What do you want to be when you grow up?
“What do you want to be when you grow up?” That’s a question I hear often, especially now that I am a senior and close to heading off to college. My response is always the same, “A kind and compassionate person who makes a net positive difference in the world.” By responding in this manner, I am choosing to reframe the conversation by focusing on the “how” instead of the “what.” Ever since I can remember, I have always been working on projects; as a kid, I never needed to be defined by a career. Whether it was starting a math club, being part of a robotics team, launching a model rocket, creating educational video games, teaching English in France, working in labs at UCLA and USC, or tinkering at home, I did so because I wanted to help others. In high school, in an effort to expand my understanding and reach, I became involved in our school’s Global Initiatives Program. As part of this program, our teachers emphasized that by carefully considering our approach and our talents, regardless of our career choice, we could make a positive global impact by acting locally. It was then that I realized that entrepreneurship could help me to address broader issues of social justice, that it could be part of any project or career, and that the LaunchX Clubs program could teach me the skills that I needed to do so.
The LaunchX Clubs program runs from September to May and is a crash course in entrepreneurship for high school students. Although you work in teams at school, this is supplemented by an online interactive self-paced curriculum. Some high school students might think that forming a LaunchX Club at their school would be costly or time-consuming, but we were able to cover the entire fee through a couple of school fundraisers and the schedule was really flexible.
At the Polytechnic School in Pasadena, California, Alex Froelich, our club president, successfully applied to start a LaunchX Clubs program with the support of Jack Stellwagen and Finnegan Keller. Jack, Finn, Ryan Lavery, and I formed Team Emergence, which was one of over one thousand teams from around the world that were active during the 2018-2019 LaunchX Clubs program season. As we started brainstorming ideas for a product, we learned about how to plan and run a business through LaunchX Club’s online collaborative platform. The platform is based around a series of video modules, staring educator, entrepreneur, and maker, Ms. Laurie Stach, the founder of the LaunchX program and a graduate of MIT. After completing the majority of our team’s required deliverables, we were paired with an amazing mentor who provided additional guidance.
To me, the most daunting part of the LaunchX Clubs process was coming up with the right product, but you do not need to come up with an idea out of thin air. LaunchX Clubs provides a lot of guidance about how to develop a marketable product. I came up with the idea for Cord Restored after yet another computer cord frayed as I was finishing a marathon coding session. As I bought a new and expensive cord, I had to ask myself about the environmental impact of my electronic consumption. Couldn’t I just repair my cord? I looked online, but I couldn’t find anything except flammable liquid electrical tape or bulky moldable plastics. At this point, I was still thinking that I could make something for my own use to lessen my environmental footprint, but the more I researched, the more our team realized that this could be a great business with a positive social impact. Little did we know that my project to fix my own computer cord at home would help take our team to the LaunchX Global Demo Day event held at MIT on May 4, 2019.
Through LaunchX Clubs, Finn, Ryan, and I did market research. We found out that other students, teachers, parents, and neighbors were also frustrated with fraying laptop charger cords and would pay for our product. I did a lot of experiments to invent a safe, non-toxic liquid plastic. After countless hours of experiments, I came up with a prototype for a formula, as well as a technique to make a non-toxic, safe, easy liquid repair formula for electrical cords. We named the product “Cord Restored” and set off to prepare for the regional Demo Day competition held in Los Angeles, California.
To hear about what happens after we finished the LaunchX Clubs online curriculum, please read Part Two of my blog. I’ll tell you about my experience in participating in a LaunchX Clubs Regional Demo Day competition held in March, as well as my experience at the Global Demo Day event held at MIT in May.
To learn more about LaunchX:
Follow @LaunchXEd and @LaunchXClubs on Instagram
Follow @LaunchX and @LaunchXClubs on Twitter
To learn more about our startup journey, follow us @cordrestored on Twitter and Instagram, and visit us at www.cordrestored.com today! Looking forward to meeting you and hearing about your LaunchX journey!
Our pitch: One million tons of external power supplies are manufactured each year, but 60% end up in the landfill, polluting the environment through excessive manufacturing and e-waste. We aim to slow down this pipeline by extending the life-cycle of these items. We offer an array of patent-pending easy-to-apply quick-drying non-toxic non-flammable formulas that repair frayed electrical chargers, wires and cables; this base formulation can be used in a wide array of commercial and industrial applications; visit us at www.cordrestored.com
Keywords: LaunchX, high school, teens, clubs, business, entrepreneurs, startups, STEM, engineering, science, mentorship, product development, marketing, branding, finance, pitch deck, social justice, e-waste, Los Angeles, California, Cord Restored
Comments
Post a Comment