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Cross-disciplinary collaboration brings student ventures to life through photography, branding and real-world storytelling

What does it take to turn an idea into something real?

In North Shore Country Day’s upper school entrepreneurship class, students spend the year answering that question — brainstorming solutions to real-world problems, researching audiences, building brands and learning how to adapt when ideas don’t go as planned. This spring, a new collaboration with digital photography added another layer to that process, asking students not only to define their vision but also to communicate it visually.

The partnership paired students in Drea Gallaga’s entrepreneurship class with students in Jonathan Gibby’s digital photography class. Entrepreneurship students acted as clients, sharing their business ideas and target audiences, while photography students developed creative briefs and executed photo shoots designed to capture each brand’s identity.

“For my students, it’s about understanding what it’s like to hire somebody to do something for your business and being able to articulate your vision clearly enough that the photographer can translate it into a visual image,” said Drea, director of the Live+Serve Lab and upper school humanities teacher.

The project gave photography students a chance to apply technical and creative skills in a professional-style setting.

“The idea was that students would spend the semester learning different photography techniques, and once they had those skills, I wanted to pair them with actual clients,” Jonathan said. “I wanted them to come up with something creative that suited both their own artistic vision and what the client needed.”

For Nora Pearson ’27, the collaboration became an opportunity to tell the story behind Roots and Grounds, the nonprofit organization she founded as a freshman. The organization addresses social isolation among seniors through free planting workshops and handwritten cards created by volunteers around the world.

“There’s a lack of socialization that many seniors experience in retirement communities,” Nora said. “My organization addresses that through in-person planting workshops.”

Nora said the entrepreneurship class helped her think more strategically about growing the organization.
“It really made me put in the work,” she said. “Ms. Gallaga has us set goals and present our accomplishments, and that really motivates me to get things done.”

Working with photography students also helped her communicate the mission visually.
“They really captured my organization,” Nora said. “I never would have been able to do that myself, and having professional photos is really valuable for my final presentation, social media and website.”

Nora plans to continue developing Roots and Grounds next year through an independent study in social entrepreneurship.

For Drea, the class is about much more than building a successful business idea.

“Success is about self-awareness and pivoting — understanding why your business is doing what it’s doing and making the moves you need to make,” she said. “While the class is externally focused on the business, it’s really about understanding your own growth.”

Read more about entrepreneurship, photography and student innovation in the summer issue of Acorn Magazine.