Spotlight on Transforming a School Culture

In the spring of 2023, Teresa Chambers made the decision to attend the Entrepreneurship Symposium at Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy. Teresa is the head of school at First Baptist Academy in Houston and she was intrigued by the idea of engaging her students with the entrepreneurial mindset.

When she and her team returned from the symposium, they began working with Seed Tree Group to get the program started. Phase one kicked off in the fall of 2023 and involved starting a class with a small group of students that resulted in the launch of a business. Their business, The SWAP Shop (Serving With A Purpose), continued to grow throughout the year as the students worked to reach key goals and milestones.

With phase one completed, Teresa turned her attention to phase two and hosted a professional development day in the fall of 2024 dedicated to teaching the entrepreneurial mindset. I was given the opportunity to spend a day with her teachers and share the engaging principles at the core of the program and explain how the entrepreneurial mindset can be taught at any grade and in any subject.

After the day-long workshop, a team of teachers was selected to form a cohort learning group at the school and begin actively practicing the entrepreneurial mindset in the classroom. Through monthly virtual meetings and idea sharing hosted by Seed Tree Group, this group began implementing activities designed to spark proactive problem-solving and collaboration with their students.

Meanwhile, The SWAP Shop continues to grow with a new group of students who are taking the business to higher and higher levels of transformation. Teresa is now preparing for phase three where she will work with Seed Tree Group on developing a three-year strategic roadmap which kicks off with a parent information session to share all of the exciting growth ahead designed for student impact.

When we decide, as a school, to embrace the entrepreneurial mindset, we set in motion a process of transformation that trickles down to every aspect of our school culture and leads to empowered students, inspired communities, and transformed schools.

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Connect with me to start this powerful process at your school.

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