This year our program featured a very special event for high school students: Find My Spark was a fantastic day for year 9 and 10 students to learn and experience the entrepreneurial skills and mindset.
The event was possible thanks to the support of our Major Partners, NSW Government and UTS, our Program Partners JA Australia, and Partners Origin and AWS. We had a blast!
Murray Hurps, Director of Entrepreneurship for UTS, gave a keynote speech in the opening of the day for an engaged audience of over 300 students
Students from 13 different schools joined us for the unique opportunity of connecting with and learning directly from young entrepreneurs who are already running Australian businesses. Here at Spark we believe that entrepreneurial skills and mindset will be helpful no matter what future career a young person follows, so we welcomed every young and curious mind at the ICC Sydney on October 24.
Students from different areas of Sydney joined us to show their skills and interest in the entrepreneurship world
School teachers brought to the ICC some amazing groups to work on their ideas and solve problems for the community
Children from year 9 and 10 painted the Darling Harbour in bright magenta colours and we totally loved that!
Find My Spark was a day dedicated to developing problem-solving skills, learning how to turn an idea into a startup, exploring entrepreneurial pathways in tertiary education, and inspiring young minds to think big and follow their dreams.
The day was divided in three interactive workshops which allowed students to practice entrepreneurial skills and to explore local businesses, through activities cohosted by Design Thinking facilitators and young entrepreneurs. Students also had the chance to engage with local startups who showcased their technology.
The workshops focussed on empathy, ideation, and prototyping and pitching
The activities were designed to spark an innovation and allowed to boost the students' creativity
Kids learnt how to tell a story in a way that everyone saw things from the perspective of the audience that they were working to help
Find My Spark was designed to teach young students that entrepreneurship skills and mindset can be applied to solve any problems. The incredible day at the ICC had over 300 high school kids learning from facilitators and entrepreneurs through real life case studies. With colourful post-it notes and motivation everywhere, we inspired students to go through the different stages of entrepreneurial design thinking process and come up with new ways of thinking to showcase the endless possibilities of their personal journey.
Students learned to empathise, ideate, prototype and pitch in the sessions. It was amazing to see children from high schools learning to solve the very same problems that local entrepreneurs are solving, and getting their imagination sparked on how to develop socially-responsible businesses.
Entrepreneurs and facilitators helped students to look at problems and challenges in a different way
By engaging directly with young entrepreneurs, children had the chance to create more meaningful solutions that make a valuable contribution
Find My Spark was run by and amazing group of facilitators and entrepreneurs who volunteered to teach children design thinking applied to real-world business case studies
Entrepreneurs from local startups met with groups of students and the day ended up being a two-way learning process
The children were very inspiring to watch and we can’t wait for the time when the great ideas they create arrives. They all exceeded our expectations by far, with their energy, enthusiasm, creativity and smiles. And it was awesome to learn that some of the schools already have great experiential learning programs that teach entrepreneurial and creative skills.
A big thanks from us to all the facilitators, entrepreneurs, teachers and volunteers who made the day a truly success! We are definitely keen to host the event again in 2020, so stay in touch for the announcements list for the next event.
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