Independent Learning: Discover Hungry Mouse
High School
The Story behind Hungry Mouse
What happens when a school is committed to developing independent learners with skills for life and learning beyond the classroom? We spoke with Nicolas Miller, a High School student following the International Baccalaureate Diploma at ISB.
Nicolas, Grade 12, like all of us in the past year, has been living through the unprecedented challenges of Covid-19. While the impact of this pandemic was unarguably frustrating in many ways, the firsts weeks of distance learning gave Nicolas an opportunity for long lasting professional growth.
Inspired by his Business Management classes taught by Ms. Anne Brennan as part of the IB Diploma Programme and motivated by a will of spreading a healthier lifestyle, Nicolas launched Hungry Mouse, a Bio Food Start-up based in Brussels.
"Hungry Mouse officially started during the Covid-19 pandemic back in March 2020. I had never had an actual healthy breakfast and I thought of perhaps teaching other people about healthiness. I really wanted to bring this vision and that’s when I decided to launch the first granola."
Nicolas, who is also a high-performing athlete, chose to take his Business Class at a Higher level for his IBDP and expresses gratitude to his teacher for her passion and knowledge, which allowed him to find directions in his projects beyond ISB.
“The business class at ISB really made it possible for me to start thinking about this project. When she talked about organisational structures and how companies are built, employee training, etc, it really made me feel part of a company. Every day I learn new things, make mistakes, obviously, and then I come back to the business class and the teacher sometimes addresses these mistakes I’ve done which helps me to improve my business.”
Hungry Mouse rapidly grew and what started as a one-person job ended up with nearly 10 people partnering with the purpose to develop a business strategy and implementation. Nicolas shares how he identified key collaborators within the ISB community:
"In the beginning, I started this with my sister. At one point it started becoming busier and it was too much work, so I introduced a whole new team with other students from ISB, such as graphic designers, photographers, students that follow the art programme, etc. These people really have the skills that I know that ISB has taught them and they were really helpful."
Nicolas Miller
IBDP Student at ISB
Looking to the future
Together with his team, who are also mostly students at ISB, Nicolas came up with creative solutions that helped them find clients beyond our community. They were able to close partnerships with shops that are now selling Hungry Mouse products and they are currently working on redesigning their website, while producing their new collection. According to Nicolas, his start-up is committed not only to provide a healthy and quick breakfast but also to find sustainable solutions for packaging, delivering, and product selection. In the meantime, he works towards the completion of his IBDP.