By Guest Blogger- Gen Furukawa, Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell
College campuses have an abundance of interesting references to ancient Roman history, through the architectural styles, the study of Roman philosophy, even the mottoes that define the schools (my alma mater is In deo speramus). Yet even after studying Latin for seven years, as an undergraduate student I failed to understand the true meaning of a simple phrase: Carpe Diem. Seize the day. Sure, I knew that I would eventually Seize the Day, but only after working at a real job for a few years.
I saw any delay in employment after graduation as a chasm between me and my peers. I cant turn back time, but I can get a second chance. I am now in business school, which has provided me the chance to hit the figurative Reset button. I promised myself that I would maximize all privileges that came with my student status to become an entrepreneur.
After graduating from Brown University in 2004, I got swept up with the galloping herd of newly minted graduates and believed that I needed a job ASAP in order to validate my college degree. So I obligingly paid my dues in a corporate job, plotted out my career trajectory, and quickly saw with frightening clarity how my future could play out for the next thirty years if I didnt veer off the corporate path. I loved watching the action at Dunder Mifflin, but didnt want to spend my life in The Office.
So I realized from my first days as a business school student at The Johnson School at Cornell that the experience would be a sprint from start to finish. The ultimate goal: start a business before I graduate. As an undergrad, I missed the opportunity to explore the wealth of resources readily available to entrepreneurial students, and I wanted a sip of the startup kool-aid too. Despite warnings of a Cornell contagion called FOMO (an acronym for Fear of Missing Out), I was going to do everything I could that included Entrepreneurship in the title.
Business school has helped me solidify a foundation (at least academically) to start a business when that time does come. And I have weaved my way into the epicenter of the startup community at Cornell, which is pulsing with entrepreneurial energies everywhere. I have immersed myself in the community in a number of ways: MBA Fellow for Entrepreneuership@Cornell, where we are building a mobile app to help students, alumni, and faculty network and engage with fellow Cornell entrepreneurs; eLab Fellow, where I mentor and help undergraduate entrepreneurs at Cornells incubator; a VP of the Entrepreneurship Club, where I organize weekly University-wide events and treks to NYC; and Teaching Assistant for several entrepreneurship-related classes. These are all fulfilling activities that have exposed me to the dynamic nature of entrepreneurs that I love.
Venture for America is the first innovative program that captures this vibrant entrepreneurial spirit of college campuses and translates it into a program that helps recent graduates create immediate value in their organization and impacts communities, cities, and America in a very tangible way. I wish that something like this existed when I was an ambitious undergrad looking for a small nudge in the right direction. Venture for America combines the vision for a better world that resounds so loudly with many young Americans, and infuses the self-empowering nature of entrepreneurship. The result: the realization that we can shape our own future. Now. Carpe Diem!
For anyone who can attend, come learn more about Venture for America when Founder & President Andrew Yang visits Cornell on Tuesday, November 15th. Event details can he found here:
http://on.fb.me/cornellvfa2
Contact Gen at gwf36 [at] cornell.edu or on Twitter @genfurukawa