The Power of Entrepreneurial Cohort Communities

To Supercharge Culture Shift in Your School

Author

Stephen Carter
January 27, 2025

I’m going to dig into a powerful, proven concept that is driving impactful change in schools around the nation: entrepreneurial cohort learning communities.

It works like this: in the first year of engagement, Seed Tree Group works with a school to launch a meaningful entrepreneurship program (complete with a student-run business) designed to engage students, delight parents, and interest donors. This is the building phase and is foundational to future success.

In the second year, the program continues to grow and attract students, but the school makes the key decision to begin to integrate the entrepreneurial mindset approach into other classrooms with the intent to positively impact the school culture at large. This has two key steps to it: first, we engage in professional development where the entire faculty is introduced to the power of the entrepreneurial mindset in K-12 schools. Second, we form a cohort of 5-7 teachers from all grade levels and disciplines to explore how to begin implementing this approach throughout the school.

The cohort meets monthly with Seed Tree Group where we teach key concepts that lead to specific ideas for practice in the classroom. After each session, the group leaves to test these ideas in the form of lesson plans and project-based activities with their students. We then share feedback and results throughout the month and then report on our successes, and failures, in our next meeting.

Out of this, we begin to form the foundation of a strategic roadmap that will be implemented at the start of year three and that will, thanks to the efforts of the cohort learning group, create true impact in the lives of students while also creating meaningful engagement for teachers, parents, and donors.

This isn’t about leaving your school culture to chance–it is about supercharging it with the entrepreneurial mindset and engaging all your stakeholders.

Want to hear more? I dive deeper into this topic (and many others!) in my podcast for schools, “Entrepreneurial Mindset Podcast for Transformative Education.” Listen on any podcast platform and share this link with your fellow educators.

Standing out as a Christian school while staying true to your values is more challenging than ever. At Seed Tree Group, we help schools implement a proven entrepreneurship program that empowers students to take ownership of their education, equipping them with life-ready skills and creating a distinguished school with engaged students, inspired parents, and energized donors.

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Imagine your culture infused with growth mindset, grit, redefining failure, and opportunity seeking. Imagine your team acting and thinking like entrepreneurs.

Stephen Carter