Our keynote speaker this year was Tina Seelig, the Executive Director of the Stanford Technology Ventures Program, the entrepreneurship center at the university's School of Engineering. Tina teaches courses on creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship in the department of Management Science and Engineering, and within the Institute of Design at Stanford. Tina has also written 15 popular science books and educational games, including her newest book, to be released in Spring 2009, entitled What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20: A Crash Course on Making Your Place in the World. 

 

The GMS Entrepreneurial Program offers all 7th graders the rare opportunity to envision, plan, and manage their own real start-up businesses. Working in teams, these young women spend an academic year writing business plans, manufacturing products, and developing a pitch, which is delivered before a panel of investors in January. On Entrepreneurial Night, our students get the public-speaking opportunity of a lifetime, presenting their product descriptions, customer insights, and profit forecasts before a live Silicon Valley audience of over 400 guests.

 

An initiation into the exciting world of business, our program gives every student the opportunity to be an entrepreneur.  The program requires students to draw upon a wealth of valuable skills learned throughout the GMS curriculum, including creativity, teamwork, critical thinking, problem solving, mathematics, written communication, computer science and public speaking. Through their entrepreneurial experience, these skills are strengthened while new ground is covered; the girls learn a tremendous amount about business, finance, sales, marketing, manufacturing, operations and management.

 

Simply put, the Entrepreneurial Program provides young girls the chance to find their entrepreneurial spirit and ultimately expand their notion of what women can accomplish.