How do we inspire students to use their talents to help others in a society that encourages self-interest? How do we shift their focus from personal recognition to servant leadership? How do we guide our most capable students to excel academically while simultaneously developing their most compassionate selves? These questions have shaped our vision since the doors of The Jewish Leadership Academy (JLA) of Miami first opened in 2023.

Our answer lies in the Service Entrepreneurship Program (SEP)—a cornerstone of our school that empowers students to practice kindness while developing entrepreneurial problem-solving skills. Over the course of seven years, our students will blend field experience with Design Thinking, enabling them to discover their passion for service and innovate solutions to existing societal challenges.

The SEP Journey: A Roadmap to Leadership and Empathy

Through carefully structured experiences, SEP teachers coach students through a transformative journey where they explore the power of generosity, make tangible impacts, and redefine how they see their role in the world. We dedicate two periods a week to regular community service off campus, introspection practices, and learning about existing solutions to current problems. This process culminates with our students either championing these solutions or iterating on a novel solution. Our seven-year roadmap unfolds as follows:

Grade 6: Introduction to significant social challenges. Examples include food scarcity awareness with the Kosher Food Bank of Miami, physical impairments with the Lighthouse for the Blind, and Ji4life, an organization teaching athletes with special needs to perform extreme sports.

Grade 7: Hands-on contributions, such as developing projects for nonprofits. Examples include developing a kosher cookbook for the Kosher Food Bank of Miami, creating an environmental awareness project, or running experiences for other students that simulate life with an impairment.

Grade 8: Immersion in Design Thinking, using a curriculum designed by DTech High School in Silicon Valley, CA, which also trains our educators to become effective Design Thinking instructors.

Grade 9: Training in project management and grant applications through the Lead4Change curriculum, which teaches essential nonprofit skills.

Grade 10: Specialized nonprofit management training with the expertise of our educators and organizational partners, such as The Miami Foundation or Miami Jewish Health.

Grades 11 & 12: Our Juniors and Seniors commit to becoming dedicated volunteers, championing existing solutions, or becoming service entrepreneurs, creating novel approaches to their identified problems.

Each year, students engage in meaningful activities: Sixth-graders lead art activities at the Miami Lighthouse for the Blind, eighth-graders compete in an international Design Thinking competition, and ninth-graders collaborate with residents of the Miami Jewish Home to document life stories. By tenth grade, students gain leadership skills through the Lead4Change curriculum and secure up to $10,000 in funding for service projects. These experiences culminate in eleventh and twelfth-graders becoming dedicated volunteers or service entrepreneurs.

Teaching Kindness: Successes, Challenges, and Unforeseen Outcomes

Does teaching kindness work? We have witnessed planned successes and unexpected outcomes in our first two years of SEP. As a school committed to academic excellence and character development, we dedicate Fridays to skill-building programs in media literacy, Hebrew immersion, and Torah experiential learning, with two periods reserved for SEP.

While we are still early in our implementation, we continuously refine the program based on three key observations:

1. Sustaining Student Motivation: Ensuring long-term engagement is challenging. We have found that field experiences significantly enhance motivation and that teachers’ enthusiasm is pivotal in driving student participation.
2. Curricular Challenges: Our faculty has identified areas requiring refinement. Initially, every student was expected to master Design Thinking, but we have since concentrated this component within the eighth-grade curriculum to enhance effectiveness.
3. Bridging Gaps for Older Students: Since we are a new school and welcome many new students across grades, we have had to compensate those who could not experience our seven-year scope by providing more exposure and projects.

Overcoming Obstacles and Adapting towards Growth

As with any ambitious initiative, we have encountered challenges that have required us to adapt. We envisioned a relatively equal split between fieldwork and classroom instruction in our first year. However, we soon realized that direct engagement with real-world issues was the most effective way to inspire students. We also expanded SEP participation from twelve teachers to the entire staff, fostering a school-wide culture where every educator serves as a coach for student-driven volunteering and projects.

Balancing the broader vision with the practical demands of lesson planning, maintaining partnerships with nonprofits, and helping students grasp the relevance of Design Thinking presented obstacles. However, these challenges became growth opportunities—both for students and faculty. With each iteration, we refine our approach to ensure meaningful learning experiences.

Defining Success Beyond Traditional Metrics

SEP challenges conventional notions of academic success. While traditional classrooms measure achievement through test scores and benchmarks, SEP defines success as the journey toward becoming kinder individuals. Students are encouraged to embrace imperfection—whether in navigating complex social issues, making mistakes, or setting overly ambitious goals. Genuine kindness emerges in the messiness of real-world learning, not in neatly packaged projects.

