Finishing its first academic year in June, StartupCorps has given away $3,500 in startup capital to Science Leadership Academy students, says founder Christian Kunkel.

Kunkel, originally from Harrisburg, has always had Philly in his blood, and when he dreamed up the idea for StartupCorps, he knew just where to take it.

“I’ve always been a Philly fan, and I moved to the area with the explicit intent of executing StartupCorps,” Kunkel says. “Historically there have been so many problems in the Philadelphia education system. Now they actually have a lot of innovative things going on, and there is a lot of flexibility to grow the program.”

An entrepreneur himself, Kunkel identified with business-minded youth and found his passion in youth education.

“This support structure of being mentored by experienced entrepreneurs and actually creating real businesses is something that I never had when I was young,” says Kunkel. “I thought that if I could provide this for students, they would benefit so much from it.”

Each StartupCorps student reports once or twice a week for up to two hours to receive lessons from a primary instructor and advice from mentors, all successful entrepreneurs themselves.

The program begins by identifying each student’s strengths and passions, and prompting the students to select an issue in the community that is important to them.

“The key to us is taking the action and starting a real business,” says Kunkel. “Students learn so much more in that process than from simply writing the business plan.”

One student, who felt hip-hop music was becoming bogged down with negative messages, started OX Music, a hip-hop label that promotes peace. The label has already signed 16 artists.

Another had been kicking around ideas for a restaurant with her uncle. She chose to pursue it as her StartupCorps business plan, and you may now know it as Fat Joe’s Lunchbox in South Philly. Seriously, try the cheesesteaks.

With success stories like these, Kunkel has no plans to stop anytime soon, and he hopes to expand StartupCorps to other cities across the nation once he develops a large and self-sustaining network here in Philadelphia.

The program has already staffed 45 mentors and hopes to keep the roster growing. Though, the cause is also receiving financial assistance in some pretty unconventional ways from MyDunkTank founder Blake Jennelle, who is donning a cowboy costume for an entire month to raise over $2,000 for Startup Corps.

If that’s not enough humorous philanthropy for you, you’ll definitely want to check out StartupCorps’ annual fundraiser on August 19 at University of the Arts, where the program will be hosting a MyDunkTank dare on the spot to raise funds.

“If you can donate to a good cause and have something hilarious happen to somebody you know along the way, I think that’s a win-win for everybody,” Kunkel says with a laugh.

Students walk down the hallway in between classes at the Science Leadership Academy.

In partnership with Temple University’s Multimedia Urban Reporting Lab, the university’s capstone journalism class, students Chelsea Leposa and Jared Pass will cover neighborhood technology issues for Technically Philly and Philadelphia Neighborhoods through May.

At the Science Leadership Academy the students are treated like adults, says junior Cody Nichols.

Built in partnership with the School District of Philadelphia and the Franklin Institute, the Science Leadership Academy (SLA) is a new student-oriented, project-based program. Put away your No. 2 pencil at SLA, there are no standardized tests aside from the state required PSSAs.

Students work closely together and with teachers to create a variety of projects. Student projects even contribute to the school’s daily activities. SLA’s help desk, for instance, is one of the largest student projects, says Chris Alfano, tehe school’s system administrator and computer support specialist.

“We have about 12 students who are assigned to come here, and they pretty much take care of all the school’s repair needs,” Alfano says. All 10th and 11th graders at SLA are required to have an internship that meets once a week.

Students conduct original science experiments, build tools for green energy in engineering classes, conduct simulations of historical moments and trade video Spanish lessons with a school in another country, Principal Chris Lehmann says. “There are all kinds of rich, engaging and powerful projects kids are doing.”

SLA’s one-to-one laptop program is one aspect that makes the comprehensive student projects possible. Every SLA freshman receives an Apple MacBook to use throughout his high school career. The only cost to students is an $85 insurance fee.

Providing students with a laptop allows teachers to harness the Internet for assignments and student discussions. “It really changes the playing field,” Alfano says. SLA Web servers also harness open source tools like Moodle, which provides a home base and virtual school for students to interact beyond class time.

SLA's principal Chris Lehmann hands out report cards to students.

Student interaction with teachers is the most important aspect of SLA, in accordance with the school’s mission. In order to preserve the interaction between students and teachers the school must remain small, Lehman says. “We’re a small school by design. We’re not going to get bigger than 500 students.”

There are only 125 spots available for new freshman students next year. According to Lehmann, SLA has already received 2,000 admission applications and conducted 850 interviews for the limited amount of freshman seats.

In order to be admitted to SLA, students must go through an interview process and present a project they’ve created. Interviews are conducted by teachers as well as current students. The school currently has 484 students including its first graduating class of 117 seniors. Many seniors plan on going to college after graduation.

Although he is only a junior, Nichols is looking at colleges like Carnegie Mellon University, Drexel University and the University of Delaware. Nichols, like other SLA students, receives assistance with his college selections from a counselor.

According to SLA’s counselor, Karina Hirschfield, “Colleges in the area and outside the area seem to be excited about the program we have at SLA. Students have received close to $1 million dollars in scholarships, and we’re expecting our students to get well above that.”

SLA has made great strides towards its goal of inquiry-based learning since its inception in September 2006. ts popularity is shown in the attitude of its students.

“SLA is a great school because it brings out the best in everyone,” said Nichols.

Below, a video shot by Technically Philly contributor Jared Pass.