Rooted DeepSoaring High

We nurture leadership mindset and skills early—helping young people turn inner strengths and genuine interests into tangible ideas, products, services, and real-world impact.

Self-awareness → strategic action → lasting success in academics, career, and life.

Explore Programs For Partners
Grades 8–12Global teens ready to grow and build
Cohort of 164 teams of 4 students
English-LedBilingual Japanese support available
Full Leadership JourneyEvery summer & winter break
Signature WorkshopHuman-Centered Design Thinking × AI, year-round
TokyoLocal action, global mindset

The full six-module journey

From self-knowledge to real-world contribution.

Offered during summer or winter breaks, the full Roots & Wings experience combines reflection, communication, business fundamentals, innovation, and public demonstration in one connected journey.

01

Leadership in Context

Explore how leadership appears across nature, art, architecture, culture, and real organizations.

Leadership lensesNature & systemsArts & architecturePersonal meaning
02

Emotional Intelligence

Build a deeper understanding of inner strengths, values, triggers, communication patterns, and empathy.

Self-awarenessEmpathyEmotional regulationTeam dynamics
03

Communicating to Lead

Move ideas through story, structured argument, active listening, negotiation, and respectful challenge.

PresentationOxford-style debateNegotiationStorytelling
04

Entrepreneurial Fundamentals

Understand how ideas become viable offerings through customers, value, money, people, and execution.

Marketing basicsFinance basicsHR & teamsOperations
05

Human-Centered Design Thinking × AI

Interview real people, frame a meaningful challenge, ideate, prototype, test, and use AI with human judgment.

Empathy interviewProblem framingAI-assisted ideationPrototype & test
06

Panel & Demo Day

Present the final prototype or offering to a global executive panel and respond to live questions and feedback.

PitchPrototype demoExecutive Q&AReflection
Inner compassStrengths, values, traits, and purpose
Leadership capabilityCommunication, judgment, collaboration, and initiative
Tangible creationA product, service, campaign, or offering prototype
Global feedbackDirect questions and perspective from executives and founders

Signature year-round workshop

Human-Centered Design Thinking × AI

A concentrated experiential workshop offered throughout the year. Students move from empathy interview to problem framing, ideation, AI-assisted prototyping, and a same-day pitch.

It can be delivered directly under Roots & Wings or as a premium co-branded add-on with a school, juku, or education agency.

Grades 8–123–4 hoursEnglish-ledJapanese support availableDirect or co-branded
Explore Partnership Delivery
1
ListenConduct an empathy interview and surface real needs.
2
FrameTurn observations into a focused, human-centered challenge.
3
IdeateGenerate options with AI support—without outsourcing judgment.
4
PrototypeCreate a tangible product, service, campaign, or offering.
5
PitchPresent the concept, answer questions, and improve through feedback.

The promise

Strong roots create the confidence to rise.
Real experience gives young people wings.

R&W helps students understand what is within, mobilize it strategically, and create something meaningful for the world beyond school.

Experiential learning

Less lecturing. More listening, building, testing, and leading.

Real learning happens when students make decisions, encounter friction, and create something that can be questioned, improved, and used.

Diverse teenagers working together
Empathy interview

Listen before solving.

Students learn to uncover needs instead of jumping to assumptions.

Diverse students discussing ideas
Debate & negotiation

Challenge ideas with respect.

Students learn to argue clearly, listen closely, and revise their thinking.

Students prototyping with notes and materials
Design & build

Make thinking visible.

Rough prototypes create something teams can test and improve.

Diverse young people presenting a project
Pitch & feedback

Own the room—and the work.

Students present to a global executive panel, answer difficult questions, and improve through direct feedback.

Angela Shao, Founder and Program Director

From the founder

Built to close the gap between passion and impact.

“Leadership isn’t announced, it’s transmitted — through consistency, attention, and the willingness to actually do the thing, not just discuss it.”

I spent a decade in corporate leadership development, training teams and redesigning organizations inside some of the world’s most demanding technology, AI, and biotech companies. That work taught me a stubborn truth: most people don’t get real leadership training until years into their careers, long after their habits are already set.

Roots & Wings starts that work early. Students don’t just talk about leadership in the abstract — they take an idea they’re genuinely passionate about, use AI as a creative partner rather than a shortcut, and turn it into something real: prototyped, tested, and pitched to people who lead for a living. My role is to bring the same rigor I once brought to executive teams into a room full of teenagers, so passion becomes real-world impact years earlier. Innovation, I’ve come to believe, begins with curiosity, not certainty.

MBA, Hitotsubashi ICS
Leadership study at Yale SOM & Oxford Saïd
IDEO U Design Thinking × AI
Design Thinking Bootcamp, Stanford GSB × d.school

For schools, juku & education agencies

Bring the experience to your students.

Start with the signature Design Thinking × AI Workshop, then expand into a summer or winter break program or a custom partnership.

Discuss a Partnership

FAQ

What language is the program taught in?

The program is taught in English. Bilingual Japanese support is available when students need clarification, reassurance, or help expressing a complex idea.

Who is the program for?

The full intensive is designed for Grades 8–12. Students do not need prior leadership, business, or AI experience.

Is this admissions preparation?

No. Roots & Wings builds the experiences, self-knowledge, and tangible work that later make applications more authentic.

How is AI used?

AI supports research, ideation, testing, and prototype development. Human judgment, ethics, evidence, and team decisions remain central.

Roots & Wings Leadership Lab — Rooted Deep, Soaring High

Start a conversation

Help a young person understand who they are—and what they can create.

Inquire about an intensive, a year-round signature workshop, or a partnership for your student community.

angelas@rootswingslab.com