When Jack Dillon-McDonald began his seventh-grade classes at Tree Academy, he immediately knew things were different.
“I just feel like the environment here is very welcoming and open to what you want to try,” the 13-year-old Burbank resident said. “I wake up ready to go to school … I’m excited.”
That excitement has been contagious. The Los Angeles school’s first crop of 36 students began their classes in September and they’re quickly finding that the private, nonprofit school offers a unique perspective on learning and entrepreneurship.
Classes are limited to 10 students
Director Darryl Sollerh, who founded Tree Academy along with Paul Cummins, CEO of the Coalition for Engaged Education and cofounder of the Crossroads School For Arts & Sciences in Santa Monica, explained what makes the place so special.
“It’s based on the experiences we’ve had over the years about the kinds of things that really move students forward,” Sollerh said. “The future of education lies in discovering new ways to teach individuals rather than groups. When you’re teaching 25 to 30 students at a time you’re going to lose some students at the top and some at the bottom. We limit our classes to 10 students because you can’t reach large groups and be effective.”
Student also receive five tutorial hours per week
The school, at 5555 W. Olympic Blvd. in Los Angeles, offers a core curriculum of classes as well as five tutorial hours a week of individual college-preparatory instruction for each student. The curriculum is geared toward high achievers, others who may be feeling disillusioned and uninspired in traditional educational settings and students who are seeking a project-based approach.
College-preparatory classes in English, history, math, science and foreign language are all part of the mix, as well as project-based challenges in design thinking, graphic arts and new trends in science and cutting-edge technologies.
More grade levels will be added
Tree Academy currently serves students in grades 6 through 10, but the school plans to add another grade each year until it becomes a K-12 school with 200 to 300 students. Seventy percent of the students’ families are paying the full yearly tuition of $26,000 and the other 30 percent pay what they can, according to Cummins.
“With 70 percent of our students paying full tuition we have income that’s twice what LAUSD spends per pupil,” he said. “And we have smaller classes, more electives, field trips and outdoor activities.”
Students launch their own startups
Brandon Bernstein, who teaches music and an entrepreneurship class at the school, said two of his students — Dillon-McDonald and Woody Tuttle — have already launched their own startup businesses.
“It’s great for them to learn and find something they are passionate about,” he said. “They also learn that it’s OK to fail. Some students can get a little intimidated when they see others who are launching their businesses faster, but I tell them that’s OK. Everyone has their own pace.”
Students in the entrepreneurship class learn how to make a business plan and executive summary and how to pitch their business idea. Students are also required to find a way to make a social impact with their ventures.
A spicy success story
Dillon-McDonald, who has always loved to cook, recently started his own line of gourmet seasonings — aptly named Treesonings.
“I was always using spices but I got tired of using the same ones, so I thought why don’t I come up with my own mixture?” he said.
When word got out about his Jack’s Organic Savory Blend — packed with 13 different ingredients — one of the school’s board members decided to sample it. She liked it so much she ordered 100 2-ounce jars of the product. Another board member bought 25 jars and a third ordered 15, according to his mother, Julia Dillon.
“He’s sold about 280 jars so far,” she said. “When all of those orders came in it was still just an idea, so he had less than four weeks to create the packaging and labeling. It was stressful.”
It may have been stress-inducing, but that’s the kind of real-world experience the school promotes.
• VIDEO: Jack Dillon-McDonald talks about the line of seasonings he created called Treesonings
His seasoning sales have already generated about $1,000. And in keeping with the school’s philosophy of giving back to the community, Dillon-McDonald is donating 10 percent of his proceeds to Tree Academy.
“He’s also working on another blend that he calls The Howler,” his mother said. “Ten percent of those profits will go to Wolf Connection. That’s a sanctuary for wolves in Acton.”
Ten percent of the proceeds from another sweet blend he plans to create will be donated to a bee sanctuary to help save bees.
An artistic success
Woody Tuttle, 14, an 8th grader at Tree Academy, launched a T-shirt/poster business called Geekie Stash that features his custom artwork. Tuttle said the inspiration for his venture came from art class.
“I saw this picture of these arcade machines and I wanted to have a poster of that for my room, so I redrew it,” he said. “My mom posted the picture on Facebook and we got 40 orders, mostly for T-shirts.”
Tuttle spent about $500 making and shipping the T-shirts but they generated $1,200 in revenue, giving him a profit of $700.
“I have five more designs I’m going to do by March 1,” he said. “This is really exciting because I didn’t expect to make this kind of money selling T-shirts.”
Tuttle plans to donate 10 percent of his profit to an organization that designs video games for disabled users.
A ‘perfect alignment’
Adlai Wertman, an expert on corporate responsibility, nonprofit management and social entrepreneurship at USC, said Tree Academy has tapped into an effective business model.
“I think it’s a fantastic concept,” he said. “Creating schools that target certain parts of the community and particular types of students with different ways that they want to learn or explore is coming around more and more.”
Wertman said the school itself is a social enterprise effort.
“We define social entrepreneurship as three-fold,” he said. “First it has to be a sustainable organization, so you have to charge something. Secondly, it has to create a sustainable change — not just for a short time, but an impact that will last a long time. In this case, that’s education, training and career building. And the third one is that intentions matter. This is a perfect alignment.”
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