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Saints Life

Social Entrepreneurship Summit

Summit Overview

St. Stephen’s and St. Agnes School is hosting an empowering one-day summit on April 5, 2019, for high school students throughout the Washington D.C. Metro Area who are interested in brainstorming, creating, or expanding a social impact business or nonprofit organization. Students who attend the summit will take part in an enriching experience that helps them:

Define their core values and passions for social change;
Develop personalized blueprints for sustainable leadership;
Receive direct mentoring from experienced social entrepreneurs, business coaches, and civic leaders;
Explore tangible strategies and build community networks for translating their social impact vision into sustainable practice.

Session Host & Facilitator

Daniel Meyer is the Founder & CEO of Under A Tree, a nonprofit organization that seeks to reclaim and redefine the meaning of leadership by empowering everyday citizens to lead socially conscious, professionally successful, and personally fulfilling lives. He was the founding CLO and later CEO of Academica Virtual Education, an international network of accredited blended and online schools serving 10,000+ students and most recently served as the COO of The Global Good Fund, empowering social entrepreneurs throughout the world. He is also a former high school teacher, counselor, and principal in South Florida and the Chicagoland area.

Prior to earning a master’s degree in Educational Psychology with a concentration in social and moral development from Harvard University (‘05), Daniel graduated summa cum laude from Washington University in St. Louis (‘02), where he focused on the history of social movements, social impact education, community leadership, and diversity and inclusiveness training.

Summit Kickoff Speakers

Guests of the Student Social Entrepreneurship Summit gather to kick off the day’s workshops, activities, and sessions with words of welcome from our school hosts and the summit emcee. Guests will also engage in the establishment and review of the day’s goals, expectations, and hopes and briefly get to know one another before entering breakout sessions.

Opening Welcome & Remarks:
Kirsten Adams | Head of School, St. Stephen’s and St. Agnes School

Bob Weiman | Associate Head of School, St. Stephen’s and St. Agnes School

Mary Via | Director of Service Learning & External Engagement, St. Stephen's and St. Agnes School

Session Host & Facilitator:

Daniel Meyer | Founder & CEO, Under A Tree

This I Believe: Defining My Core Values

Session Facilitators: Daniel Meyer | Under A Tree

Bernard Joseph, Brian Kane, David Yee | St. Stephen's and St. Agnes School

Session: 1-A

Student Social Entrepreneurs who attend the summit will take part in an interactive discussion about major social and moral problems and points of political conflict. They will be asked to define their core values and assess their level of conviction, ambiguity, or uncertainty about those issues and the extent to which they are willing to adjust their positions based on external influences, practical realities, or personal priorities.

Mentoring in Motion: Learning from Leaders
Session Facilitator: Daniel Meyer | Under A Tree

Session: 3

Volunteer stakeholders—successful social entrepreneurs, community leaders, and nonprofit executives--meet in small breakout groups to listen to the Student Social Entrepreneurs share their ideas and aspirations and provide them with guidance and feedback about achieving those goals.

Empowering Student Social Entrepreneurs: An Educator’s Guide

Session Facilitators: Lauren Jordan | LearnServe International

Mary Via | St. Stephen's and St. Agnes School

Session: 1-B

Faculty and staff members who accompany their Students Social Entrepreneurs to the Summit will have an opportunity to learn about best practice strategies for cultivating a culture of social entrepreneurship at their local schools and how to best support, scaffold, and contribute to the development of their students’ entrepreneurial skills and experiences.

Impact in Action: Taking the First Step
Session Facilitators: Daniel Meyer | Under A Tree

Larissa Giacoman, Candace Gregg | St. Stephen’s and St. Agnes School

Lauren Jordan | LearnServe International

Session: 4-A

This session is designed specifically for students who have not yet started or are in the earliest stages of developing their business or organizational endeavor. It focuses on how Student Social Entrepreneurs can apply some of what they discussed in their mentoring sessions and learned throughout the day to the execution of their personal social impact blueprints. They will specifically learn practical steps for starting a new social impact venture and explore effective strategies for maximizing available resources and cultivating relationships, networks, and partnerships in their communities to amplify their influence.

Creating & Sustaining Impact: Setting an Action Plan
Session Facilitators: Daniel Meyer | Under A Tree
Graham McBride | H-B Woodlawn Secondary Program

Candace Gregg, Erin Hartman, Joe Wenger | St. Stephen's and St. Agnes School

Session: 2

Student social entrepreneurs will build off their earlier identification of core values and create a personalized “Sustainable Impact Blueprint” (an individual social impact leadership development plan). Guests will evaluate their strengths and opportunities, establish clear goals and benchmarks for measuring progress, and discuss strategies for overcoming challenges they will confront. They will share these blueprints and identify “accountability partners” and potential peer partners to help them stay on track in actualizing their social impact objectives.

Impact in Action: Continuing the Journey

Session Facilitators: Mary Ellen McCormick | T.C. Williams High School

Mr. Daniel Meyer | Under A Tree

Mary Ellen McCormick | T.C. Williams High School

Mary Via | St. Stephen’s and St. Agnes School

Session: 4-B

This session is designed specifically for students who have already started developing or are managing a specific social entrepreneurial venture. It focuses on how more experienced Student Social Entrepreneurs can apply some of what they discussed in their mentoring sessions and learned throughout the day to the next-level scaffolding of their ventures, focusing more specifically on; income generation and fundraising, organizational capacity-building and operations scaling, and professional development opportunities for leadership growth and enrichment.