Applications Open! Enroll for Summer 2027 at 2026 Tuition Pricing Until Sept 30
Build and pitch a venture in this 3-week entrepreneurship academy for high school students at UT Austin.
Rated 4.4 out of 5 for classroom experience by students who took this course in 2026.
Instructor:
Course Description
What problem would you solve if you had the chance to do something about it? Students begin with needs they notice in their community or the wider world, then explore how entrepreneurs turn ideas into impact. Starting a company is one path. Creating change inside a school, business, nonprofit, or global organization is another.
Working in teams, students use design thinking to generate creative solutions and improve them through conversations with real potential customers. They research their market, build a simple business model, and work through marketing, costs, and pricing. The goal is to move beyond an appealing idea: teams plan and launch a small business by the end of the academy.
A UT Austin professor with real-world experience guides the work, joined by guest entrepreneurs and innovators from Austin’s startup scene. Students pitch to real entrepreneurs, listen to feedback, and strengthen their proposals before delivering a final venture pitch in the academy’s own “Shark Tank” competition. Along the way, they practice sharing decisions, leading a team, responding to setbacks, and explaining why their solution matters.
This three-week full-day academy for high school students takes place at UT Austin in Austin, Texas, and is developed by the university and offered in partnership with Summer Discovery. Residential and commuter options are available. Beyond class, students build friendships, experience campus life, and gain independence alongside clearer direction about what they may want to study or pursue next.
A supplemental course fee of $95 applies.
What Will You Do?
• Identify a real problem worth solving in your community or beyond
• Use design thinking and conversations with potential customers to improve your solution
• Build a simple business model with market research, marketing, costs, and pricing
• Collaborate with your team to plan and launch a small business
• Meet Austin entrepreneurs and innovators, pitch your idea, and apply their feedback
• Craft and deliver a venture pitch in the academy’s own “Shark Tank” competition
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the course, students will be able to:
• Apply an innovator’s mindset, design thinking, and customer feedback to develop and improve a solution
• Collaborate to plan and launch a small business using market research, basic marketing, costs, and pricing
• Present a persuasive venture pitch and demonstrate leadership, resilience, and clear communication through teamwork and revision
Students will leave with a team business launch, a simple business model, and a venture pitch, plus stronger entrepreneurial skills and clearer direction about studying business or applying innovation in another field.
Why Entrepreneurship Skills Matter
An entrepreneurial mindset helps students move from noticing a problem to testing what might improve it. Design thinking gives creativity a process. Conversations with potential customers challenge assumptions, while decisions about costs and prices connect an idea to the practical demands of making it work.
Teamwork makes those lessons personal. Students must listen, contribute, share decisions, and keep moving when feedback calls for a change. Pitching gives them practice explaining a problem and defending a solution clearly. These habits build collaboration, leadership, and resilience that students can use in school projects, community initiatives, and future study across many fields.
Who Should Attend?
This academy is for high school students who have completed 9th, 10th, 11th, or 12th grade and are curious about turning ideas into action. It fits interests in business, design, marketing, social impact, or a problem students would like to solve in their community.
No business background is needed. Students should be ready to try unfamiliar approaches, talk with potential customers, collaborate on a small business, and present their ideas. The academy welcomes aspiring founders as well as students who want to bring creative problem solving, initiative, and leadership to another career or organization.
Why UT Austin?
Austin gives entrepreneurship a setting students can connect with directly. In this academy, they learn from a UT Austin professor with real-world experience and meet guest entrepreneurs and innovators from the city’s startup scene. Pitching to entrepreneurs brings an outside perspective to their work and gives them feedback they can use to strengthen their own venture.
Studying at UT Austin also puts students in a university environment while they explore what interests them about business and innovation. Alongside the academic work, campus life, friendships, and growing independence help make the summer meaningful. Students can discover whether they enjoy finding customer needs, shaping an idea, working with a team, or persuading others to see its potential.
UT Austin Certificate of Completion
After successfully finishing this course, you will be awarded a certification completion for your accomplishment.
*This is a preview, not what you will receive