HW Venture held a Complain and Conquer event on March 9 after school that gave students the opportunity to voice criticisms of school and create productive solutions to better the community.

“To have a great idea, you first need to have a great problem,” HW Venture adviser Rob Levin said. “If you have a complaint that’s actionable, we can make this place better. More importantly, the idea is to create people who are confident to go out into the world and make it better wherever they go.”

The COM and CON event builds upon HW Venture’s core mission, promoting students to use their innovation to impact the world in a positive way, club member Rachel Seplow ’17 explained.

Entrepreneur Kelly Morrison ’16 led the brainstorm where students suggested working on what they saw as problems at school, such as the few vegan options in the cafeteria, the lack of honors and AP classes in English and history until eleventh grade and the challenges that accompany missing a day of school.

Morrison told students that while complaining is easy to do without a purpose, articulating problems, especially at school, and then trying to effectively address them is the foundation of the entrepreneurial process.

Students broke up into groups after the brainstorm to come up with solutions for the issues that were introduced. They also pitched their ideas to President Rick Commons.

“I hope students really learn to see what is a good problem, what is an achievable one and what is one that will really have an impact,” Nomi Ringach ’17 said.