Harvard-Westlake’s leadership and entrepreneurship program is rooted in the belief that leadership is learned through experience, responsibility, and purpose. Students engage in meaningful, real-world work across a wide range of disciplines—academic, artistic, and co-curricular—where they are entrusted with genuine autonomy, decision-making authority, and accountability. Through these experiences, students encounter ambiguity, challenge, and occasional failure, developing resilience, self-awareness, and the confidence to move from learners of leadership to exemplars, mentors, and stewards of the programs and communities they help sustain.
Central to this work is an emphasis on empathy, collaboration, and communication as essential leadership skills. Students learn to listen deeply, consider the impact of their actions on others, and understand the contexts of the communities they seek to serve. Whether launching a venture, improving an existing system, or contributing through creative, journalistic, or service-oriented work, students are guided to align their efforts with real needs and a purpose beyond themselves. Integrated throughout the broader Harvard-Westlake experience and reinforced by alumni examples, the program prepares students to lead with humility, adaptability, and integrity—equipping them to create positive and lasting impact both within the school and beyond.
Through the leadership and entrepreneurship program, students develop the ability to:
- Clarify their sense of purpose by exploring personal values, interests, and motivations
- Navigate ambiguity, risk, and failure with resilience and confidence
- Identify meaningful problems and design solutions grounded in real-world needs
- Lead with empathy, cultural awareness, and ethical responsibility
- Evaluate when for-profit, nonprofit, or existing-system approaches are most effective
- Communicate ideas clearly and mobilize others to create positive change