Pace Academy Launches Social Entrepreneurship Challenge

Pace Academy’s mission is to create prepared, confident citizens of the world. To that end, the school has launched the inaugural Pace Academy Social Entrepreneurship Challenge (PASEC). 

The Challenge, a partnership between City of Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed’s Office  and Pace Academy’s new Social Entrepreneurship Initiative, is an extracurricular activity open to all students in grades nine through 12. It encourages student teams paired with selected mentors to tackle Atlanta’s transportation issues through entrepreneurship and innovation.  

Pace Academy Director of Social Entrepreneurship Tommy Hattori will oversee the Challenge. “We are so excited about the launch of PASEC,” says Hattori. “Our goals are to stimulate and recognize creative thinking and action for solving social problems through enterprise, invest in sustainable change, and promote enterprise development for the quadruple bottom-line: Purpose, People, Planet and Profit. We’re looking forward to seeing what our students come up with.”

Once students groups have been identified, they will be assigned or select a community mentor to guide them throughout the competition, providing insight regarding their proposals and helping them overcome challenges. In November, students will pitch their proposals to a panel of judges and continue work based on this feedback. 

In April 2014, teams will present their final business plans to a panel of judges, which will include prominent members of the business community and the Atlanta City Council. Plans will be judged based on creativity, feasibility and impact. Judges will award a $10,000 first-place prize as seed money to help launch the winner’s social enterprise.

“At Pace, we want to encourage students to think outside the box, take risks and consider the social impact of their actions,” says Head of School Fred Assaf. “Our goal is to build creative thinkers and leaders who want to make the world a better place.”

To introduce the Challenge to students, Pace coordinated a series of assemblies in its Upper School. The first defined social entrepreneurship; the second included a panel discussion with social entrepreneurs; the third brought together three of the city's leading transportation experts to provide insight into the issues Atlanta faces.