Category: General

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.…

It all started when my friends began an entrepreneurship program in Cambridge, this program encouraged them to think about problems that were negatively impacting our community and what we can do to stop them. This entrepreneurship program was the March-to-May Bootcamp created by Youth CITIES. Whether it was introducing a new program or creating a new product in order to tackle the problem, this program made my friends excited about creative problem solving. We were all middle school students at this time.  After around the 7th class of this program, one of my friends, Jennifer Kim, came up to me to discuss about problems in society that she was brainstorming and the solutions that she had came up with. One of these problems was the shocking statistic of car thefts…

  We all have ideas.  We've daydreamed, contemplated, complained, and wished upon a star...whether it's for better technology, living conditions, access to education, ways to communicate...you can fill in the blank here.  A lot of times, that's as far as we go - thinking about ideas.  It is the fear of starting?  The fear of failure?  Because it's a really long and winding road to make change happen? Then there are those who are not content to just come up with ideas for something better, but are going beyond the idea stage to actually doing?  They are not waiting for things to happen...they are making it happen.  Sometimes it's successful.  Often times it's a bumpy ride. CITIES Voices (#CITIESvoices) is a platform for CITIES Scholars to share about the things…

For the first time, the spotlight will shift to a different timezone. The chapter of Youth CITIES in St. Louis, MO has officially been launched and is hosting its own March to May bootcamp alongside its sister in Boston. This month’s Newsletter will feature the Director of the Bootcamp in Missouri, Keith Turner. Keith is a serial entrepreneur that, while starting several of his own companies over the last decade, has found value in the youth and entrepreneurial communities in St. Louis. Keith Turner is the President of TurnGroup Technologies, LLC, a company that he founded in April of 2002. TurnGroup is an IT consulting firm that provides cost-effective technology solutions to small corporations and nonprofits. His involvement in both the entrepreneurial community has earned him the “Salutation to Youth…

This month’s spotlight is on one of the most integral and consistent members of the Youth CITIES community. Brendan Kohler is a mentor at the March to May bootcamp and our most frequent facilitator for the Monthly Mini-hack series. Brendan recently went through a working exit at Seldera, where he worked as a Software Engineer In the fashion of a typical, successful entrepreneur, Brendan will take off an entire weekend before starting his new role as Operating Partner at Boston Global Ventures (BGV). As amazing as this role is, the way that he found himself in the position to accept it is even more noteworthy. Through his time volunteering with the Harvard iLab and even through his efforts at Youth CITIES, Brendan met and became friends with the Founding Partner…

Toni Oloko is one of the most successful young people in New England, and was also the subject of the October Youth CITIES entrepreneur spotlight. He also just gave a TEDx speech at the TEDxYouth series hosted by the TEDxBeaconStreet organization. His TED talk focused on two major themes; that to become smart, you need to listen to and surround yourself with smart people. The other is that ‘smart’ people aren’t always the ones in suits making all the money. In his talk, he advised that everyone has a story to tell and something to teach, and we need to learn from them. He ended on a call to action; to crowdsource the changes that will occur to our collective future by giving the stage and the mic to everyone,…

This month, our spotlight is moving to one of the facilitators utilized by Youth CITIES. Chris Wolfel has been involved in our community for several years as a mentor in the YC March-to-May Bootcamp and occasionally as a mini-hack facilitator. Going into college, Chris had always thought he would end up being a lawyer. Fortunately for us, after working at the Northeastern University Law School and another separate internship , he was turned on to the field of entrepreneurship. After taking a few classes, he realized his passion was in the challenge that working for a start-up poses; he loved the idea of taking something small, and growing or building it into something huge. He was with Northeastern’s Venture Accelerator from almost the very beginning, and became it’s CEO until…

For the month of December, we chose an extremely local entrepreneur, Tim Rowe. Tim is the founder of Venture Cafe and the CEO of the Cambridge Innovation Center (home of the YC Mini-Hack series). Tim’s career as an entrepreneur started when he was in middle school, selling software and computers to the parents of his friends. A few years later in high school, he was employing six of his friends at his Tech Consulting firm, with his biggest customer being the original Empire Collateral pawn shop. Next, Tim went to college to (in his words) “not miss out on the opportunity of being a rounded person.” As an already successful businessman, Tim found that college is most rewarding when your goal is to learn who you are and to learn…

This month’s spotlight features Joshua Summers, a Boston entrepreneur that works in the ad-tech industry. Joshua was a Paypal executive in Boston before leaving at the end of 2012 to found Clypd, where he is currently CEO. Clypd is a company that is trying to bring advertising in TV into the forefront of technology; using easy-to-access data such as demographics and major purchases, Joshua and Clypd hope to target advertising with both cable and satellite providers. This will create a better experience for the viewer and more effective advertising for the companies that are paying to be on air (very similar to what Google and Facebook are doing with user generated data driving online advertising). After a Series-A funding round in early 2013 that went well into seven figures, the…

This spotlight will be on one of YC’s most notable alumni, Toni Aloko. Toni is a young entrepreneur that has taken his love for tennis and turned it into a business. Practicegigs.com is a platform that athletes can use to set up either friendly or competitive matches with people of different skill caliber. How did he get it started? Through Youth CITIES. Practicegigs began in the annual March to May incubator. The network, mentorship, and resources that were made available to him have landed him in Atlas Ventures, where he now is the head of a five person team coming from three countries and four universities. With his product launch ten weeks away, Wharton is going to have to wait another year for this one.