On Sunday, Apr. 30, industrious local Jewish students and their families came together at Maryland Public Television in Owings Mills for 4Front’s annual “Social Innovation Fellowship Demo Day.”
Established in 2016, 4Front is the Baltimore Jewish Community’s comprehensive teen initiative, managed by the Jewish Community Center of Greater Baltimore and supported by The Associated: Jewish Federation of Baltimore, the Jim Joseph Foundation, the Joseph & Harvey Meyerhoff Family Charitable Funds and other local donors.
A 4Front signature program, the Social Innovation Fellowship is designed to inspire and empower Jewish teens to become agents of change. Taught in partnership with Henrik Scheel, founder and CEO of San Francisco-based Startup Experience Inc., fellows worked on four teams to create social enterprises to tackle community problems and work toward the Jewish precept of tikkun olam, repairing the world.
After several months of hard work, the teen entrepreneurs pitched their business ideas to judges who are top business leaders, educators and entrepreneurs. Each team was allotted 15 minutes to pitch their start-ups and answer questions from judges and audience members.
With this year’s topic of “Teen Health,” fellows developed start-ups on subjects ranging from cooking and nutrition to social wellness. After studying the art of pitching and pitch deck design in recent weeks, the fellows offered proposals showcasing a fully functional website, a ready-to-use app and fully manufactured protein bars.
This year’s winners were Andy Nesterovsky and Max Shein of ClubFindr.
Sunday’s gathering featured speeches from David Speer, executive director of the Maryland/Israel Development Center, and last year’s “Demo Day” winners Isaac Garonzik and Hope Miller, founders of Keeping Baltimore Warm. Keeping Baltimore Warm spreads awareness about homelessness and provides new and gently used blankets to homeless individuals in the Baltimore area.
For information about the Social Innovation Fellowship, visit 4FrontBaltimore.org.
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