Eager to design, launch and run schools? Apply to The Circle’s Incubation Program
Mumbai : The Circle’s Incubation is a two-year, full-time, cohort-based program that provides intensive support to prepare entrepreneurs to design, launch, and run reinvented and high-performing school or after-school centres. We onboard a cohort of entrepreneurs, who along with the guidance of coaches and facilitators from across the world – learn what it takes to run high-performing schools.
This incubation offers a unique opportunity for passionate and visionary entrepreneurs to develop and launch high-impact schools that will help transform the education sector in India. Through its dynamic incubation process, The Circle provides guidance, mentorship, funding, and resources to help entrepreneurs bring their ideas to life.
Over the two-year program, they visit high-performing schools like Riverside, Ahmedabad; Avasara Academy, Pune; Bombay International School, Mumbai; Summerhill School and One Degree Academy, UK amongst many others. They meet writers, NGO leaders, and social entrepreneurs, work with coaches and facilitators across India and the world and undergo various workshops across the country to build a shared perspective on what it takes to reimagine education for children in India. They are also exposed to the most innovative design resources and tools such as Design Learning Games and Uncommon Measures which look at assessment and success metrics and get the opportunity to intensively pilot and refine their ideas of schools for the future!
Leading the program and mentoring our cohort are coaches who come from all parts of the world. They’ve led schools, founded school networks, been principals and superintendents of school systems, and developed, built and scaled inclusive programs.
While our coaches are top-notch, our entrepreneurs-in-residence (EIRs) are a diverse mix of 6 women, and 5 men; an art curator, a Harvard grad, a filmmaker, a biomimicry expert, a psychologist, an engineer, a teacher, and more. What binds this cohort is a shared vision and goal to run and sustain a high-performing school or learning centre for children in India.
Applications for The Circle Incubation’s next cohort are now open, and the deadline for submission is April 28. Selected entrepreneurs will be offered a unique opportunity to work with The Circle Incubation’s experienced team of mentors, advisors, and investors, and will receive mentorship, exposure, funding, resources, and support to help turn their ideas into successful schools and after-school programs.
The idea of all that we do at The Circle is to just make good, worthwhile, empowering, and experiential education more and more accessible to all the children of India!”
– Sandeep Rai, CEO and Founder
“I had very limited hands-on experience of running a school. And that is what The Circle gave me- hands-on learning and a framework to do just that. And that made all the difference.”
– Sai, Entrepreneur-in-Residence
“I began this journey trying to answer fundamental questions like- What do we want the kids to graduate with? What does a child coming out of our institute do, say, or believe? The journey so far has been full of excitement, and rigor, and I am sure it will continue to be the same as we figure out the curriculum, model, and layout design of what we are building, and its potential to ensure our kids survive and thrive.”
– Mohammed Shoeb, Entrepreneur-in-Residence