Life as a Teenage Entrepreneur – by Jennifer Kim

I was introduced to the STEM and business world in 6th grade, when I was just following my older brother and accidentally stepped into my middle school’s Technology and Engineering Club. Before then, I didn’t know that girls could participate in such hands-on activities, based on where I grew up. It really sparked me to take a deeper path in the field when the club advisor, Mr. Monagle, showed us a video that explained what it means to be an entrepreneur. The description was of a person who is creative, innovative, but also crazy. I was inspired by how people can use their ideas and apply science to help create technologies that could solve problems in the world. And this is how this one accidental encounter had changed my life.

As I showed more interest in the field, my teacher introduced couple other friends and me to an entrepreneurship program in Cambridge, MA. Here, all of us learned how to network, create a business plan, pitch the idea in a concise manner, and many other useful skills, which eventually helped me create my own ventures.

Back at school, the Engineer’s Club had started a new project; it was called the Google Glass Project which was the inspiration for the business that I’m currently working on with four other partners. This project had evolved and will be described in the later posts.

Please feel free to visit www.iuvolutions.com if you want to know more about the project.

Now as a high schooler, I regularly sleep after 2:00 am due to loads of homework and at least two tests or quizzes a week or an essay to write. Balancing between these immense workloads and managing two ventures / businesses is hard (My other venture is called PACTS, which is being blogged by my partner and friend, Ethan Wong). However, I learned that with a good time management skills, you can fulfill both your obligations and your passions. Well, that is what I LEARNED; I procrastinate all the time and have fallen asleep in school or business meetings on few occasions. I will post more updates about my life and venture from time to time whether it’s a hard day at school or a stressful meeting, because I love what I’m doing.

 

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