The NorthStar Narrative
The NorthStar Narrative
Entrepreneurial Mindset: Preparing Students for Real-World Success
NorthStar Academy introduces Entrepreneurship 1, a course focused on building character, resilience, and real-world readiness rather than just teaching business fundamentals. Jen Sullivan brings her passion for student transformation to this innovative program that emphasizes growth mindset, grit, redefining failure, and opportunity seeking.
• Developing essential life skills through entrepreneurship education
• Focusing on character development over mere business content
• Building "anti-fragile" students who can handle challenges
• Embracing "progress over perfection" as a guiding principle
• Creating collaborative learning experiences in an online environment
• Transforming struggling students by giving them vision and purpose
• Integrating biblical worldview with entrepreneurial thinking
• Connecting students with resources, mentors, and real-world applications
• Teaching practical business skills through a four-step process: ideation, creation, launch, and growth
• Preparing students for life beyond high school regardless of career path
Hi, this is Stephanie Shafer and you're listening to the North Star Narrative, a podcast from North Star Academy. I want to thank you for joining us. I hope you're encouraged, challenged and motivated by what you learned today. Enjoy the story.
Stephanie Shafer:Hey everybody, welcome to this week's episode. I'm so glad you are here today for another special one, as we get to introduce one of our newest faculty members who's bringing something bold and fresh to NorthStar. We're launching Entrepreneurship One, which is a course not just about business but about building character, resilience and real-world readiness. It's a lab for life.
Stephanie Shafer:Our guest today just returned from an incredible training with thought leader Stephen Carter, and if you haven't heard his podcast from a few weeks ago, you're going to want to go back and tune in ASAP Stephen Carter and his business, the Seed Tree Group, where she was able to explore how to teach the entrepreneurial mindset, which is the kind of mindset that today's students need to navigate in an uncertain and fast-changing world. So, whether your student dreams of launching a business, solving big problems or just growing in confidence and purpose, this episode will give you a glimpse of what's possible. So thank you so much, jennifer Sullivan, who I now call Jen, for just joining me today and diving into some cool things God is doing in so many schools and how we're going to bring that to North Star now.
Jen Sullivan:Yeah, I am really eager just to share with you my excitement, because I am bubbling up with joy and energy as we start the entrepreneurship program here at Northstar. That's so cool.
Stephanie Shafer:God's already done some amazing things Just how I got to meet Stephen and hear about what's happening in Cincinnati Hills, and so if you listen to that podcast you'll hear about it but how I also got to meet Jen and God just connecting dots. I love how he brings his children together to be a part of what he's doing and we just get to watch and join him in incredible works. So it's just beginning, but we've already seen so much and been able to experience. So I'm so excited for you to come on, not only as a teacher with this new course, but also helping in so many other ways through Northstar and just learning and growing. And I love Jim because she's super life-giving and just super teachable and wants to soak in so much and then give back to people. So Northstar is really blessed to have you jumping in at this time.
Jen Sullivan:Thank you so much.
Stephanie Shafer:Okay, so let's start with some of the basics about this entrepreneurship one and then hopefully to move into how we want to see this program grow. So if a student who's never thought about business before, what are just some basic things that you would start with, what they're going to learn?
Jen Sullivan:Yeah. So one thing that I really like to stress at the beginning of this course is that this is not necessarily a content course. You're not necessarily going to come out of this course saying this is how I write a business plan. These are all the steps of marketing. Like, yes, we will touch on those things, but this entrepreneurship course really, first and foremost, is more of a personal development type course.
Jen Sullivan:We're going to spend a lot of weeks making sure that, as a person, someone who would come through this class, would be equipped to start an entrepreneur endeavor. Yes, but even if they don't want to start a business, if you want to go into nursing or if you want to go into any career or post-education, post-high school education, you're going to be equipped with character qualities to set you up for success. And there's four main ones that we will hit on. And so we're going to talk about growth mindset. We're going to talk about grit. We're going to talk about why redefining failure is so important, and then also we're going to talk about opportunity seeking. And again, if you listen to the list of four, you're going to say, well, everybody needs that, everybody needs to have grit, everybody needs to learn that failure is not just failure doesn't just happen when I don't succeed and so then I give up. We've got to redefine failure. Everybody needs that mindset shift, especially in today's culture.
