For Linsey Covert, teamwork has always been an integral part of life. And now it’s the foundation of her career and newly launched initiative, Project TEAM.

Project TEAM includes Linsey and leading researchers Dr. Richard Hazler and Dr. JoLynn Carney. The team just graduated from the Ben Franklin TechCelerator Boot Camp for Entrepreneurs, taking home $5,000 as one of two prize winners.

As a high school and college athlete, being part of a team was always part of Linsey’s life. A hip injury in college track and field ended her career as a hurdler, and she realized later, left her without a team.

“A couple months later it really hit me that I had lost my sense of feeling connected and being a part of a team. That was the first time I remember not being part of a team, and to me that was devastating. That was when I realized the value [of teamwork].”

Now a licensed counselor, Linsey did her masters research on adventure-based counseling. “[I realized] there wasn’t anything available on the market as a resource for counselors to be using school-wide to help kids come together as a team and feel that sense of belonging and motivation from being connected. So I began developing what is now known as Project TEAM.”

Project TEAM isn’t your typical school-wide program. It’s a movement that changes culture and empowers students to want to be part of the team.  

“A lot of different approaches have been taken to reduce bullying and school violence, and most of those approaches only focus on one problem—bullying,” said Linsey.

Linsey’s team has found that a comprehensive approach to bullying that focuses on building a team culture is more effective.  

“While anti-bullying or bullying prevention is a piece of Project TEAM, it’s certainly not the whole scope of what we’re trying to do,” Linsey said. “The focus is really to build an understanding of the value of working together.”

As a licensed counselor, Linsey had little experience with business, and was unsure of how to bring her program to the market until she got connected with Ben Franklin Technology Partners in Innovation Park. A contact suggested she reach out to Ben Franklin and, after a meeting, with Don McCandless and John Vidmar, she started working her way through the TechCelerator program.

While Linsey admits that learning about entrepreneurship was exhausting, she credits the TechCelerator as a critical step in the successful launch of Project TEAM.

“Something clicked with me probably about six or seven weeks in, and I was like ‘Wow, there’s something to this. This definitely can fit this model.’ Just learning how to approach the market, learning what the value proposition of Project TEAM was, and understanding how to launch your product was huge for me and for Project TEAM,” she said.

 

Like other successful TechCelerator start-ups, the boot camp program helped position Project TEAM to actually form a company and launch as a business.

Linsey and her team are carefully monitoring the success of their program and populations in which it is most effective. They are working to constantly improve the program, making sure to be strategic and prepare the program for distribution to other schools. Future plans include outreach to schools in the Pittsburgh and State College areas.