During lunch on a recent Wednesday, a few more than ten students involved in the MIT Launch Club met in science classroom 181. Standing around the tables in teams, they discussed business ideas in light-hearted conversation while Upper School science teacher Xiao Zhang made his rounds to speak with each group about how to develop their thoughts into an actual product. Zhang started the club this year at Parker to give students the opportunity to create their own startup.

The MIT Launch program, facilitated by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, provides mentorship to over 500 schools across the country, and teaches students through a six week online course. According to its website, “The aim is to create a real startup – to solve a real need in a differentiated way. The focus is on taking action, learning from results, and making changes to improve chances of success.”

Zhang brought the program to Parker with hopes of expanding on the “Social Entrepreneurship” history elective taught by Annette Lesak, though the course is not a prerequisite, and most members are underclassmen and have not taken it. “It’s an opportunity to learn more about what’s covered in the classroom, and also give students realistic experiences about entrepreneurship,” Zhang said. The whole point of this club is to make it real.”

As the students spend two to three hours per week completing MIT’s online program individually, they’re also generating ideas with their team. “What I think is interesting is that instead of just coming up with a concept for a product, we have to think of an issue people have and solve that with the product,” sophomore Ava Stepan, a member of the club, said. “We were interested in fashion, but we realized there weren’t a ton of problems, so we’re not sure if we’re going to go forward with that.”

Zhang’s job is more than just an advisor. “My job is to prevent teams from going down the wrong path,” Zhang said. “I’m making sure students follow the process of being an entrepreneur instead of going directly into inventing something. First identifying the problem is harder than actually implementing it. ”

“Even though it’s going kind of slow, the brainstorming part really works for finding an issue that we want to work on,” freshman Matthew Garchik said. “You want to make sure you’re not making a solution where there’s not a problem.”

Garchik’s team, which has been looking into ways to deal with date rape, has considered the invention of a straw that changes color when submerged in drinks that have been drugged. Garchick acknowledged that it would be challenging to execute that plan because of the complicated science his team would need to build it.

The goal is for teams to begin developing prototypes by January. By that time, they’ll also have to start researching and connecting with their markets in order to release their products into the real world in future years. Since students will be working on their startup throughout the year, Zhang stressed the importance of teams’ choosing problems that excited them.

“We came together with a shared love of sports,” senior Dhruv Bali said of his team. “Right now, our broad idea is what people do with clothes that they grow out of or don’t wear anymore because people usually just throw them out. We’re thinking of a service that could take in old clothes or give you money for them, and then integrating that with sports because that’s our interest.”

Bali’s group is also exploring redesigning running apparel. “When I have to run, I have to wear these really small shorts that look kind of weird,” senior cross country and track athlete Jack McNabola said. “Our idea is to make the shorts look cooler and more fashionable while keeping the benefits of running in short shorts. We want to make them more appealing because there’s a lack of cool designs for running.”

When teams are further along in establishing their startups, they’ll pitch them to a panel from MIT. If selected as one of the top groups in the country, they will have the opportunity to travel to MIT and present in front of professional entrepreneurs in April.

For Zhang, students learning from their experience is more important than their gaining recognition from MIT. “No one person can launch a company,” Zhang said. “I want them to learn the personal skills needed to work with other entrepreneurs, and to explore their strengths and weaknesses because not everyone will need to have the same skills. I want students to learn how to form a group of people, stay connected and focused, and launch.”