2015 Alumnus Visits Briarcliff Middle School's Entrepreneur's Club

From Briarcliff HS: Robert Karp, a Briarcliff High School Class of 2015 alumnus, recently visited the middle school’s new Entrepreneur’s Club members.

Karp, who is currently a student at the Cornell School of Hotel Administration, is the founder and chief executive of Miles Ahead, a high-end travel advisory firm that he operates while attending school full-time.

During his visit, Karp described his business model and answered questions about the challenges he has faced as an entrepreneur and his plans for the future. “I like being creative,” he shared. And while he plans to scale Miles Ahead, he added, “Ultimately, I want us to stay a service business.”

Students were curious about all aspects of his business, including how he finds employees, how he plans to upscale and how many of his clients return for a second time. Karp said his passion for the travel industry started when he began playing a flight simulator computer game as a child and continued to grow as he learned how vacations are planned from his relatives. He encouraged the middle school students to consider participating in the science research program when they enter high school – a three-year course that he took to continue pursuing his passion. His project, “A Network Flow-Based Approach for Post- Merger Airline Hub Consolidation” earned regional and even national recognition. “Intel was a great experience,” he said. “You have to manage your own time and what you do determines what you get out of it.”

Images Courtesy Of Briarcliff Middle School