PITCHING TO WIN: KING’S ENTREPRENEURS AIM HIGH BY MUNA AL-ALUL
Najdat AlHalabi ’25, Gyuyeon Kim ’25 and Brandon Winans ’23 pitch their business idea
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n April 13, King’s Academy celebrated the graduation of the first cohort of its students to complete an entrepreneurship program organized under the Tawfiq Fakhouri Chair for Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Leadership. Offered as a semester-long course at King’s Academy during the spring 2023 semester, the entrepreneurship program concluded with a shark tank-like pitch competition at which 21 students divided into six teams presented their business ideas to a panel of judges. The Tawfiq Fakhouri Chair for Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Leadership was established in the 12
BEYOND KING’S
spring of 2021 at King’s Academy by sTF5 Care, a foundation that works with grassroots organizations to deliver evidence-based health and education solutions to Jordanian and Palestinian communities. Thanks to sTF5 Care’s support, and the generous sponsorship of INVESTBANK and Orange Jordan, what started as a single co-curricular course in 2021 has since expanded into a holistic curriculum catering to the entire King’s community. The program offered by the Tawfiq Fakhouri Chair consists of four pillars. The first pillar, the entrepreneurship course, evolved from the co-curricular into an elective course led by King’s Academy alumna Dina Shawar ’10,
currently managing director of Endeavor Jordan. The three remaining pillars include the Entrepreneurial Thinking for Educators Program powered by Endeavor Jordan, to build the entrepreneurial mindset among King’s staff and faculty; the Entrepreneurs Club — a student-led club established to enable students to act on their entrepreneurial ideas and create handson impact; and a series of speaker sessions organized by the club. Welcoming the participants and attendees at the opening of the pitch competition and award ceremony, Head of School Penny Townsend emphasized the importance of entrepreneurial thinking at King’s.