Stephanie Shafer:Yeah, that's so good, so exciting. So we both were able to attend Stephen Carter's training back in March, where we learned like a bigger overview of what the entrepreneurship program can look like. And then you just returned from a more intensive for teachers that are going to launch it and you've already had one year teaching in a brick and mortar school. Now you're bringing it to Northstar with an online. So, after going to the training, what did you learn? What are you excited about? To continue a second year, but this year to do it online?
Jen Sullivan:Yeah, I think one of the things that I absorbed a little bit more is how all of this plays into not just like a lesson, but how to actually craft and put together learning experiences that are surrounded with skills applications.
Jen Sullivan:And then, through those lessons and activities and skills applications, then we're developing those four attributes that I just mentioned.
Jen Sullivan:So, again, it's not like, okay, I'm going to come up here and I'm going to tell you about research on grit and growth mindset, and now you're going to write a paper for me. I mean, that can be part of it, but we're going to make this very collaborative, very hands-on, and this is where we're going to have to get really creative and I'm going to have to be really intentional about how you put this in the online platform. And so my brain is spinning and I have lots of ideas and I have supports around me that are going to help me make sure that we're doing this well. But it's just so much fun Like we should be getting through a lesson and then the students will look back and say, oh, this was helping me learn how to find opportunities, instead of, on the front end, necessarily saying this is what we're going to learn today. We're going to learn about opportunity seeking and lay it out that way. It's going to be all wrapped up in lessons and activities.
Stephanie Shafer:Yeah, that's exciting. I love your mindset and just how you're going to move forward with these students, and it's something that North Star believes in is teaching students to be lifelong learners the skills they need to succeed and this is just one more step with us moving even more intentionally in that direction. So people might be wondering a little bit about you. You want to share how long you've been a teacher, some of your passions, what you're excited about in education right now.
Jen Sullivan:Yeah, absolutely so. I am a wife and a mom of two kids. I have a 12-year-old and a 10-year-old, so we're starting to enter into those preteen years, which is a lot of fun, and I've been a high school math teacher for 11 years. I've been in a really small Christian school, I've been in a small public school, and then I've been in a small public school, and then I've been in a larger Christian school, and in those areas I had a variety of math roles, so I'm a math teacher by trade. In my first two schools I was the only high school math teacher, so I had the whole math department as my responsibility. So I'm used to seeing things big picture and trying to weave together how what I'm doing today plays into the whole progression of start to finish for math education.
Jen Sullivan:What I've noticed, though, is that, in the last three to five years or so, what's happening in math education is really taking a big shift. When you think about a traditional math class, you probably imagine walking into a classroom where all the desks are in rows and everybody's facing forward. The students take out pencil, paper, calculator, and they're going to take notes of all the examples that the teacher puts up on the board and the teacher is going to explain through the steps and then maybe you'll get a chance to practice an example on your own during that lesson time and then you go home and do homework to practice it and kind of solidify your learning. But what's happening is that today's student has ready access to problems that can be completed for them without them having to work through the steps, whether it's photo math or any other type of AI program that's out there. It's just so different that the answer cannot be the main goal of a math problem, like, did I get the right answer? Instead, this shift is starting to happen now, where we're trying to get students to have better concept understanding of mathematical principles and then they can apply those math principles in a variety of different spaces, which ties in a lot of critical thinking and analyzing, a lot of critical thinking and analyzing, and there are a lot more strategies out there for how to accomplish this in a math classroom.
