They mean business

For the first two weeks Roby Platt dreaded going to his entrepreneurial studies class. Forced to tell his story and pitch himself to his classmates was more than he could handle.

“I’ve dealt with not fitting in before, it’s made me a sensitive person,” Roby said.

“The initial feedback I got would really upset me. I wanted to drop the class. It felt like I couldn’t do it no matter how hard I tried.”

But soon enough Roby realised that these struggles were part of the learning process in this innovative course. By learning to tell his story and owning it, he discovered a lot about himself and how he responds to others.

Roby’s transformation is at the core of what Entrepreneurial Studies, a subject taught to grade 9-12 students at BSN, is about.  While students are taught to create a business, seek funding through an investor and learn how to launch their business in the market, the focus is on how they can develop the mindset and skills of an entrepreneur to achieve success and fulfillment.

Students are learning to build that entrepreneurial mindset.

They become independent thinkers, speakers, actors in the world. They’re able to look at certain problems and say these are worth solving. And even if I don’t know how to solve them, I know I have the mindset to solve them if I apply myself. That’s the biggest thing coming out of this course.

The course is self-led, you have think for yourself and rely on yourself. It’s like learning how to learn to be unleashed. This whole thing is about taking risks.

By growing their appetite for risk students develop a variety of key skills including communication, critical thinking, creativity, grit and resilience. The difference is the approach taken to learn and hone them.

Ms Hall said parents have been especially appreciative of the outcomes of the course as they feel more involved in their child’s work and life at school.