Minan Osman
This summer, 24 high school students seized the opportunity to explore entrepreneurship through experience by taking part in the Bossgirls Summer program. In just 5 short weeks, they developed their 5 startups and pitched to professionals, learning the ins and outs of customer discovery, branding, and teamwork. Established in 2017 and powered by the Zahn Innovation Center, Bossgirls is sponsored by the Standard Chartered Foundation whose mission is to tackle inequality and address systemic barriers to employability and entrepreneurship globally. Our tenth cohort was made up of girls representing public and private high schools across New York, New Jersey, and even Mexico!
This iteration revolved around five select futures of innovation, narrowed down from their original ten: AI, civil services, design, entrepreneurship, fashion, finance, food, health, sports, and transportation. From behind these lenses, the cohort explored what the future of each industry might look like and how they can contribute to this proposed shift. Take a look at their startup ideas for their chosen futures below.
- (AI) CognAI - Alicia, Aria, Emily, Maahi, Yutong: At CognAI, youth develop critical habits and adopt responsible AI usage through interactive animated lessons on our website.
- (Design) OOLA Jewelry - Arusha, Isabella, Uma, Arya, Coe: OOLA creates elevated jewelry that functions as a safety tool for young women and girls, allowing them to send out SOS alerts, share their location, and record with ease.
- (Finance) Prime Savings - Adeola, Ria, Jules, Miranda: Prime Savings educates high school and college students on the basics of investing, budgeting and savings through a board game to ensure they make rational financial decisions in the long term.
- (Health) MenstrAide - Ayesha, Angelica, Chelsea, Kaelyn, Emma: MenstrAide provides training and interactive courses to inform coaches about the menstruation cycle to support athletes.
- (Sports) HERgame - Anna, Camila, Lily, Julia, Sara: HERgame creates women-specific knee braces that account for female biomechanics, filling the gap left by sports equipment traditionally designed around male bodies.
The first two weeks were spent defining the problems related to each future and the users affected by them, grounding their ventures in human-centered design. They performed interviews on friends and peers but also district superintendents, industry leaders, and trained physicians to get a better understanding of their pain points. From there, students immersed themselves in their branding and storytelling, determining the exact journey they wanted to take a prospective customer on. They launched into prototyping and the nitty gritty financial details by week four, dedicating hours outside of class time to building a realistic financial model for their startup. Their adventures culminated in a week full of pitch practices where judges provided them with invaluable feedback ahead of the final competition.
Across all five weeks, students heard from many inspiring founders and entrepreneurs through their talks and workshops. From a teen building her own skincare brand, Talia Hecht with Monèt Skincare, to a luxury chocolatier who led a tasting of her unique flavor combinations, Milène Jardine with Milène Jardine Chocolatier, Bossgirls consistently rated founder talks as their favorite activity! They most appreciated how, with each founder that stood before them, they “learned about her personal story.” Even when their official talks ended, students took advantage of being in the presence of an experienced entrepreneur by seeking mentorship (and LinkedIn connections) from speakers.
One founder talk in particular was held outside of City College’s hallowed walls. Heading down into Brooklyn, this cohort took a field trip to Tools & Tiaras, a nonprofit organization founded by Judaline Cassidy to inspire young women and girls to explore careers in the skilled trades and STEAM fields. There, they learned about Cassidy’s journey to founding T&T, their own strength and abilities to pursue trades, and how to properly use an impact drill. This trip was a favorite among the Bossgirls, reflecting fondly on how attending “empowered [them] more as [women] to stay confident and keep putting [themselves] out there despite the circumstances.”
By the time July 30th rolled around, the cohort was itching to show friends, families, and the Standard Chartered judges their well-practiced pitches. Seeing their presentations, one could never have guessed the girls had met only 5 weeks before. Pitch after pitch, the energy in the room was palpable as applause roared following each of the groups. The judges—Caitlin Behrens, Esta Efstathiadis, and Vanessa Gonzalez Ahmed—were left with the near-impossible task of determining only three winners, deliberating well over the allotted time. When the decision was finally announced, we saw the following: first place: OOLA Jewelry; second place: HERgame; and third place: Prime Savings. We could not possibly be prouder of how much all 24 girls have grown as Bossgirls!
The Bossgirls program could not have been made possible without the support of our sponsor, Standard Chartered, along with their mentors. We would also like to acknowledge and thank our “Futures of Innovation” workshop hosts who shed light on the breadth and depth of this topic, founders who shared their experiences, and judges who provided feedback at round robin sessions. We appreciate everyone for making this summer an inspiring experience for our 2026 cohort.
- Guest Presenters: Giulia Donatello, Georgie-Ann Getton, Brenda Jimenez, Amanda Ramos, Uvika Sharma, Christina Torres, Tameka Vasquez, and Shivani Verma
- Founders: Judaline Cassidy | Tools & Tiaras, Mason Enis | Sensaeon, Talia Hecht | Monèt Skincare, Milène Jardine | Milène Jardine Chocolatier, Madina Monowara | Popped Up!, Marwh Nabil | EasyMeets, Jessi Gomez Parral | PlantPulse, and My Anh Phan | Popped Up!
- Industry Mentors: Denise Dixon, Anna-kay Ellis, Georgie-Ann Getton, Mia Manantan, Patricia McLoughlin, Michelle Ng, Malcolm Paul, Shivani Verma, and Khalilah Webster
- Standard Chartered Mentors: Vanessa Gonzalez Ahmed, Malaika Ashcroft, Caitlin Behrens, Scott Edwards, Esta Efstathiadis, Seetha Garikapati, Hari Kumar, Susan Merchant, Tarun Pal, Valerie Pholpituke, Millie Rana, Arup Narain Sinha, and Fernando Kwok Cheung So