Empowering tomorrow’s entrepreneurs at the GDST

How our schools are inspiring the next generation of ambitious businesswomen

Within today’s era of entrepreneurship, the GDST is leading the way in preparing young women to blaze their own trail.

The GDST is transforming thinking around entrepreneurship education for teenage girls through our groundbreaking Leadership Enterprise Advanced Diploma (LEAD) programme, developed in partnership with LSE Generate, the entrepreneurial arm of the London School of Economics (LSE).

This innovative diploma provides Year 12 students with the skills and support needed to develop their entrepreneurial capabilities whilst fostering essential leadership qualities. Students are tasked with setting up an entrepreneurial initiative, conceiving a sustainable product or service, with proceeds going to their chosen charity. This is entrepreneurship with purpose – a philosophy that resonates strongly with today’s socially conscious generation.

LEAD Showcase 

Gathering at the LSE for each LEAD showcase, students pitch their ideas in front of 200 of their peers and judges which, for many, is out of their comfort zones. Previous inspiring ‘Dragon’s Den’ pitches include:

Nottingham High: Pages with Power, an easy-read story to teach young children the importance of sustainability goals through a creative adventure (winner of the annual People’s Choice prize, voted for by the audience); and Sirensense (winner of the ‘Best Teamwork’ prize).

Croydon High: Aid Essentials, care packages for homeless women and children, using funds from fair sales.

South Hampstead High: LDN Lock, a stylish phone tether that attaches to both your phone and wrist to prevent phone snatching.

Brighton Girls: Sonder Spices, selling spice mixes to parents/teachers to raise money and awareness for asylum seekers and refugees in need.

 

Our entrepreneurial alumnae

At GDST, our alumnae network reflects the entrepreneurial spirit that existed even before the LEAD programme started in 2021.

For instance, we welcomed 60 alumnae and staff from across 21 GDST schools for our London ’changemakers’ networking event in summer 2024. Alumnae from over 40 different industries gathered to hear a talk from Portsmouth High School alumna Fleur Emery-Rice (also a keynote speaker at the GDST LEAD launch 2024). Known as ‘start-up royalty’ and award-winning founder of REALWORK, Fleur has devoted her career to empowering women to do their own thing. She highlighted the importance of women gathering, sharing space, and supporting each other – as well as her experience with ADHD during her successful career.

Meanwhile, Camilla (CJ) Bowry, an alumna from Croydon High School, is the founder of the charity Sal’s Shoes, which redistributes footwear to children in need worldwide. In the last decade, they shared over five million pairs of shoes across 61 countries worldwide, including increasingly here in the UK. She was recently awarded an OBE for services to young people, education, and the environment in the King’s New Year’s Honours list.

In addition, Nadia Odunayo, an alumna of South Hampstead High School is a software engineer and developer who created the social media readers’ platform StoryGraph, a highly successful reading tracker and recommendations app, often seen as an alternative to Amazon-backed Goodreads.

“We just have a lot of really cool features. But I think the number one thing, if people are comparing us with Goodreads, is that a lot of people do go: ‘It’s just not owned by Amazon,’” Nadia revealed in a Guardian interview. “I’ve been in the tech industry for a decade now, and it is heavily white male-dominated, but I’ve been lucky with my colleagues and the companies I’ve worked with,” she continued. “I don’t think there’s a limit to how big StoryGraph can get… I want us to be the most popular book app in the world.”

The LEAD programme supports our GDST students to lead the way through courage, compassion and creativity. These students are the changemakers of tomorrow; they learn without limits, so that they can go on to lead lives without limits, ultimately making the world a better place for us all.