At the end of his junior year of high school, Mateo Romero had a lot of ideas.
These were not ideas about who he would ask to a dance or what colleges he should tour; rather, he had a plethora of business ideas.
But he did not know where to begin.
So his mom recommended that he apply for a new program at the Catholic University of America’s Busch School of Business — the summer Startup Venture Challenge.
“When my mom told me about this program, I thought it was a great idea,” Romero told Our Sunday Visitor. “I thought it’d be very helpful for me in learning how to really get started on my own business, and the knowledge would help me going forward.”
The Startup Venture Challenge is a 10-week summer “bootcamp” that provides high school students with the tools and knowledge necessary to launch a business. It’s part of the Busch School’s Catholic Entrepreneurship and Design Experience (CEDE), an initiative that seeks to cultivate Catholic entrepreneurship in teens.
“As a business school, we’re really passionate about teaching students about how business is a force for good,” explained Maureen McNeill, CEDE’s associate director. “We want people to have a good understanding of how business is really a way in which people live out their vocation of serving God and serving neighbor, that it’s not this ‘dirty’ job, right, all about profit.”
Integrating faith and work
During the 10-week program, students work towards launching and running their own business. Some students, McNeill said, enter the program with a concept in mind, or already have a business; others are starting at square one.
“The goal is for every student who participates to actually test their concept in the marketplace and have at least a minimally viable product for their business,” McNeill said. “They might not get their business totally up and running by the end of the summer — although some of them will — but they should at least have a firm foundation.”
That firm foundation includes knowledge of Catholic business principles, which are a focal point for the course. McNeill hopes that students leave with an understanding of how to incorporate one’s faith into one’s work.
“We don’t want students thinking, ‘I go to my job, I do my work, and then on Sunday I go to church,'” McNeill said. “But we want them to realize that my faith is for Sunday and during the week. We want them to have that integrated sense of faith and work.”
Once a week, the students gather for a Zoom session where they are taught various lessons in business practices and strategies. Then they are assigned a “challenge” to complete that week that will help them in launching their business. During the program, each participant is paired with a mentor who meets with them one-on-one to answer specific questions and provide guidance.
In the large group sessions and the one-on-one mentorship sessions, students are encouraged to pray and reflect on various themes such as cultivating virtue.
“When you work at a secular company, you can’t leave behind your integrity, your virtues, how you see the dignity of other people,” McNeill said. “All of that is coming from a proper understanding, and we hope to provide the base for that Catholic perspective.”
Building up the kingdom
While Romero found the practical guidance useful, the Catholic formation he received was his favorite part of the Startup Venture Challenge.
“We ought to keep God and Jesus Christ and our faith at the forefront of our businesses,” Romero said. “Otherwise we turn into the stereotypical businessman who’s greedy, who wants all the money.”
“The program definitely gave me a good perspective on how much I ought to be saving up for myself, how much I ought to be spending on this business, how much I ought to be earning from it,” he said. “It really taught me how to be a young Catholic businessman.”
Ultimately, the program helped Romero to refocus his business efforts and order them to the Lord.
“The Startup Challenge helped me to understand that my business, first and foremost, ought to be something that helps build up the kingdom of God through service and, secondary, provide me with money to then live off,” Romero said.
