Helping Youth Design their Lives
The Catholic University of America
““Profitable business is losing its place as a force for good. We’re going to help claim it back”
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In collaboration with
CEDE
Catholic Entrepreneurship & Design ExperienceLuke Burgis, the Entrepreneur in Residence at the Catholic University of America’s Busch School of Business came to us with a big, mountain moving idea. To leverage Catholic education, business entrepreneurship training, and experience design, to create a life changing course that helps high school students completely re-design their future. Luke wanted to create a flexible course “that gives youth real knowledge and experience of entrepreneurship that can help them design lives of creativity rather than consumption and use business for the betterment of mankind.”
With our expertise in experience design and community building, Sherwood was uniquely positioned to help Luke and his team make something truly new. We invited their team down to Dallas for a Sherwood Sprint, and came out of that 3 day process with the values that would guide the course, audience profiles, and the core modules of the curriculum sketched out. Over the next 6 months, our teams worked together to produce a curriculum that utilizes technology, experiences, case studies, meditation, and a groundbreaking final project to transform students, not by communicating information, but by instilling a new sense of wonder and hope in them at the deepest level. That project was dubbed “CEDE” or the “Catholic Entrepreneurship & Design Experience.”
We believe that much like life itself, entrepreneurship is an invitation to purpose. Each person is called to an opportunity to create value for themselves through the service of others, in accord with their vocation. That’s why together we crafted this program to teach an entrepreneurial mindset and spirit: how to think like an owner and take responsibility for creating value in any circumstances or state in life. The program that surfaced is creatively flexible. The core curriculum is designed to adapt to almost any setting in the Catholic school system. Whether deployed in a high school semester, after school club, or in a weekly youth group, the framework of Vocational Culture maintains the integrity of the content in any setting.
Through the process, we also created a brand that would wow both high school students, and local entrepreneurs—who’s involvement will be critical—alike.
“We need principled entrepreneurs to build a better world through business. The CEDE Program is designed to create a culture of vocation so that students discover their calling and create a better world through principled entrepreneurship.”
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The Sprint
The Results
The CEDE team used our pitch deck to raise over 1 million in seed funding to get the program launched at 6 partner private schools and home school co-ops across the US. The program has gained international attention for its innovative and experiential approach. Their first round of graduates finished the course in the spring of 2021 and 73% of those who’ve finished have indicated in their exit review that they are interested in attending the Busch School of Business in the fall or joining the Youth Entrepreneur community.
CEDE’s growth as of September 2021
CEDE Facilitators in training: 19
CEDE Certified Facilitators: 16
CEDE Graduates (eligible for CUA Dual Credit): 25
Current CEDE Students (homeschool & traditional high school): 150
Traditional high schools using the CEDE curriculum: 9
Projected Growth for 2023:
100 CEDE Schools (Traditional High Schools & Homeschools)
1500 CEDE Students
“Sherwood Fellows continues to be a trusted and valuable partner for CEDE. The vision and desire to bring Catholic entrepreneurship education to schools across the globe was met with clear strategy and beautiful design that communicates value to decision-makers and moves students along on their journey of discernment and service as practicing Catholics. Sherwood helped us establish the scope and sequence of the course as well as the visual communication through print, web, and multimedia assets. Without their help, CEDE wouldn't be positioned to serve all of our partners and stakeholders. Additionally, when we share the brand standards doc, we regularly hear from our creative partners that it is the best they have ever seen.”
Design
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