Startup Academy: WHU’s Student-Led Conference for High Schoolers

WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management is home to several student-led conferences designed to nurture the diverse entrepreneurial interests of the next generation of business leaders. Startup Academy, one such initiative, aims to connect with those potential young talents before they have even graduated high school.

Taking place over the weekend of November 29, 2024, this year’s Startup Academy will welcome over 170 secondary school students, ages 15 – 18, to WHU’s campus in Vallendar. These aspiring young entrepreneurs hail from all over the country—the surrounding Koblenz area, Frankfurt am Main, Cologne, Hamburg, Berlin, and beyond. At WHU, they will have their first experiences networking with like-minded individuals who are just as ambitious as they are.

Participants will go on a campus tour and hear from experienced entrepreneurs, including Celina Goette (Founder of Juniorjob), Dominik Klepek (Founder of Grammario), and Dr. Dennis Zeiler (Venture Capitalist at X-Deck). Also on the roster are several figures integral to the school’s entrepreneurial ecosystem: Max Eckel (Director of the WHU Entrepreneurship Center), Heike Hülpüsch (Director of the Career Center in Vallendar), and Julia Teuber (Associate Director of Marketing and Admissions BSc / MSc Programs), as well as the representatives of WHU’s other student clubs.

Startup Academy reflects the school’s ethos of combining theory with practice, right from the start. As such, the participants will do more than merely listen and learn. They will also work in small groups on a series of real-world case studies provided by Scobees, one of the event’s financial sponsors. During this workshop, they will take on some of the core issues that arise when founding a start-up and taking a business model from conception to reality.

The program is open to all German-speaking high-schoolers, regardless of where they plan to attend university. However, the event does offer participants a unique chance to apply for its Startup Academy Scholarship, which covers a portion of the tuition for any of WHU’s bachelor-level programs.

Click here to learn more about WHU’s Startup Academy.