Jen Sullivan:And so I have been really kind of deep diving into this change that's happening in math education and I've been following and reading a lot of different articles, and that, I think, is what prepared me to be even willing to step into the entrepreneurship program because I have no business background at all. I never took a marketing class in school. That is just not at all what my experiences had me leaning into. But the main ideas in this shift in math education really centered around growth mindset and grit.
Jen Sullivan:As I read about assessments, I started shaping the different ways that I thought about assessments, and in my math classrooms I let my students retake tests and quizzes as many times as they wanted, because I wanted them to say that just because I didn't get it right the first time didn't mean that I should just give up and leave it behind, but instead I need to keep trying and keep trying, which develops grit, which is based on this idea of growth mindset where I can improve if I put in effort and more time. And so then, when I started hearing about this entrepreneurship curriculum and I saw that all of these underlying attributes of entrepreneurship mindset completely are the foundation of what this course is about man, my heart shifted and I got so excited to be able to have an influence and a space to be in these conversations where we're going to talk about growth mindset and grit. But it's not just in my math class, it's about everywhere, in every aspect of life, whether it's sports or instruments or other extracurricular activities, afterschool jobs, I mean whatever. This stuff applies everywhere.
Stephanie Shafer:I love that so cool, yeah, and just that you have found this and are so passionate about it and how it connects with your we'll say first love in math, but then you get to see it.
Jen Sullivan:Yeah, absolutely.
Stephanie Shafer:So fun. All right, you've mentioned that it's not just about ideas, it's about actions. Can you share what students will actually get to do in the class?
Jen Sullivan:Yeah. So I have a lot of ideas about how to get the kids doing action type items. So one of the things that I want to be really intentional about is collaboration. One of the one of the most important skills for the 21st century student is to know how to collaborate. A 21st century student is to know how to collaborate. You know, we're hearing more and more that jobs and employers they don't need an employee to come in and be an expert. They need an employee to come in and be A willing to learn, but then B know how to collaborate and be malleable and teachable. And so collaboration is going to be a huge emphasis on skills. And so, as we're doing different activities in class, these kids are going to get a chance to be bumped out into little groups and they're going to be working on a Word document together. They're going to be FaceTiming and on Teams, calls, zoom calls they're going to be talking face-to-face with one another around a problem.
Jen Sullivan:One thing about the entrepreneurship mindset is that opportunities for entrepreneurship happen in problems. We find a problem and then from there we can work to find a solution, and so when I give these kids a problem, it's around that problem that they're going to be able to discuss ideas and they're going to have to learn that maybe someone else has a better idea than they do. So there's going to be some humility that we're going to have to exercise and listening and being able to adapt and reframe our thinking about a problem. Also, it's really important when we're talking about problems to have empathy, and that's one of the things that really has an opportunity to build in biblical worldview, because, as we are thinking about, how does entrepreneurship apply to us as a Christian?
Jen Sullivan:You know Jesus went out to seek and save the lost. He was a solution giver to our problem of sin, but he also calls us to be servants as well. You know, whatever we do to the least of these, be servants as well. You know, whatever we do to the least of these, we've done to him, and so as we look to step into, you know, potential careers and vocations, we need to have that mindset of the solution that I'm bringing is not just to exalt myself and to earn me a lot of money, but it is about being a servant and serving and helping other peoples by giving them a solution to their problems.
Jen Sullivan:And that again, a collaboration, because I can't do that on my own. We are told in scripture that we are a body of Christ. We are made up of eyes and ears and different parts, just like a human body is, and it's the same way in this class. I want everybody to understand that they bring something special, they are needed, their point of view is important and I want to make sure that we're creating spaces where the kids are learning to show empathy and to listen and collaborate.
Stephanie Shafer:So fun. I want to be part of it. I've talked to some alumni about the course and they're like, oh, I wish this had been there. They want to come back. So one of my dreams is to get the alumni plugged in more and more, so maybe I can get some that are excited about this to jump in with you and help along the way.
