Applications Open! Enroll for Summer 2027 at 2026 Tuition Pricing Until Sept 30
Design a sustainable venture around a global challenge in this 2-week program for high school students on Georgetown University’s campus.
One of our most popular courses in 2026, based on enrollment.
Course Description
How can organizations create value while responding to global challenges? Students use the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals as a framework for examining leadership, business, and social impact. Case studies, discussions, guest speakers, and hands-on exercises show how companies and nonprofits connect strategy with needs in communities around the world.
Students study the 17 goals, select issues that matter to them, and translate research into visual communication. An infographic exercise asks them to identify meaningful data and explain why a goal deserves attention. They then examine executive summaries, mission, market context, operations, funding, and the choices leaders make when resources and priorities compete.
The course culminates in a sustainable business or nonprofit plan. Students define the problem, propose a solution, outline implementation, and build five-year financial projections showing revenue, expenses, cash flow, and potential investor returns. Presentations require them to connect impact goals with a practical plan and respond to questions about feasibility and leadership.
This two-week course takes place at Georgetown University. The course is available to residential and commuter students. Beyond class, students connect focused academic work with campus life, growing independence, and clearer direction about what students may want to study or pursue next. The program is developed by Georgetown University and offered in partnership with Summer Discovery.
What Will You Do?
• Connect the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals to business challenges
• Research one global goal and create a data-based infographic
• Analyze how organizations address social and environmental needs
• Draft an executive summary and operating approach
• Build five-year revenue, expense, and cash-flow projections
• Present a sustainable business or nonprofit plan
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the course, students will be able to:
• Explain how selected Sustainable Development Goals relate to organizational strategy
• Develop a practical venture plan with impact and financial considerations
• Present and defend a sustainable business or nonprofit proposal
Students leave with an infographic, a developed venture plan, and experience connecting global purpose with practical leadership decisions.
Why Global Leadership Skills Matter?
Global leadership requires students to connect values with execution. The Sustainable Development Goals provide a common vocabulary for issues such as health, education, inequality, climate, and economic opportunity, while business planning tests whether a proposed response is specific and workable.
Research, data communication, and financial projections help students move beyond broad intentions. They learn to define stakeholders, allocate resources, explain tradeoffs, and measure progress. These skills support leadership in business, nonprofits, government, international affairs, and community organizations. Together, the work reinforces careful reasoning and the ability to revise a conclusion when new evidence changes the picture.
Who Should Attend?
This course is for high school students who have completed 9th, 10th, 11th, or 12th grade and are interested in leadership, global issues, entrepreneurship, sustainability, business, or nonprofit work. It fits students who want to turn concern about a problem into a researched and structured response.
Participants should be ready to discuss complex issues, work with data, collaborate on planning, use basic presentation and spreadsheet tools, and explain financial assumptions. Curiosity about how institutions create change will help students thrive.
Recommended by More Than 4 out of 5 Students
Based on students surveyed in 2026 about Summer Discovery High School programs at Georgetown University campus.
Why Georgetown University?
The Global Leadership course takes place on Georgetown University’s campus in Washington, D.C., where embassies, international organizations, nonprofits, businesses, and public institutions operate within the same city. That proximity gives students a concrete setting for examining how leaders balance competing interests, communicate across differences, and turn broad goals into decisions with real consequences.
Students learn alongside peers with similar interests, navigate a new environment, and gain independence through everyday choices and responsibilities. Time outside class helps them experience the broader rhythm of university life while considering which issues, communities, and possible directions hold their attention. For families, the program offers a combination of substantive academic exploration, personal growth, and clearer insight into whether leadership, policy, international affairs, business, or social impact may deserve deeper study.
After successfully finishing this course, you will be awarded a certification completion for your accomplishment.
*This is a preview, not what you will receive