About LCS
Our mission is to train high schoolers to become the next generation of entrepreneurs.
Our team
The virtual Life Changing School Program is run by an incredible team of Cornell University members who have 12+ years of experience with launching ventures and guiding entrepreneurs. Our experienced Cornell members will build the same strong, life changing virtual summer program for our students.
Peter Cortle
CEO
Peter is the Founder of Life Changing Labs, a summer incubator and mentorship network for Cornell entrepreneurs, and Life Changing Summer, a program teaching entrepreneurship and programming to high school students across the world. He also works at Entrepreneurship at Cornell and serves on the Advisory Council. Currently, he leads StartupTree as its CEO to help fuel the growth of university entrepreneurship globally.
Cristiana Mihai
Director of Marketing
Cristiana is passionate about helping others succeed. She joined the LCS family in 2018 after graduating from Cornell University with a degree in Applied Economics and Management. In 2020, she took on the position of Director of Marketing and helped the program seamlessly transition to virtual instruction. Cristiana has worked with startups in various industries, from travel and medical, to educational and real estate. In her free time she volunteers as an EMT and Medical Assistant, and at her local animal shelter!
Jenna Winocur
Director of Programming
Jenna is a social entrepreneur, founder of Social Enterprise at Cornell, and mentor for Blackstone LaunchPad powered by Techstars at Cornell. She holds a certificate in teaching social entrepreneurship from the International Council for Small Business. She will be completing a major in social entrepreneurship with minors in business and education at Cornell University this year.
Samson Zhang
CTO
Samson is a designer, developer, entrepreneur, and incoming Computer Science major at Georgia Tech. He has built and launched multiple fullstack webapps before, and worked as a frontend engineer at early-stage startups. He joined the LCS team as CTO after graduating from its summer 2020 session, designing and building LCS' infrastructure and strategy as it scales up to year-round sessions.