Givers, Doers, & Thinkers—A Podcast on Philanthropy and Civil Society · Jeremy Beer

Jeff Sandefer & fostering a culture of innovation

·45 min·2 clips

Acton Academy learners sign a contract under a picture of the Declaration of Independence.

Jeremy Beer opens the conversation by putting entrepreneurship, philanthropy, and education in the same frame. He introduces Jeff Sandifer as someone who has moved between ideas and institutions. Jeff talks through his education at UT Austin and Harvard, then describes an earlier business life that led into later work in schooling. Beer turns the discussion toward Acton School of Business and Acton Academy. Jeff is careful about the credit line: Laura Sandifer started Acton Academy. He says he was deeply involved and spent 13 years teaching full time in the middle school and Launchpad high school program. Beer asks what gap in the educational landscape called for a new model, and Jeff pushes back on the idea that the school began with a market diagnosis. For him, the story starts at home. Their boys were in Montessori preschool and it was time to think about the next step. He remembers going to see the best teacher he knew at a private middle school in Austin and asking when to move the boys; the answer was, as soon as possible. The conversation then shifts from origin story to scale. Beer notes that Acton Academy has grown to more than 300 locations worldwide. He also points to the many parent entrepreneurs who want to start a school. Jeff treats that demand as evidence that the model meets a real need. The discussion widens again to Children's Business Fairs. Those fairs now number about 1,800 and serve about 50,000 learners. Jeff calls them the most fun thing they do and says they are hard to ruin because the format is naturally engaging. The episode keeps returning to a simple proposition: young people learn by building, family initiative matters, and civil society is made of institutions that people choose to create. Beer keeps the exchange orderly and lets Jeff develop each point without rushing him.

As heard by us

A restrained look at how entrepreneurship, philanthropy, and education meet in civil society.

Jeff Sandifer's talk with Jeremy Beer connects entrepreneurship, philanthropy, and education without turning them into slogans. The strongest material comes when the discussion moves from Sandifer's time at UT Austin and Harvard into the institutions he built, especially the…

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Why you'd press play

If you want a civic conversation that ties entrepreneurship to education and philanthropy, start here.

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