CAPS Accelerator

CAPS Accelerator - Another opportunity to differentiate
The Center for Advanced Professional Studies is excited to offer the next big thing in education: a business accelerator for Blue Valley students.  Created in partnership with higher education and the business community, the accelerator features rapid prototyping labs where teams of students, from all CAPS strands, innovate side-by-side with mentors from the professional workforce.  Ideas, prototypes, proof of concepts, marketing and business plans, patent applications, and more will be generated from the CAPS Accelerator.

The CAPS Accelerator is an educational experience that inspires and incubates Blue Valley School District students’ ideas for innovative products, services and businesses.  It combines key technical and entrepreneurial education with support services of comprehensive business planning, legal assistance, technology, mentor relationships and higher education to explore and develop student-generated ideas and projects.  Students participate in a rigorous business and technical curriculum while applying these new skills to the development of their own expressions of innovation.

CAPS Innovate
The CAPS Innovate course is designed for entrepreneurial minded students seeking high-tech resources and multi-talented teams to “Innovate” and “Accelerate” their ideas.  Located in the recently developed CAPS Accelerator, students from varying backgrounds and interests will work together to explore and pursue opportunities such as new product inventions or services while connecting with a support network to act on those opportunities.  Programming is modeled from top innovative labs such as the Babson Venture Accelerator, Harvard Innovation Lab and the MIT Media Lab, offering copyrighted curriculum and certification through our local Kauffman FastTrac® TechVenture™ program.   Students will have the opportunity to work with and be mentored by both local and coastal design firms such as Google, Apple, and IDEO.  Successful launching and growing of start-ups will be provided initial business and legal counsel by our partnering firms.  The CAPS Innovate course concludes with the opportunity to pitch your business plan to a panel of investors in a “Shark Tank” style event.