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Building the Next Generation of Female Founders

Building the Next Generation of Female Founders
Building the Next Generation of Female Founders

The Girls Summer Entrepreneurship Program (GSEP) returned to campus June 15-18, with 15 rising juniors and seniors taking part in the program. New this year was the addition of two 2025 participants — A. McMullen ’27 and C. Saponaro ’27 — who returned to serve as student mentors.

Under the leadership of Program Director Michelle Kiehl and Associate Head of School Rob Mather P24, 26, participants spent the week creating and presenting a business plan, gaining exposure to the process for developing product and service concepts, learning financial and marketing basics, and strengthening problem-solving and innovation skills.

In addition to sessions at Dana Hall, the participants visited Harvard Innovation Labs, Saucony headquarters where they met with alumna Alli Sibold ’20, and Babson College’s Weissman Foundry. On the final day, Neeve Prendergast from The Castle Group, a public relations and events firm, visited campus and led students through media training and storytelling exercises.

“Each summer, it is always so exciting to see our students dive into the program with such energy, curiosity and creativity,” Mather said. “Over the course of the week, it is inspiring to see the teams identifying a problem and then taking on the iterative process of designing a business solution to address it. The confidence and care they put into their presentations to the judges at the Dragon's Lair are a testament to the ownership and pride they have in their collaborative work.”

The program culminated in a “Shark Tank”-style pitch presentation, known as the Dragon’s Lair. Working in five teams, the students shared their plans for Drive Guard, Meal Mentor, Sun Safe, Sit Smart and Bloom Board, ideas that ranged from apps that help users identify babysitters and assist with the college process to a device that addresses distracted driving among teens.

In the end, the guest judges — including Babson College alum and entrepreneur Patty Pytlik, as well as Dana Hall alumnae Kelsey Mullaney ’12, Tori Phung Shulman ’05 and Emily Martin Trueblood ’14 — chose Team Safe Sun as the winning pitch. The proposed app would allow individuals to use personalized data in combination with weather information to provide guidance on how to assess sun exposure safely as well as recommend specialized products that would help individuals stay safe in the sun.

Participants visited Harvard Business School and Harvard Innovation Labs where they heard from a panel of four women entrepreneurs.

Saucony's Alli Sibold '20 hosted GSEP participants at the company's headquarters.

At Babson's Weissman Foundry, students worked on prototyping and problem-solving as they refined their ideas.

Neeve Prendergast from The Castle Group met with GSEP participants for pitch and storytelling training.