High school innovators and students with entrepreneurial aspirations have a new chance at a significant scholarship to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s (RPI) Lally School of Management.

Thanks to a new partnership, high school students who have excelled in their completion of Uncharted Learning’s INCubatoredu course and who have been accepted into RPI’s Lally School of Management may be eligible to receive a $100,000 scholarship over four years of undergraduate study. Uncharted Learning is a nonprofit organization offering entrepreneurship and innovation curricula and teacher training in collaboration with high schools around the nation. The INCubatoredu course was designed by entrepreneurs and innovators to foster professional development and experiential learning in education.

“RPI is happy to partner with Uncharted Learning to help along the young innovators and job creators of tomorrow who will drive economies,” said Liad Wagman, Ph.D., dean of the RPI Lally School of Management. “Uncharted Learning’s fantastic programs help foster an entrepreneurial mindset, and when combined with an exceptional RPI education, commercialization training, access to advanced computing, and the incredible infrastructure RPI offers for successful innovation, I have great expectations of these students.” 

INCubatoredu is a full-year course in which students develop their own product or service startup. First, they identify a problem and work toward solutions, and then coaches and mentors guide student teams through the process of idea validation. Students ultimately participate in an investor-oriented pitch event to garner investment funds.

As part of the new partnership, RPI may host events such as pitch competitions for Uncharted Learning students, opportunities to meet and learn from faculty and staff, and tours of the infrastructure for innovation at the RPI campus. RPI faculty, staff, and affiliates may also participate in Uncharted Learning events.

Karl Fruecht, co-founder of Uncharted Learning shared, “We are excited INCubatoredu alumni will have the opportunity to advance their entrepreneurial journeys at RPI. It is a fertile environment for talented minds from multiple disciplines to collaborate and create enterprises that address problems that need solutions. Our world needs this kind of talent and teamwork.”