Ember Charter School has an innovative new home for its high school, where a coworking space is used to launch future entrepreneurs.
The school known for taking root in Bedford Stuyvesant has a new high school campus at 295 Front St. in DUMBO. The coworking space is designed to prepare its entrepreneurs, a term coined for the school’s students, for real-world skills they can apply when they enter adulthood, according to school officials.
“I think fundamentally we are committed to approaching the question, how do we best prepare young people for adulthood,” said Ember's founder Rafiq R. Kalam Id-Din II. “And so when you instead ask yourself the question, how do we prepare adolescents for adulthood, the kind of spaces and places you're going to visualize that they need to be exposed to are going to look like this, right? They're going to look like a co-working tech startup Google, like space where it drives collaboration and creation and production.”
The coworking space is separated into four schoolhouses where classes are held. They are named after influential people in Black history like Patrice Lumumba, a Congolese politician and independence leader, and Amiri Baraka, an American writer of poetry, drama, fiction, essays and music criticism.
Classes are standard high school classes with a twist. For example, beyond traditional English periods, entrepreneurs can take classes that align with their interests like Afrofuturist film, where they look at film as a form of literature and formulate essays in response to advanced scenes.
If their schedule permits, entrepreneurs can also convene for special interest clubs like Whiskful Thinking, the school’s baking club, or a cosmetology club where entrepreneurs bond over their shared interest in doing hair, nails and lash extensions.
Entrepreneurs are responding well to the new layout and have experienced many social and emotional benefits to the new structure, school officials said.
Shomar Prinston and Sahana Gadson, who already consider themselves entrepreneurs, appreciate the recognition because it affirms who they already are, they said.
Gadson, an artist, wants to use the skills she learns at Ember to further her career in the art world. Prinston is focused on music production, songwriting and singing.
“In this school, they do things that's like more in the real world,” Prinston said. “Unlike other schools, [where] it's like the work is more like for factory working, this school, it's more like, it's branched out… So like a math equation can have music in it, it just branches out.”
The entrepreneurs say the campus layout also gives them a chance to chat with people they would not otherwise talk to. The coworking space builds their connection with others and makes the bond feel like a family, explained Prinston.
Beyond their individual business aspirations, Ember’s founder hopes each entrepreneur will consider themselves as their first startup enterprise.
“If we think about what entrepreneurs do, what do they do? They create, they fulfill a need,” Rafiq said. “So we want them to look at themselves and say, ‘How can I be a person who's going to create value for my society, for my community, for my family, for my people?’”
