Scarsdale High School

Creating a Better World Through Innovation

The Scarsdale Schools Education Foundation (SSEF) is proud to offer grants in sponsorship of the Scarsdale Fellowship for Social Entrepreneurs. Following in the footsteps of the District’s Center for Innovation, this program encourages students to develop innovative ways to tackle environmental and societal issues through social entrepreneurship.

In our increasingly complex world, our students will need to develop solutions for many problems of today.  Honoring the District’s motto, Non Sibi, this program will provide students with an opportunity to solve a real-world problem that may exist in the Scarsdale community or beyond.  Our goal is that students will see themselves as agents of positive change, acknowledging that patience, failure, and risk-taking are part of the process.  The SSEF Grant funding is designed to help seed or sustain social entrepreneurship ideas and projects. 

Types of funding can be utilized to:

• SEED a new idea and/or need help building a prototype or proof of concept
• SCALE a new idea or project that you have a prototype and are ready to grow

While the grant program focuses on student entrepreneurship, the program is open to all Scarsdale High School students, regardless of their participation in the AT Entrepreneurship course at the high school. SSEF grants are awarded in the Spring and Fall for students.

To be considered, students will be asked to fill out the application that asks questions about the proposed project (either as an individual or team) and a video pitch of their draft presentation. After submitting an application, student groups will be contacted by the faculty panel to meet and discuss the project.  During this time, the faculty panel will provide feedback to help students revise and prepare for the presentation to the SSEF grant panel.  Students will also need to choose a mentor(s), who will help guide the process and timeline. The program will culminate with students presenting their problems and solutions, competing in pitch sessions, in front of a review panel for feedback and for consideration of additional funding to fund or scale the idea.  Please note that not all students will present right away as we’ll have two presentations times (one in Spring and one in the Fall).

To learn more about the program from the faculty, please join our student information session in early March 

Look for the flyers and announcements for more details!

Please note that you will need to use your Scarsdale Schools Student account to access the slide deck and the application form.

Please contact William Yang at wyang@scarsdaleschools.org if you have any questions.