Athenavate

Athenavate is an educational startup focused on teaching entrepreneurship and related skills to school students from grades 9-12. It originated from the Kid-Biz bootcamp that was developed from the ideas of Dr. P. Wilson, principal of MCC. 

Okay... let's not sound too formal here. A few months ago, Aarthi Mam asked me to conduct a workshop for school students. It was called the Kid-Biz Entrepreneurship Bootcamp. I agreed at once. After that, I was asked if I would be interested in founding a startup based on this idea. It took me a minute to think through it, but I agreed. This was the only thing I hadn't done during my time as a student, but I was lucky enough to get the chance after I graduated. 

Athenavate is pretty much an entrepreneurship workshop. The first phase is called Athena: Odysseus. It is conducted for 6 days, with each day focusing on a specific milestone.

All these milestones are achieved through gamified teaching. What this means is that students won't end up getting bored by continuous lectures. Instead, they learn by doing. The games teach them what they need to do to start a small-scale startup. Here, the trainer just has to let the students play the game, and then mention why the game is relevant. That will tell the students that the games they are playing have a purpose. 

The hands-on nature of this initiative is our unique selling point. 

I've witnessed firsthand how well this method works. It helps give learners autonomy and ownership of their learning. 

I'm looking forward to how this proceeds.