Jen Sullivan:Because another thing I really want to do is start to weave in mentorships, because, as our students are spread out across the globe, you know, it's different than in my brick and mortar school where we started a coffee shop and so everybody was in the same space and we were working towards the same goal of opening a coffee shop and having a profitable business on campus. And so having other people come in, you know, in to North Star and be willing to be available for mentorship opportunities and guiding these students along career paths that maybe they're interested in exploring, I mean that's going to be really, really valuable because, again, I don't have all of those experiences and the knowledge base and so when we can pull others in, that can help support our mission of serving these kids as well.
Stephanie Shafer:And giving the students real life. Okay, this is collaboration. We're bringing people in and we're all learning from one another. Absolutely so exciting. So this is just the very tip of something. What I believe is going to be yeah, grow more and more and more. So I'm so excited yeah, just can't say that enough.
Jen Sullivan:I was trying to think about, like what other words can I use besides excited? Like how to source that? Because otherwise I could just stay excited over and, over and over it really is just thrilled sitting on the edge of our seats yes all right.
Stephanie Shafer:You've seen students transform through this kind of learning. Can you tell us a story of, maybe one that surprised even you? Knowing what's going, you know what was coming, a student that really just stood out.
Jen Sullivan:Absolutely. There was a student that I had had and I'd had him in math classes and I knew that he kind of he was a struggler. He struggled in traditional education, he had some learning challenges and dyslexia is was one of his big challenges. And so I kind of again I knew that this kid kind of struggled in school and when we first started the program and we're working through the content and you know again the, the four attributes, the growth mindset and the grit you know we're learning, listening to podcasts, we're reading articles and he just was kind of floundering, he just wasn't doing the work.
Jen Sullivan:One of the big projects that we do really early on in the course is that we make a personal growth plan and so it's intended to be pretty in-depth, where they set a goal for what we've laid out as six different areas of our lives, so like health and our spiritual wellness, finances, education, things like that, and so, um, he just didn't do it, he, he couldn't. He was struggling to set goals for himself, almost like I don't know where I'm going, I don't even know how I want to grow, and he just seemed so stuck, um, and I I remember having his mom in at a parent teacher conference and she was just kind of in tears Like I see my son struggling and I and I don't know how to help him. So, kind of, fast forward, we get through um, we get beyond that assignment. And then we took a day and went to um, an offsite coffee distributor, and we got to tour the building. They gave us training on how to grind the coffee beans and pull espresso shots and make lattes.
Jen Sullivan:It was very hands-on all day and we came back from that and it's like something flipped in this kid where he just got so excited he would come to class and say Mrs Sullivan, I was looking at these different beans online and my dad and I ordered these espresso beans. We're going to try them. Oh, we got this espresso maker and so now we're going to make coffee at home. And then he went back and actually did the missing assignments. He actually started setting goals and he did the missing assignments and it got to be around November, early December. And I remember he walked in one day and he did the missing assignments and it got to be around November, early December. And I remember he walked in one day and he said Mrs Sullivan, I think I want to start a coffee shop. I think this is what I want to do after I graduate high school. And it was so neat that not only did that change and that like life start, like I saw in his face, I saw in the way he was just walking through the halls, but then it was really exciting because I also saw the uptick in his math assignments, Cause I was, I had him in math class also and I saw a difference. He was coming in with his assignments done on time, he was asking me questions, more engaged in class and all I can say is that this kid started having a vision for his future and it happened. And I know that it was because of this program, because his mom told me she emailed me later on, in the second semester semester, and she said this program completely changed my son.
Jen Sullivan:And that's what we want. We want for students not just our academically inclined, you know straight A students to have success. But what about those students that struggle in their core classes and maybe they don't have a vision for what life will look like after high school? Again, college isn't for everybody, and so if we can give kids this idea of looking beyond where they are right now and it can give them like a hope and an energy to fuel what they have to do right now, Because you know, your math class is important, your English class is important and we have to get the most out of those spaces. And sometimes that can be really hard when the kids don't seem to value what's happening there, they don't see like the worth necessarily. And so, if I can point them, point them to say, okay, look to your future and now, how can you use what's right in front of you there now to boost you to where you want to go. Man, that it's again. It's just transformative.
