Portland Gear Academy

Portland Gear Academy takes two students by application from each Portland Public School and gives every team $1,000 to design, produce, market, and sell a product line for their own school. The program runs like a product organization: each day covers a different function, taught by professionals actually working in it, and every student owns a seat on the team. I ran product development and product marketing, owning positioning, content, and the launch campaign. The campaign I built drew over 4,000 likes and 600 comments from students across my school, which carried our team to the win.

It’s the first time I saw creative work and business work as the same job rather than two separate ones. The mentorship from the Portland Gear staff is the reason I majored in business, and it’s why I’ve kept making things since.