February 2013 - yCITIES

27Feb 2013 by Mark K No Comments

High School Runners – Adidas Wants You!

Featured

Attention High School Students: If you are highly creative, enthusiastic, and expressive, if you are tuned-into the latest trends in shoes and clothes, Adidas wants to talk with you!! Adidas is seeking high school students in Boston to participate in a focus group that will discuss sneaker and apparel trends. The focus group will gather on Friday, March 1st, so do not wait to respond. Contact Vicky (vicky@youthcities.org) for more information if you would like to take advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to tell Adidas what you think!

18Feb 2013 by Mark K No Comments

February Mini-Hack Recap

Featured, Mini-Hack

This month, Allyson Allen visited the Mini-Hack and presented a problem relating to her work for the City of Cambridge. As Employment Planning and Development Director in the Office of Workforce Development, Allyson works with many nonprofit and community organizations to help young people (age 14 and up) find meaningful work and internship opportunities that will develop their skills and connect them with potential future employers. Allyson came to the Mini-Hack seeking to brainstorm ways for businesses to become more involved with young people through recruitment activities, building meaningful relationships, and going beyond “plans for outreach”. This month, the Mini-Hack tried to apply a problem-solving methodology adapted from IDEO’s human-centered approach to design thinking. We began by brainstorming wild ideas individually and, then, collaborating to build off of those ideas.…

12Feb 2013 by Mark K No Comments

Nemo Knocks

General

Last weekend, winter storm Nemo dumped more than 2 feet of snow on most of New England. In some places, high winds led to drifts piling 5 feet or higher. We all saw the fresh white landscape. We all dealt with the snow. Some of us are still dealing with it. What does any of it have to do with Youth CITIES? On Saturday morning, while I was shoveling out my car (see pic;-), I was telling my wife about the snow storms I experienced growing up in the ‘90s. (My wife is from Jamaica; and, although, she’s lived in the US for 8 years, this was her first official blizzard.) I recounted stories of my two younger brothers and I traversing the neighborhood like it was a frozen tundra…

04Feb 2013 by Vicky Wu Davis No Comments

Kickstarter Musing #2

Featured

I cannot believe that it is already February! Last December, I had a Kickstarter campaign for an entrepreneurial endeavor of mine, and I mentioned that I was going to recap the top 5 things I’ve learned from my experience. I had written one reflection right before the holidays, and decided that it would be better to reflect on the others right after the holidays. So....it’s a little later than “right after the holidays”, but here’s reflection #2. Again, these are just my musings from my own Kickstarter experience. They are not meant to be advice to apply to other Kickstarter projects. Even though Kickstarter has become quite popular as a way to raise funds for a product idea, it is still a relatively new concept to the general public, and…