CORE Corner Blog

• S2: Cutting Through The Noise — by Joanna Lin
  If you’ve been following along the episodes of Inside the Mind of An Investor, guess who’s been behind the scenes! Yours, truly. My eagerness to watch (and edit) each episode is almost parallel to my enthusiasm for watching Stranger Things and Moon Knight.… Read more: S2: Cutting Through The Noise — by Joanna Lin
• Entrepreneurship in Politics — by Emma Boyd
  Before getting involved in yCITIES in seventh grade, I had absolutely no idea what entrepreneurship was. I had barely heard the word used before and what little grasp on the concept I had was made up of mental images of men with briefcases,… Read more: Entrepreneurship in Politics — by Emma Boyd
• 
  False Idols in Entrepreneurship — by Megan Balani
  When I was younger, I used to look up to entrepreneurs such as Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk. In retrospect, I had this naivete believing that anyone … no matter what age, gender, socioeconomic background, or whatever … could obtain their same positions.… Read more: False Idols in Entrepreneurship — by Megan Balani
• S1: The First Deep Dive into the Daunting World of Investing — by Joanna Lin
  If you’ve been following along the episodes of Inside the Mind of An Investor, guess who’s been behind the scenes! Yours, truly. My eagerness to watch (and edit) each episode is almost parallel to my enthusiasm for Hawkeye and WandaVision. I came to… Read more: S1: The First Deep Dive into the Daunting World of Investing — by Joanna Lin
• 
  Let’s Give Ads that Better the World — by Joanna Lin
  You’ve just excitedly clicked on the new Mr. Beast video, expecting to see how he recreated the new Squid Games, but before you get to the chirpy intro, you hear — Irritated, you wait five seconds before you skip the ad and move… Read more: Let’s Give Ads that Better the World — by Joanna Lin
• 
  The Evolution of yCITIES — by Joanna Lin
  This blog post is meant for two different types of readers: the returners and the newcomers. The returners might be asking — what’s with the new website, the new logo, and more importantly, the new name?  For the newcomers, we used to be… Read more: The Evolution of yCITIES — by Joanna Lin
• 
  L3 Innovation Challenge Demo Day – by Andrew Holmes
  When I was in high school going through Youth CITIES March to May Bootcamp myself, I was exposed to an entirely new world of innovative leaders and a new way of thinking, and pushed myself to present my work in front of a… Read more: L3 Innovation Challenge Demo Day – by Andrew Holmes
• Low-fidelity Prototypes to Learn & Test – by Vicky Wu Davis
  Every Wednesday night, Sanibel knows that I can’t pick her up from school at 6pm because I’ll be teaching.  She’s bummed, but understands that I’ll be home to tuck her in (our kids don’t go to bed very early).  Last week, however, she… Read more: Low-fidelity Prototypes to Learn & Test – by Vicky Wu Davis
• 
  L3 Class 5 – Testing with the 4 year old user – by Andrew Holmes
  Waiting with a number of students in the lobby of Lab Central for Class 5 to get started, we turned toward the entrance, hearing a loud, high pitch voice of someone singing and cheering through the entrance of the building. Accompanied by Youth… Read more: L3 Class 5 – Testing with the 4 year old user – by Andrew Holmes
• 
  Purposeful Prototypes – Reflections of week 4 – by Andrew Holmes
  At the end of last week’s blog I mentioned a conversation we had as a class about playing basketball with a visual impairment. This discussion came up again in Class Four, and Vicky Wu Davis, Sanibel’s mother, went into more detail on the… Read more: Purposeful Prototypes – Reflections of week 4 – by Andrew Holmes
• Unintended Consequences of Innovation – by Vicky Wu Davis
  In Class 3, we talked about how technological innovation cannot be a suitable, long-term, workable solution, if the only thing we make sure of is that a narrow piece of technology is working.  In class, exoskeletons really fascinated a particular student (ok, many… Read more: Unintended Consequences of Innovation – by Vicky Wu Davis
• Reflections of Class 3 – L3 Innovation Challenge – by Andrew Holmes
  A few weeks ago I sat down with Youth CITIES founder Vicky Wu Davis, had coffee, and agreed not only to mentoring this year’s L3 Challenge, but also to the momentous task of writing a blog following the events of the challenge. Vicky… Read more: Reflections of Class 3 – L3 Innovation Challenge – by Andrew Holmes
• Class 2 of L3 Innovation Challenge – by Kyle Langley
  The  L3 Innovation Challenge entered its second leg this Wednesday as we continued to promote entrepreneurial problem-solving and thinking in a technology-centric world. We were once again hosted by Lab Central, a biotech lab facility and coworking space near Kendall Square and the high tech… Read more: Class 2 of L3 Innovation Challenge – by Kyle Langley

Soundbites and Tidbits

These are soundbites and tidbits from our CORE Members. If you are a CORE Member, larger soundbites will be available on our Discord and LinkedIn Groups!

Inside the Mind of An Investor

While there are many resources on how to pitch and give presentations, the investment process can be a black box for many new founders. With this series, yCITIES CORE members hear from many seasoned investors the motivations and thinking behind why (or why not) an investor would put their money in a startup.

Nanotalks

At Nanotalks, CORE members teach about areas that they are passionate about or skilled in. Nanotalks provide a space to cultivate conversations that blur the lines between students and subject-matter-experts (for on any given day, we can be both). Watch a few previews of our Nanotalks below!

Todd Reily — Lo-fi Prototypes

There’s more to prototypes than a render of an idea; it’s the foundation of new innovation or design. For these, a great starting point is a low-fidelity prototype. In the second episode of Nanotalks, Todd and CORE members delve into the importance of a low-fidelity prototype for design concepts and innovations.

Tasha Kim — Crypto

Ever tried to Google “NFT” or “Bitcoin” and read the search results? Been there, done that (it was confusing). In this Nanotalk, Tasha and CORE members dive deeper into what these emerging concepts are and their increasing signifiance on society.