Stephanie Shafer:It is to watch that light bulb go off in a student. Wow, so rewarding, yes, okay. So, as I'm listening and people might be thinking as well, okay, we can't all get in a bus and go to a coffee shop, so what are we going to be doing online, where students have that same type of exposure?
Jen Sullivan:So this is where we're going to have to figure out where are spaces in your community that your kids can plug into, and also, are there spaces within North Star where our kids can plug into? So I think it'd be really cool if we had different kinds of like online vendor shops that our students could come and purchase from. I'm thinking things like t-shirts or stickers. You know anybody that has a cricket. These days you can make a sticker and so where are we going to have spaces where kids can be creating whether it's digitally at home, or maybe they're even going to come up with something that they're creating in their home, and then they're going to have an online platform within Northstar where other students can come and purchase from them?
Jen Sullivan:I had a student in my last school and she had a business making like key chains, like macrame key chains. She did key chains, earrings, and then they had stickers, and I love this idea that what students are already interested in terms of things that they like to do, giving them a space where they can sell it. Now, there's a whole lot to try and sift through to make that happen, and so there are a lot of details that we'll have to iron out. But another space, too, is there's so many things that are um, that are digital skills that people will pay for.
Jen Sullivan:I mean, this morning I was even thinking I need to get a picture for you know this place, you know to update my LinkedIn profile or something I'm like oh I just wish I could like take my picture and that someone would edit it and make it look good, cause I don't know how to do that, but maybe we have students within our North star student body who are really good, um, photo editors and so if we had a space where they could use those skills for North Star, for students, for parents, and help solve that problem for our North Star families community body there, and that's a space where they could be utilizing some of those skills in a business-making type of venture.
Jen Sullivan:Uh, some of those skills in a business making type of venture. But maybe Sarah isn't good with photo editing but maybe Sarah is really good with marketing. So maybe Sarah partners up with Joe and Joe does the photo editing and Sarah does the marketing, and now we've got a collaborative experience happening where we have one venture of photo editing but we have lots of students working together for the different areas of that business.
Stephanie Shafer:Yeah, wow, so cool. And as you're talking, I'm thinking, oh, we could use this area or this area. There's so many ways to get involved. Yes, of North Star, but that's going to be new for me.
Jen Sullivan:So this is where I'm going to really lean in to you guys who have been embedded in Northstar and just the creativity of other people, because again, I recognize that this is a new space for me and so I'm going to have to kind of start thinking big and thinking outside the box. And, honestly, one of the really cool experiences with this is that in our curriculum we have a whole kind of four-step process where students work through like, let's say, they now have their problem, which is their opportunity for their business. We're going to actually walk them through a four-step process for how do we actually take this and lay out a business? The process starts with ideation. So once I find my problem, I'm going to get really creative and really curious about the idea of setting up a business to solve this problem. Then, once we come up with an idea, then we'll talk about how does this actually create into a business? So then we'll have a creation phase and again the students are working through this four-step process before they even edit their first photo.
Jen Sullivan:So, ideation, creation.
Jen Sullivan:Then they launch it and within that launch, uh, what we talk about as a MVP, a minimum viable product we want to have some sort of like prototype, um, this idea of uh, this is my thing that I'm selling, this is my venture that I'm tackling, and we're just going to start doing it, because entrepreneurs are biased for acting.
Jen Sullivan:They just get out there and do that. They don't wait until it's perfect before they start, they just get out there so we launch and then from that launch it's kind of launch, test, fix, launch, again test, fix, test and fix and test and fix. And then from there we also think about how do we grow the business. So the fourth stage is growth, and the students are going to get to bring their creative ideas to the class and it's not going to just be me saying this is what you're going to do, and this is what you're going to do, and this is what you're going to do. They are going to get to bring their ideas to me too, and so that they can have something that they're passionate and excited about, that aligns with their mission, vision, values and skills that they have.
