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meet the cel faculty
SCH Academy's Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership (CEL) faculty members are a multidisciplinary team, bringing expertise from a wide variety of industries. In disciplines such as design and media, engineering and robotics, app development, business and nonprofit management, and more, these experienced educators care deeply about helping each young entrepreneur bring their bold ideas to life.
Read about each of our CEL mentors below and find out why entrepreneurship is so important to our faculty, the PreK-Grade 12 curriculum, and empowering our students to affect a positive change fueled by their passions.
- Ed Glassman
- Peter Randall
- Ellen Fishman
- Vince Day
- Juliet Fajardo
- James Martin
- Paris Gramann
- Ian Kreher
Ed Glassman
Ed Glassman began his career as an innovation and design consultant in Chicago, developing new products and services for Fortune 500 companies. During his time in consulting, Ed also served as Executive Director of The Chicago Innovation Awards, where he developed entrepreneurial programs and educational experiences for Chicago high school students. Ed took his interest in education and entrepreneurship further in 2008, when he partnered with a small team to build Tribeca Flashpoint College; a media arts and design college in the heart of Chicago.
In 2014 Edward moved home to Philadelphia and began his work at Springside Chestnut Hill Academy as the Executive Director of The Sands Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership. He has mentored hundreds of students of all ages as they bring their ideas for products, services, and non-profit organizations to life. Ed holds a masters degree from The University of Pennsylvania in Education Entrepreneurship, and believes that the entrepreneurial mindset—one of reliance, resourcefulness, and innovative problem solving—is a powerful framework for education.
CEL is amazing to me, because we treat our students like true colleagues and partners. We take their ideas seriously, and set them up to pursue that work in real and meaningful ways. We prioritize process over product. The videos you will see on this site are the end result of months, or in some cases, years of work. Along the way they are learning incredibly valuable lessons about resilience, resourcefulness, creativity, and problem solving.
Peter Randall
CHA lifer Peter Randall graduated magna cum laude in Systems Engineering from Princeton University ’73 and Operations Management from the Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania ’74. After a 10-year stint in Corporate America with Xerox Corp and CIGNA, Peter started his first entrepreneurial enterprise, consulting and developing software for the new personal computer market. After 15 years on his own, Peter joined with two colleagues to found NetReach Inc., an Internet development company. While serving on the board of CHA, Peter nominated himself for the role of CHA’s Director of Technology. Peter then created the Engineering & Robotics Department at SCH, becoming its first Chairman. Under his guidance, students have built hundreds of sophisticated projects including robots, drones and even a full sized, 4 passenger airplane. In 2019, the SCH Upper School Robotics Team won the World Championship in the FIRST Robotics Competition from amongst the 7,000 schools participating.
CEL allows students to explore a topic of personal interest with guidance from their faculty advisors. This helps them develop the skills of self-motivation and persistence. They are forced to own their own education as they are both the leader of their project as well as the workforce. The shift from a grade based motivation to do great work to self motivation is a new experience for most of the class.
Ellen Fishman
Dr. Ellen Fishman is Director of Arts and New Media at Springside Chestnut Hill Academy where she founded the New Media Department. Outside the classroom she has led student designed multimedia experiences including a projection on the side of a four story building, an interactive light show and an app designed to accompany a student performance. Her interactive opera, Marie Begins was performed for the Opera America New Works Forum in New York in January, 2018 and will be performed in the Fall.
This opportunity allows students the time to concentrate on something that they identify as being important to them. They then get to wrestle with the day to day struggle of realizing their idea. I believe that this is a great way to learn by doing and going through the process. We have seen students become very empowered by this experience!
Vince Day
Dr. Vincent Day is a learner—a thoughtful educator seeking to encourage students and faculty to explore their educational passions. Over the course of the past twenty years Dr. Day has served a variety of roles at Springside Chestnut Hill academy as a member of the Technology Team, Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership, and New Media Department. Dr. Day currently serves as the Program Director for Computer Science and Interactive Technologies. Meanwhile, Dr. Day is also the founder of VujaDay Creative Digital Agency.
The opportunity to explore passions, areas of interest beyond that of a traditional academic experience.
Juliet Fajardo
Juliet Fajardo teaches Architecture, 3D Modeling and Animation, Graphic Design, and New Media focused CEL courses in the Upper School at SCH Academy. In addition, she is a licensed and practicing architect in Philadelphia with a focus on adaptive reuse, renovation work, and biophilic design in her practice. She has a Master of Architecture and a certificate in Urban Design from the University of Pennsylvania, and worked at KieranTimberlake and BLTa Architects for 12 years before coming to SCH and starting her own practice. Her design exploration work focuses on the intersection of formal geometries and the botanical world. She uses a 3D modeling program called Rhinoceros in conjunction with an algorithmic-based modeling tool called Grasshopper to create parametric objects generated into digital renderings. Juliet lives on East Oak Lane with her husband and two boys, and enjoys yoga, playing the piano, and gardening in her spare moments.
CEL is a special and unique opportunity for students because it combines the skills and talents that the student already has, with something that they care about outside the classroom walls, and spend an entire semester beginning to design and craft a solution for that topic or problem. It is creative problem solving at its best, and in the end, CEL opens the doors to many more opportunities for the student beyond a normal curriculum.
James Martin
James Martin graduated with a bachelor’s degree in physics and music from Colgate University and a graduate degree in mechanical engineering and technology from Drexel University. After spending a number of years playing music up and down the east coast and working in New York City as an audio engineer for a post-production broadcast TV company, James returned to Philadelphia and began teaching at SCH Academy in 2008. Initially, he helped Martin Baumberger update the existing physics curriculum and worked with both Peter Randall and Rob Ervin in the Engineering and Robotics Department. In addition to continuing to teach, James has recently been studying mechanical engineering, technology, education, physics, and computer science in order to continue his pursuit as a lifelong learner. He enjoys the yearly, weekly, and daily challenges that present themselves while building robots, engineering projects, and working with students.
The CEL program allows students to explore and discover passions and interests that are new, exciting, and challenging. It introduces students to collaborative and creative problem solving, with the goal of providing meaningful conclusions for everyone involved, both the student and the audience.
Paris Gramann
Paris Gramann is one of our newest additions to the CEL 10 team. She owns 2 small Social Impact Businesses: Just Be Books LLC (a children's book series for mental health and additional product line) and Empower Creative Agency LLC (a project management company for creative endeavors). Paris loves to create things, empower others, and solve complicated problems in innovative ways. You'll find her doing graphic design, making timelines/goals with students, and scheduling meetings on her calendar.
CEL is such an amazing opportunity for students to get time allotted to a special (and self directed) project of their choosing—especially during such a busy time in their young adulthoods.
Ian Kreher
Ian Kreher has been a teacher at SCH since 2014. Before coming to SCH, he worked as a financial analyst at an insurance company. He has worked with students from both the Middle and Upper school divisions across his teaching career. Ian was initially a math teacher but transitioned into CEL to leverage his experience in business. He is also the faculty mentor of our school’s Investment Club. Outside of teaching, Ian enjoys traveling and hiking with his wife, skiing, and the occasional PC game.
CEL is a way for students to really be in charge of their own education. A school curriculum is generally set by faculty and administrators and says 'students need to know X, Y, and Z by the time they graduate.' CEL flips that idea around and asks students what they think they should know, then connects them with experts and mentors to help them learn and develop the concepts and skills they wish to acquire.