Education Entrepreneurship, M.S.Ed.

Designed for full-time working professionals, this program combines flexibility with an immersive learning experience. Students meet eight times throughout the year—seven times in person and once virtually—with additional online learning opportunities between sessions. This format gives students the option to stay rooted in their home communities, relocate to the U.S. for the year, or even travel between intensive sessions—all while continuing their careers. 

Hotel accommodations are provided for the Summer I and Summer II onsite intensives, making it easy to focus on learning during these multi-day sessions. For Fall and Spring sessions, which typically run from Friday morning through Sunday afternoon, students arrange their own lodging. To make planning simple, Penn GSE offers guidance on preferred hotels and neighborhoods.

Executive-Style Format Schedule: 2025-2026 Cohort

In the culminating capstone project, students identify a new opportunity—either for an existing entity or for the creation of a new venture—and implement the skills they have built in the program to launch their own education program, service, or product. Students build a business case, executing experiments that validate or invalidate key hypotheses governing the opportunity. The capstone culminates with a demo day where students pitch their ventures to a distinguished panel of judges.

The exploratory work for the capstone project begins on day one, with discovery-driven planning, ideation, and pitch practice. The second stage includes design thinking, market research, and rapid validation testing using lean methods. Designing learning environments, building venture financial models, and developing marketing plans are key elements in the third stage. In the final stage, students build integrated businesses cases for their education ventures, including financial models and pitch decks. Throughout the 12-month project, students pitch, test, iterate, pivot, and refine venture ideas through meetings with a team of mentors—including ed tech and school entrepreneurs, education intrapreneurs, business leaders, researchers, practitioners, and investors.

Project Components

At the completion of capstone project, students develop a strong business case for a real-world education solution or innovation that allows them to showcase their entrepreneurial skills and knowledge to potential employers, partners, and investors.

Common Topic Areas

• New school designs and programs
• Ed tech teaching and learning solutions
• Curriculum innovations
• New communities of practice
• Ed products and marketplaces

Sample Capstone Projects

New ventures(*) and existing entities that students strengthened through their programmatic work as both entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs:

• Jolt Education: A browser-extension tool that helps teachers seamlessly integrate a curated library of short, timely educational videos into Google Slides—boosting student engagement and simplifying lesson planning.
• Phunics: An online reading platform featuring 200+ leveled, decodable stories—each focused on a single phonics skill per passage—with interactive audio, quizzes, and teacher tools to help students build fluent, confident reading skills.
• Upsquad: A workforce ecosystem platform that connects employers, candidates, and training providers. It offers tools for personalized communication, training, community building, and job placement—transforming talent into qualified professionals.
• Kindred K-12: Empowers K–12 educators with AI-native, on-demand coaching, research-backed curriculum tools, and collaborative support, making teachers more effective, confident, and less stressed while enriching instruction.
• Motherly Notes: Delivers immersive, research-backed online Chinese language education for K–12 students—teaching over 500 characters a year while fostering fluency, confidence, and cultural connection.
• The Ivy Initiative: Delivers immersive, research-backed online Chinese language education for K–12 students—teaching over 500 characters a year while fostering fluency, confidence, and cultural connection.
• Post Pigeon: Connects K–8 classrooms with National Park Rangers through free, inquiry-driven lessons and video postcards—breaking barriers to outdoor education and inspiring the next generation of stewards.
• Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership: Prepares students to change the world through an entrepreneurial mindset—a mindset of curiosity and courageous creativity.
• Nomad Minds*: Creates experiences which promote dialogue, understanding, and appreciation among globally interconnected local cultures.
• Raise.me: Expands access to higher education, especially among low-income and first generation students, so that every student has a shot at the American Dream.

The Education Entrepreneurship, M.S.Ed. at Penn GSE offers students exclusive opportunities that foster professional growth, expand networks, and accelerate ventures. Through access to premier conferences, specialized mentorship, and hands-on training with emerging technologies, students gain the experiences and skills needed to lead and innovate in the education sector.

Premier Conference Access

Students receive complimentary or discounted admission to leading global convenings,
including the ASU+GSV Summit, the HolonIQ Back to School Summit, and the Reimagine
Education Conference. The program offers professional development workshops prepare students to make the most of these experiences by strengthening communication, networking, and venture positioning skills.

Startups Masterclass Series Launchpad

The Startups Masterclass Series supports students with ventures beyond the idea stage through a close-knit founder community, expert mentorship, and collaborative problem-solving. Additional programming, including office hours, masterclasses, and workshops, helps students refine strategies and scale their impact.

AI Labs Masterclass

The AI Labs Masterclass equips students with practical skills to apply artificial intelligence in their coursework, ventures, and professional practice. Through expert-led sessions, students gain hands-on experience with AI tools and explore real-world applications in education and entrepreneurship.