Dana Hall’s Girls Summer Entrepreneurship Program (GSEP) is restarting this summer after being paused due to the Covid-19 pandemic. GSEP, a five day program lasting from June 20th to 24th, provides rising juniors and seniors an introduction to business concepts.

The program goes from 9AM to 4PM each day where students learn how to develop a business plan, create a product concept, learn financial and marketing basics, and strengthen their problem solving and innovation skills. Students will also be visiting the Babson Foundry to learn outside the classroom.

GSEP does not require any prerequisites and students do not have to pursue business for the program to be helpful. According to Michell Kiehl, the program’s new director and Executive Director for Dana Hall School of Music, “This is for more than people who want to study business. This is for everybody who has an idea and who wants to see it through and make something happen and those skills transcend business.”

Students are split into groups at the beginning of GSEP and asked to develop a product or service idea. GSEP does not require outside work, so students will be working during the program to write and improve their business plan based on new knowledge and feedback.

On the fifth day, the groups compete against each other during The Dragon’s Lair–similar to the show Shark Tank–where they pitch their ideas for 10-12 minutes and then answer questions from a panel of judges for 10-15 minutes. The winning team will win a cash prize.

Ms. Kiehl has worked with Nike Inc, Dr. Martens USA, and Reebok International/Adidas Group. In Nike, she focused specifically on global product marketing. “My role in Nike, Dr. Martens, and Reebok is understanding a market and at the same time understanding the global company and the product, and making sure that the product is tailored to the market. And also making sure that the global company understands the market so that they create products that fit the market. I’ve always been a liaison between international countries and the global product engine.” says Ms. Kiehl.

According to Bella Bearman ’24, a participant of GSEP 2023, she is looking forward to “looking into the different avenues of business whether it’s entrepreneurship, business economics, data analytics, and getting a feel for what different areas of business would be like.”