Who We Are
Believed to be the first of its kind in the nation, the Business Incubator course was started at Barrington High School in the 2013-14 school year. The innovative class is an authentic learning experience that teaches entrepreneurship to high school sophomores through seniors. It is now in more than 100 high schools nationwide. This course is designed to get students excited about becoming true entrepreneurs. Students have the opportunity to create and fully develop their own product or service. Real-world entrepreneurs and business experts serve as coaches and mentors guiding student teams through the process of ideation, market research, and business plan development. Over the course of the year, student teams learn about marketing, accounting, human resources, as well as the legal aspects of running a business to get them geared up for Pitch Week. Pitch Week helps to further fire the entrepreneurial spirit by putting student teams in front of actual investors to pitch their innovative idea and possibly win funding to turn their business plans into reality during the summer and following school year.
"Regardless of what field students eventually decide to pursue after high school, INCubatoredu provides them with the opportunity to develop their communication, problem solving and collaboration skills. These skills are essential in today's workforce." -Hagop Soulakian, BHS Business Incubator Teacher
What We Do
This is an entrepreneurial class that uses college level curriculum to give students a real world learning experience into the life of an entrepreneur through experiential learning, application and discovery. Students are put in teams and start by creating a problem to solve and end by pitching their solution to real investors for funding. Outside of being introduced to the content within the curriculum, students develop much needed work force skills such as:
- Working within a team structure
- Making decisions and solving problems
- Planning, organizing and prioritizing work
- Communicating with people inside and outside their organization
- Obtaining and processing information
The Business Incubator teacher leads the course, along with a team of mentors and coaches who work directly with the students. The mentors and coaches are all community volunteers that provide their time and expertise for the benefit of the students.
