Learning by Doing: How Hands-On Entrepreneurship Prepares Students for What’s Next

“You don’t learn how to swim by reading about water.” For INCubatoredu alum Abigail Goddard, the same idea applies to learning entrepreneurship. Through hands-on entrepreneurship education, she learned business by actually doing it, gaining experience that has helped prepare her for college and her future career.

Entrepreneurship Education Through Real-World Experience

In INCubatoredu, students don’t simply read about starting a business or watch someone else do it. They learn by taking action. Abigail learned how to sell by selling to real people, experiencing rejection and failure, listening to customer feedback, and using what she learned to improve her product.

That real-world experience taught her more than hypothesizing about how customers might respond. It gave her the opportunity to experience the entrepreneurial process firsthand.

Learning From Failure, Feedback, and Iteration

Entrepreneurship gives students a valuable opportunity to discover that failure and rejection are part of the learning process. By gathering feedback from actual customers and iterating based on what she heard, Abigail developed practical skills and experience she can carry into future challenges.

A Head Start for College and Career

Abigail says INCubatoredu helped her feel more prepared for both college and her career. As an incoming freshman at the Wharton School of Business studying entrepreneurship, she sees a direct connection between what she learned through INCubatoredu and what she will study at a more rigorous level in college.

For Abigail, starting entrepreneurship education in high school provided something especially valuable: a head start.