Saying Yes to Student Ownership

What if the most important thing you did this fall wasn’t adding a new class…but trusting students with real responsibility?

That’s where this week’s podcast with Tawanna Rusk, Associate Director at CESA and former Associate Head at Mount Paran Christian, landed for me. We talked entrepreneurship, but underneath it we were really talking formation—grit, creativity, responsibility, and a bias for serving others.

Here’s the heartbeat: Students don’t need another hypothetical. They need a lab.
A place where things can actually go wrong, and then they fix it.

At Mount Paran, that “lab” started as a $5,000 cart with wobbly wheels and a few coffee thermoses. It grew into a storefront—because students owned it. They made mistakes (left the fridge open…replaced product at a premium the next morning), learned fast, and kept going. Teachers shifted from managers to mentors—asking better questions instead of rescuing. 

Real-world, in real time. That’s entrepreneurship in a Christian school: wise risk for the good of others.

And it doesn’t require a moonshot. Tawanna said it perfectly: most innovation is just improving what already exists. Tighten a process. Cross-pollinate classes. Have the broadcast team hype a seasonal drink. Let robotics 3D-print inserts so cups don’t tip on the cart. Now your school is collaborating because it has to—not because a PD slide told it to.

Culture matters. Programs grow where trust lives.

We got into Personal Responsibility Time (PRT)—structured freedom that teaches students to “handle your business.” Freshmen get scaffolds. Upperclassmen get space. And they rise. If you want a thriving student-run business, PRT is rocket fuel. Freedom + accountability = ownership.

Two more things I loved from Tawanna:

1. Mentorship beats management.
   Students don’t want more lectures; they want coaches. Ask the open-ended questions: Who is this for? What problem are we actually solving? What’s the smallest test we can run this week?
   

2. Build generosity in on purpose.
   Their café tithes 10% of profits to student-selected ministries. Mission isn’t a banner on the wall—it’s a line item in the P&L.
   

And a quick word about CESA. If you don’t know the network, you should. It’s a council of schools pushing each other toward excellence without mission drift. Best-practice standards, real accountability, and a community that actually shares what works. That’s the kind of ecosystem where entrepreneurship programs don’t just launch—they last.

If you’re leading a Christian school, here are three challenges for the next 14 days:

1. Give students one meaningful responsibility you’ve been hesitant to hand over.

2. Improve one existing system by 10% (ordering, line flow, POS, morning setup—pick one).

3. Schedule one mentor-style checkpoint where you ask questions instead of solving the problem.

Then watch what happens.

This podcast episode with Tawanna is full of practicals for heads, principals, and teacher-mentors who want entrepreneurship to form character, not just sell coffee.

I’m also forming a CESA working group on entrepreneurship. If you want in, reply with WORKING GROUP and I’ll send details.

Let’s build labs where students grow grit, creativity, and servant leadership—one wise risk at a time.

Let’s go!