Stephanie Shafer:Hey, so exciting. One thing. When you said perfection, entrepreneurs, don't wait. I thought at Northstar. Sometimes we have a lot of students that are perfectionists and they might spend too much time, which causes them to get behind on certain assignments or courses. So this would be great even for that aspect to learn. Okay, everything doesn't have to be perfect. You get in, you try, you move on. Yeah, that just jumped out at me.
Jen Sullivan:Absolutely, absolutely. One of the phrases that I really cling to, because I call myself a recovering um, a recovering perfectionist Um. But it's so important that in this new mindset that we are valuing progress over perfection. It's it's not just about like getting to the finish line, it is about seeing where I am today and that next week I want to be further towards my goal.
Jen Sullivan:It doesn't mean that I'm not going to make mistakes, because everybody's going to make mistakes in this class. Everyone is going to make a mistake and that's pay. We want those mistakes because it's in those mistakes that we learn how to fix it, we learn how to pivot, we learn that real life lesson of oops. I'm not going to do that again, and not because Mrs Sullivan told me not to, but because I saw the consequence and the result of that action. Yeah, progress over perfection just has to be so much of our mindset because, again, our technology has answers and they have information and they have everything that we need right at our fingertips. So, as a human being, anymore I don't need to be perfect, because my phone can be perfect for me. Essentially, I, as a human, need to be so focused on progress and how can I improve and grow?
Stephanie Shafer:Yeah, so important. Love, love, all the things that students are going to get to learn and experience and progress over perfection is so true. And it doesn't matter how old you are we don't stop failing. We do not stop failing. I probably fail more in my older age.
Jen Sullivan:But let's fail forward. Failing forward means I'm still. It's okay that I still make mistakes, but I'm making mistakes that are different from the ones that I've already made.
Stephanie Shafer:Yeah yeah, so good. All right, so we'll wrap it up with the conference. You just returned from more training from Stephen, so what did you take away that fired you up the most, and how is it going to shape your teaching at Northstar?
Jen Sullivan:Yeah.
Jen Sullivan:So one thing that I thought was really interesting was that, as I was walking through this curriculum again, this training was a deep dive into the curriculum that I had just spent a year teaching, so there wasn't a whole lot of new from it, because I had already trained on it.
Jen Sullivan:I'd already taught it one year and now I'm hearing it again. But what I think was really important was twofold. So one is just kind of a deeper passion for the oh yeah of this curriculum, just a deeper excitement and agreement that this is what education needs. Our education system cannot stay the same as what it's been for the last 10, 15, 20 years. Our world is different, our students are different because of it, and our education needs to meet their needs, so it has to is different. Our students are different because of it, and our education needs to meet their needs, so it has to be different. So I have a ton of just like enthusiasm and like deep agreement for what I'm teaching.
Jen Sullivan:But what was really exciting at this training was that there were over 20 other educators that were here going through this with me, and so now I've got personally, I've got a resource of 20 other educators that are across the nation doing entrepreneurship in their schools and their ideas. I mean, we have a group text thread going on now where we're all just encouraging one another and supporting one another, throwing out ideas, or hey, I'm struggling with this man. I'm so ready to tap into these knowledgeable leaders in other schools, as I'm stepping into a new environment myself, so one of the things that I 100% know is that I don't know everything, and so I want to be really good at utilizing my resources. So I've come away from this with not only a ton more resources from Stephen, and so I have access to all of these tools and documents and checklists and things like that, but I also have access to now all these other educators, and so I'm really, really thankful for that.
Stephanie Shafer:Yeah, and that's so important. I think, as we think about education changing everyone, every school does not have time to do the same thing More sharing, more collaboration, more encouraging one another and helping. And I think at Converge 2025, where I met Stephen, I saw that in educators and it wasn't there the last few years. There is excitement and there is light and encouraging one another and helping one another and staying in contact. Yeah, so I love, love, love that. All right. For any students or parents that might be on the fence about this course, whether or not they should take it, what would you say?
