“We are using social entrepreneurship as a vehicle to teach emotional intelligence, self-worth, self-confidence, and self-value. It is the perfect tool to learn those things.” – Sarah Hernholm
If you spent any time in Powder Mountain’s Sky Lodge during recent neighborhood events you undoubtedly came across the groundbreaking hot chocolate concoctions up for grabs. The goal of this messy fun, and the kid-created flavors, goes far beyond spiking blood sugar levels in the building. The friendly frenzy is designed to instill essential lessons of social entrepreneurship.
That’s one small aspect of Sarah Hernholm’s brainchild WIT, (Whatever It Takes), the leadership program behind all the sweetness. Today, in San Diego, Austin, and NYC, WIT takes High School kids through a powerful course in social entrepreneurship that offers 6 units of college credit. In addition, they run weekend Hackathons with CEOs and civic leaders in these cities that empower kids to come up with their own bold solutions to real-world problems, and pitch them in person.
The premise of all this is simple: the earlier kids are taught the basics of business, social entrepreneurship, and leadership, the better off they (and the rest of us) will be. Not surprisingly, this message resonates within our Summit Powder Mountain Community, which is comprised of many who began work as pre-teens.
For Hernholm, there’s immeasurable value in teaching kids how to design and launch ideas, manage and measure progress, grapple with real-world problems, and stand in front of crowds to pitch their solutions. “We are using social entrepreneurship as a vehicle to teach emotional intelligence, self-worth, self-confidence, and self-value. It is the perfect tool to learn those things.”
If you’d like to learn more about her program, or how to support it, I encourage you to check out doingwit.org