Adam Williams ’14

            On Wednesday, May 15, the Ken Layden Program for Entrepreneurship came to a close. Dan Geib, Owner of South Shore Cable and the St. Edward Board Chair gave the keynote speech. This was followed by a presentation of their business by each group. Per tradition, a scholarship fund was given to the winners of the overall grand prize for best business model. According to Mr. Keehan, Entrepreneurship Teacher at St. Edward, this is the closest the voting has ever been. The winners this year were “Dabble”, a social networking site created by juniors Adam Jones, Nate Grose and Tyler Krebs. The group designed their business to promote what Facebook and Twitter lack, the sharing of news stories. The site connects members with news about their various interests. Dabble will promote news stories based on a user’s interests and connect the user with friends who have similar news interests. The group plans on building their site and launching next fall. The group was awarded a $12,500 scholarship, which they hope to convert to their first investment. The founders of Dabble are participating in a summer program for accelerated entrepreneurship called Lighthouse. When asked about this, co-founder Adam Jones ’14 said “This program will allow us to receive more grants and investments that will grow our business. We hope to have the website coded by this fall.” This Other finalists in the program were “Real Math”, a calculation tool for your smartphone designed by Seniors Sean Cann, Connor King and Gerard Basalla. Other finalists included “Dash and Dine”, an app designed by Frank Dettore Schenkelburg, Alex Middleton, and Anthony Fragapane. Each group of finalists were awarded prizes for their achievements.

            The Ken Layden Program for Entrepreneurship has been a part of St. Edward for the past five years. The program aims to educate its students not only in business, but in leadership and group communication skills, as well. Originally open to only seniors, the program is now open to all members of St. Edward High School. Also, a in-school Entrepreneurship class was created. Taught by Dave Keehan ’90, this semester-long class gave more time for individual based instruction in this field. Talking about the event and class as a whole, Mr. Keehan said, “The distance between our place finishers and honorable mention teams has never been closer, and the distances among the top placers was also extremely close. This is a testament to the great work of the students as well as the mentors, guest instructors and other program volunteers.” With these new additions to the program, the Ken Layden fund will continue to donate thousands of dollars to aspiring entrepreneurs and fostering the spark of creativity within St. Edward High School.