impact.

A few days ago, my friend Rod Gilbert, Head of School at Santa Fe Christian Schools, sent me a picture of his Founding Fifty tumbler.

And I got chills.

The Founding Fifty represents the first 50 YETI mugs ordered by students for the launch of their new student-run business, The Landing.

Before you balk at the price tag—$500 per mug—look at what comes with it:

Free drip coffee for life.
One of only fifty mugs…ever.

This is the beauty of entrepreneurship programs on K–12 campuses: they become living laboratories for ideas.

As students at Santa Fe were working through how they would pay back their startup loan, their Head of School floated a bold question:
“What if there was something special—at a high price point—that parents, donors, and board members would actually want to be part of?”

At Seed Tree Group, we help schools structure interest-free startup loans (typically $5,000–$15,000) that students pitch for and then repay through real revenue. That constraint forces creativity.

Now, no student is buying a $500 mug (okay…maybe one or two). But parents who want to support the entrepreneurial mindset AND own a small piece of the story absolutely will.

Here’s the result:

Thirty of the fifty mugs have already sold. That’s $15,000 raised and the business has been open less than a month.

In the curriculum and training we use with schools, we stress over and over the following principle: “Entrepreneurs are biased toward action.” When in doubt, they try, they test, they get feedback.

That’s the mentality these students are learning: ideas are only as valuable as the action behind them. What started as an idea became a box of fifty mugs and those mugs became early revenue.

And now they’re long-term symbols of ownership, belief, and bragging rights.

So here’s the real question:

What ideas could your entrepreneurship program unlock on your campus?

If you’re ready to build something real—with real stakes and real formation—let’s connect.

The Founding Fifty Mug from The Landing

Quick note—don’t miss your chance to be part of one of the most energizing events of 2026: the Entrepreneurship Symposium for Christian Schools. Whether you’re building an entrepreneurship program or ready to launch one, this gathering will accelerate your impact.

One of my favorite parts of visiting schools across the United States is this: the conversations always end with a great reading recommendation.

I had just finished 10 to 25 when a friend handed me an article from the Winter 2026 issue of Independent School by Rebecca Winthrop and Jenny Anderson.

And together, they landed on the same message:

In the world our students are walking into, achievement is a starting point, not a finish line.

Yeager calls it the Mentor Mindset: the posture that holds high standards and high support at the same time. Not the Protector Mindset (high support, low expectations) and not the Enforcer Mindset (high expectations, low support). Mentor Mindset is the sweet spot where students are challenged and coached.

Winthrop and Anderson describe a parallel shift: from the “Age of Achievement,” where the system trains students to optimize grades and approval, to an “Age of Agency,” where students must learn to set meaningful goals, navigate obstacles, use resources, and (most importantly) ask for help without shame.

That last piece matters more than we like to admit.

When school silently teaches that “smart” means “never needing help,” students don’t just fear failure, they fear exposure. They learn to protect their image instead of pursuing the work.

Agency changes that.

Agency says: I can own a goal. I can take a step. I can learn what I don’t know. I can get support and keep moving.

And that connects directly to Grit—because grit isn’t macho intensity or stubborn willpower. It’s sustained pursuit of a meaningful goal over time, through difficulty, with feedback, with adjustment.

Here’s the part schools can’t miss:

The Age of Agency doesn’t lower expectations. It redefines rigor.

Rigor isn’t only precision and performance. It’s also exploration, iteration, resilience, and recovery. It’s measuring progress—not just perfection. It’s building students who can think, adapt, and act when the script changes.

This is why I keep coming back to the entrepreneurial mindset.

When students practice growth mindset, they build agency. When they build agency, they become grittier. When they become grittier, they learn to redefine failure. And when they learn to redefine failure, they become opportunity seekers: the kind of young adults who don’t just survive change, they create good in the middle of it.

Language creates culture. And when the culture is right, the fruit is abundant.

If your school is ready to build agency on purpose—not by accident—reach out.

New business launch at Santa Fe Christian Schools!

Quick note—don’t miss your chance to be part of one of the most energizing events of 2026: the Entrepreneurship Symposium for Christian Schools. Whether you’re building an entrepreneurship program or ready to launch one, this gathering will accelerate your impact.

One of the biggest misconceptions schools have about entrepreneurship is that launching a student-run business has to be complicated, expensive, or disruptive. It doesn’t.

In fact, when done well, it follows a clear, repeatable pathway—and most schools already have everything they need to get started.

Here’s what it actually looks like.

Step One: Start with a Small, Committed Team
Identify a group of 8–12 juniors and seniors and place them into a year-long entrepreneurship course for the coming school year. This is not a club or an after-school activity. It’s a leadership-level course where students take real ownership, make real decisions, and build something that will outlast them.

Step Two: Equip the Teacher for the Launch
Send the teacher leading the course to Seed Tree Entrepreneurship Training this June. This is where the full plan comes together: curriculum, timelines, launch strategy, operational guardrails, and all the resources needed to guide students from idea to execution with confidence.

Step Three: Build the Mindset Before the Business
During the first semester, students focus on developing the entrepreneurial mindset through hands-on projects using the Seed Tree curriculum. They learn growth mindset, grit, redefining failure, and opportunity seeking; not in theory, but through action. By the end of the semester, students pitch a business grounded in a real problem they are solving for your school community.

Students at Brentwood Academy preparing for their business launch

Quick note—don’t miss your chance to be part of one of the most energizing events of 2026: the Entrepreneurship Symposium for Christian Schools. Whether you’re building an entrepreneurship program or ready to launch one, this gathering will accelerate your impact.

Across the country, Seed Tree schools are preparing students to launch their first viable, student-run businesses on campus.

In Texas, students are rallying around a dirty soda concept. In Arkansas, teams are building an online marketplace. In New Hampshire, students are serving up wood-fired pizzas. In Virginia, they’re launching a meal-prep business for busy families. In Kentucky, students are preparing a mobile market.

And the ever-popular coffee cart—or full-blown coffee shop—continues to take off, popping up in California, Kansas, Texas, and Virginia.

For schools following the Seed Tree approach to entrepreneurship, this is intentional. A student-run business launches in year one.

That early launch matters. It creates a living laboratory where students practice the real-world skills the program is designed to develop. Proactive problem-solving becomes real when an online marketplace breaks. Communication sharpens when students serve actual customers. Collaboration is no longer theoretical when a team is responsible for launching and running a business together.

Most of these ventures will launch between January and February. From there, students spend the remainder of the school year marketing, refining, and operationalizing their businesses. Seniors graduate. Juniors step into leadership roles. Underclassmen grow into responsibility. And the business continues—stronger than before.

Over time, the impact compounds. After three years, a fully developed entrepreneurship program is shaping culture, building confidence, and forming students across the school.

And it all starts the same way: with a single business launched by a small group of students.

Growth is contagious.

Impact lasts.

Let’s go.

The rolling coffee cart about to launch at Berean Academy in Kansas