Class of 2024 Graduate Establishes New Entrepreneurship Scholarship for Tilton
Ben Boucher ’24 received his diploma this spring, but the future of his Legacy Project is only beginning to take shape. Last year’s Student Assembly President, Boucher filled his schedule with student government duties, AP courses, and a full varsity hockey schedule, among other things. While all that was happening during his daily routine, the recent graduate couldn’t help but find spare time for another passion: entrepreneurship.
“I started my first business when I was going into my first year at Tilton,” says Boucher, who will attend Bentley University in the fall. “I learned how to detail cars on YouTube and started, at first, doing it for my friends and family.”
He spent two years running this business during the summers while home from school. While he had worked traditional high school-age jobs in the past — camp counselor, for example — Boucher realized that if he could develop the skills on his own, he might be able to earn more money without the 9:00 to 5:00 commitment. This sparked his curiosity and carried into his time at Tilton.
While Tilton offers an Introduction to Entrepreneurship class, Boucher notes that his packed schedule made it hard for him to fit this elective into his course selections. He also notes that this didn’t stop him from being able to pursue his interests. With the support of the Head of School and the Business Office, Boucher found time outside his daily commitments to start the School Store Design Club, aimed at examining and revitalizing Tilton’s online and retail stores. Eventually, he oversaw a group of 25 students who created designs for limited merchandise runs.
When it came time for Boucher to design his Legacy Project, the lightbulb went off. Over the course of his senior year, he designed and pitched a brand-new Entrepreneurship Scholarship that would provide funding for the recipient to continue the improvement of Tilton’s school store. His work culminated with a presentation to the Board of Trustees at its spring meeting where he outlined his ideas and the importance of opportunity at Tilton before fielding questions from members — many of whom possess years of experience in the business world.
“A scholarship like this provides Tilton students with the ability to fail and succeed and try things in a healthy and safe environment,” Boucher remembers stressing to the Board. “This is an opportunity to deal with real ideas and real money and develop skills you can only learn by doing.”
Boucher discusses his pitch for the scholarship with Trustee Simon Abrahms ’09
Following his presentation to the Board, Boucher’s idea went through the approval process on campus. He then put out a call for applicants, eventually awarding rising senior Sebastian Deveaux ’25 as the scholarship’s first-ever recipient. He will work closely with Mr. Compton (who teaches the Entrepreneurship course), the Business Office, and the Marketing and Communications Office on new ideas, finances, and branding. Deveaux also sees a chance to further improve the prospective student experience.
“It might seem like a smaller detail,” he says, “but for a parent or prospective student visiting different schools, having a store that seems personalized, streamlined, and strongly connected to student life is an opportunity to paint Tilton in a better light.”
Deveaux will focus on the in-store experience, including designing and branding new varieties of Tilton gear and potential new items. The next step in that process, he believes, is the store’s digital presence.
“I’ve heard from current students and parents about the website experience and ways that we could improve,” he says. Currently, the store partners with a third-party platform with limited options for customization and overall ownership of the online brand; Deveaux is interested in exploring ways to create a new website. “I’ve already talked through this with a family member who works in this field — I’ll have a lot to learn but I’m excited about the possibility of streamlining the experience.”
Though he’s at the beginning of his work with the store, Deveaux is already mindful of what success looks like at the end of his senior year, and it’s not merely about the bottom line. When Boucher established this scholarship, he designed it to be passed along year after year, connecting future Tilton students with the entrepreneurial spirit that he felt at Tilton. Doing the work to make sure that mechanism is in place at the end of the 2024-25 school is Deveaux’s top priority.
“Ben worked hard to get this approved and create this opportunity,” he says. “I feel like it’s on me to get this passed off to the next person — that would make me proud and happy with my work.”
That type of hard work and community pride is what Boucher envisioned when he manufactured this idea during the course of his Legacy Project.
“I think a major differentiator of our school is that we’re a hardworking group of people — students, faculty, and everyone on campus,” says Boucher, who hopes to remain connected to the school and to the Entrepreneurship Scholarship for the long run. “I would say 10 years from now I would love to still be a part of the process. If I’m fortunate enough, I would love to be the one funding it.”