A New Type of Connection

I arrived at Windermere Preparatory School as a sophomore and was immediately overwhelmed; all new faces, new part of town, everything at this school was new to me. It was a lot to take in coming from a school with kids who I’d grown up with my entire life. So as my first semester progressed, I was focused on meeting everyone and becoming accustomed to everything new. At the end of this semester, Mr. Gary Conroy held a meeting at my school and told all interested students about entrepreneurship and how they could get started with The Startup Studio.

I immediately became interested and decided to go through taking a course with Mr. Conroy, and it ended up being one of the best things that I did in high school. Because of how The Startup Studio works, I was pushed to do things that I wouldn’t have done on my own. This included reaching out to teachers to learn more about ideas I had, speaking in front of a multitude of people and working with others in new ways. I was introduced to so many new students and aspects of campus that I wouldn’t have experienced so quickly if it weren’t for The Startup Studio.

Consulting in Class

After my first semester with The Startup Studio, I returned and saw the power of Mr. Conroy’s program. I was put in teams and got to work in consulting/solutions work for two real-life companies who actually ended up incorporating our work into their everyday business. I didn’t think I’d be able to make an impact in my local business community while in high school, and I did it with two different companies.

The skills I learned through The Startup Studio have followed me through college, where I’ve been able to attend seminars about startups and talk to others about entrepreneurial related items. The Startup Studio also helped me get into college, where entrepreneurial education is rapidly expanding, with aforementioned consulting also helping to differentiate myself among many kids.

New Horizons

The Startup Studio has helped me expand my horizons, and truly made me a more complete and well-rounded individual through the different tasks and learning processes involved. What I thought initially to be a course that was different than all my schoolwork turned out to be something that has changed my life for the greater in so many aspects, and I’m so glad that I got to be a part of the beginning stages of this company.

By Noah Mitchem, LTS Alumnus