One meaningful experience stands out: After a two-hour student-led discussion, a humanities teacher was moved to tears as he realized it had reignited his passion for teaching. Students had engaged in the first step of Design Thinking—empathy—openly discussing personal struggles and collaboratively defining problems. Such moments remind us why SEP matters.

Similarly, in another class, a guest asked students about their current projects during a campus tour. The students explained their efforts to develop resources for families with autistic children, expressing frustration over slow progress toward their goal. The guests, visibly emotional, revealed that they were the parents of an autistic child and assured the students that their work had the potential to change lives. These connections reinforce the significance of our goal.

When a group of students visited the Lighthouse for the Blind, they were excited to lead an art activity—until they faced an unexpected dilemma: How do you create art for those who can’t see it? At first, they were bewildered. But after putting themselves in the participants’ shoes, they reimagined the project, shifting the focus from what they can see to what they can feel. The result? A hands-on experience that allowed individuals with visual impairments to “feel” their artwork and for students to feel how they can make an impact, creating a deeply moving and inclusive moment for everyone involved.

In this same group, a student approached me, expressing concern about saying the wrong thing and requesting to switch projects. While his hesitation startled me, a teacher’s earlier doubts about students’ sensitivity made me realize that our growth begins in these vulnerable moments. My role is to help teachers recognize and navigate this learning. Mistakes, awkward comments, and overly ambitious goals—like a group of students attempting to solve world hunger—are all part of the learning process. Genuine kindness often emerges in messy, unfinished, introspective spaces rather than perfectly executed projects. In traditional classrooms, success is measured by meeting benchmarks. In SEP, success lies in the journey toward becoming kinder individuals. Even if a project remains incomplete, the practice of kindness is the ultimate achievement.

Cultivating Warriors for Kindness

A defining feature of SEP is its emphasis on mentorship. One example is Michael Neuman, a competitor on American Ninja Warrior and Million Dollar Mile, who brings athletes with physical challenges to our school every Sunday. These individuals push their limits through extreme sports, inspiring our students to do the same. Each week, sixth graders interview the athletes, simulate aspects of their daily lives, and reflect on their experiences. This hands-on approach offers students a compelling leadership model through generosity and perseverance.

Though SEP has provided meaning and introspection, we have also encountered hurdles. Our initial lack of expertise in Design Thinking made it difficult to teach effectively, and students struggled to grasp its relevance. Finding and nurturing partnerships with organizations demanded considerable effort, often requiring 10-15 hours of relationship-building before any meaningful collaboration. Balancing the broader vision with the demands of weekly lesson planning proved challenging, and maintaining student motivation in the classroom has been an ongoing struggle. However, these obstacles opened up new avenues for growth and learning for students and faculty, prompting key adjustments in our second year.

In our first year, we aimed for every student to master Design Thinking. By our second year, we narrowed this focus, concentrating on Design Thinking with our eighth-grade students. We initially sought an even balance between fieldwork and classroom time. We now recognize fieldwork’s role in increasing student motivation, creating more opportunities for students to be in the field. Another pivotal change from year one to year two was expanding SEP responsibilities from twelve teachers to our entire staff. If this were to be a cornerstone of our school, we recognized the need for every faculty member to be on board. This shift transformed the program and the school, creating a culture where every educator coaches our students and helps them become kinder.

In our first year, we told teachers their role in SEP was to instruct. By the second year, we had shifted that focus and encouraged them to coach our students through their experiences and projects. Their mission now is to guide students in becoming warriors for kindness and help them set ambitious goals for their growth and contribution.

The Path Forward: A Commitment to Kindness as Core Curriculum

Reflecting on our journey, we reaffirm two core values: teaching students to use their talents for the greater good and continuously improving this process. Rabbi Tarfon’s words (Ethics of Our Fathers 2:16) guide us: “We are not expected to complete the work, but neither are we free to abandon it.” SEP demonstrates that growth in kindness is a continuous effort, often emerging from trial, error, and perseverance.

Kindness isn’t an after-school activity—it’s a core subject. At every open house, we make it clear that just as we teach Math, English, and Judaics, we teach empathy, kindness, and leadership. The world doesn’t only need brilliant students; it needs empathic changemakers. By embedding kindness into our curriculum, we are shaping a generation that will not only achieve academically but also leave the world better than they found it.

King David, a formidable warrior and leader, reminds us that “the world is built through kindness” (Psalms 89:3). We are committed to raising warriors for kindness—students who excel in their studies and dedicate themselves to creating a more compassionate world.