Jen Sullivan:One thing I would say is that, um, adults, jobs, employers they all agree that it seems like right now, students, more so than ever, are. They're labeling them as fragile. We have fragile kids who don't know how to deal with the difficulties of life after the high school bubble, and so I want you to hear that again. This is. This program is not just about pushing out kids that are going to start businesses. This program is about developing students as individuals who are what we are now turning, as anti-fragile Students that can fail and fail forward. They can fail and not break. They can have this idea of growth. They can have the internal fortitude to pursue goals that are long-term goals. They're allowed to see in the future and delay gratification because they're working towards a goal. These are all things that, again, every student needs. Every student needs this, and what we're learning here will apply into every single class, every single job field, to every single class, every single job field, anything that anybody would want to do.
Jen Sullivan:This. I kind of told my students I'm like it's kind of like it's it's not a self-help class, but it's like a personal development class. I mean, think about how a Bible study you, you enter into a Bible study, assuming that you're going to read scripture and grow and develop personally because of your community and because of the learning and the time spent in God's word. This class is like that. It's like Bible study, but we're also going to be talking about business-y elements. But don't get me wrong. Again, there's going to be Bible in this. There's biblical worldviews saturated through this content, but it is about preparing students for what life is like outside of high school.
Stephanie Shafer:Yeah, and one of my biggest things I took away from the training I went to to steward God's kingdom, his resources, not about making money and everything that might go with that, but what you do have at the moment and then what you do gain in the future, how to steward that well and what that looks like and what that means, all right. So I'm excited we're not making a perfect course, a perfect track, a perfect program, like whatever this develops. We're going to be learning together and failing forward and excited about it and just, yeah, trying new things out, celebrating what God's doing, all the students he's bringing, gifted each one, and so walking forward in love, celebration his kingdom purposes here. And I love it because God has given all of our faculty and staff so many students that we get to steward well through discipleship, through giving them these opportunities and skills and loving them, and so, yeah, we're stewarding that together. I'm so glad that you're on board to help with that and be a part of, yeah, this incredible new time, new chapter in North Stars history.
Jen Sullivan:Thank you, it is an honor. It is an honor and a privilege to be starting these classes here for the North Star community. I am just eager to get going. I'm so much just like chomping on the bit, like let's go, like I to, let's get who who's going to be in my class. I want to learn their names, I want to learn what they like to do and let's start. Let's start doing stuff. I'm just so excited.
Stephanie Shafer:Yeah, and so some people might be thinking what I thought it was online, you never saw people. But at Northstar we have opportunities for some of our courses to be live and we call those NSA Live, and so this is one of our NSA Live courses. So your students will be meeting with other students in person and then meeting outside of those already scheduled times, collaborating. So lots of good time to take online course but also mix it up and be with people, and so great, great opportunity coming.
Jen Sullivan:Absolutely. Yeah, I'm really excited as I started to think about how we're going to shape the live class time period versus the other four days of the week when they're doing assignments, and some of those assignments are going to be to get with their group and to have a conversation around this topic. I mean so they are going to be working and communicating and collaborating. We keep saying that word, but it's so important collaborating with their classmates.
Stephanie Shafer:Yeah, and some kids might be. I don't know if I want to talk online or be seen or whatever you know. But don't be scared, because everybody's going to have those feelings and that's just what it's all about. We're doing something new, getting out of our comfort zone, and that's where that growth and the grit and all the things they're going to be built in. So thank you so much for joining me today, super excited to be here.
Jen Sullivan:Thank you, I'm so, so grateful for the opportunity and I cannot wait to see who God brings into these classes.
Stephanie Shafer:Thank you so much for listening today. If you have any questions for our guest or would like information about Northstar, please email us. At podcast at NSA dot school, we love having guests on our show and getting to hear their stories. If you have anyone in mind that you think would be a great guest to feature, please email us and let us know. And don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss out on upcoming stories.