Focused on UN sustainability goals, high school students learn to think – and act! – like entrepreneurs

Following an example set by the United Nations, more than 60 high school students considered ambitious ways to improve the planet as they earned free, transferable college credits this summer.

The students, from schools across South Jersey, filled the latest class in the  Think Like an Entrepreneur (TLAE) academy, a three-credit program held this year from June 26-28. The academy is run by the School of Innovation & Entrepreneurship (SIE) in Rowan University’s Rohrer College of Business.

The annual program encourages students to develop entrepreneurial solutions to some of the planet’s thorniest challenges as outlined in the United Nations Sustainable Development goals (UN SDG) including ending hunger and poverty, ensuring quality education and providing clean water and sanitation worldwide.

“Our program this year runs similar to a start-up bootcamp,” said Jessica Vattima, assistant director of the Rowan Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship within the SIE and faculty advisor to the TLAE program. “We’re challenging students to develop a solution in 72 hours.”

Sponsored by the TD Charitable Foundation, the program provides an early taste of college while training students to think critically about the planet’s future and ways they can improve it.

The program divvied students up into 10 groups who worked independently to address critical issues through entrepreneurial techniques.

Business ideas developed during the course include FlareGuard, a monitor/wrist band that, connected with a computer or mobile app, would help improve health and well-being (UN SDG #3).

Jaden Jones, a rising junior at the Atlantic County Institute of Technology, said FlareGuard would help reduce the number of people who become addicted to opiates after taking the drugs for chronic pain.

“It would provide alternate ways to alleviate pain like meditating or performing yoga,” Jones said.

Addison Springer, a rising senior at Kingsway Regional High School, said her group’s idea, “Refresh Delivery,” would address UN SDG #2, which is to eliminate hunger, as well as SDG #12, which encourages responsible consumption and production, by providing unsold groceries to low-income families from bakers and markets.

“It would be a subscription service to provide food that would otherwise be thrown away,” Springer said.

A third project, “Aqua Harvest,” would also address UN SDG #2 by creating hydroponic gardens for fresh fruits and vegetables in food deserts.

Kaylah White, a rising junior at Camden County Technical Schools, said her group focused on hydroponic gardening, in which plants are grown in nutrient-rich water instead of soil, because it can be a viable way to bring wholesome foods to low-income neighborhoods.

“I love to solve problems,” White said. “If I had the money, I’d make sure everyone has enough to eat.”

On its final day, students presented their ideas to a panel of judges. This summer’s winner, Future Works, would create an app connecting job seekers and employers.

In its eight year, TLAE has awarded more than 1,000 free credit hours.