Hello VFA friend and supporter,
We are proud to announce 22 newly successful candidates for the Venture for America Fellowship Class of 2012!For a sense of the incoming class:
href=”https://ventureforamerica.org/2012Fellows”>https://ventureforamerica.org/2012Fellows
As you’ll see, it’s an impressive group! We have 3 high school valedictorians, two college 4.0s, mechanical and electrical engineers, coders, a state tennis champion, business plan competition winners, young people who have already run and started businesses, and Fellows from national universities from across the country. I hope you’re as excited as we are to put them in position to contribute in the months ahead.
The deadline for applications is February 20th, so its still not too late if you or someone you know would like to apply to become a Venture for America Fellow for 2012.
New Additions to the VFA Team
With our Venture Fellows in the fold, we need someone to focus on their training and development. On that front, we’d like to welcome our new VP of Programs, Eddie Shiomi. We are very fortunate to have him, as he’s spent the past 7 years as the director/trainer for the CORO Fellows Program in Public Affairs and is a veteran at human capital development. He’s got the right orientation to help build our Fellows into motivated leaders.
We’d also like to welcome our new Admin and Development Associate, Megan Hurlburt. Megan is going to make sure that we fly straight, follow up with people properly, and raise some money! Megan is a Boston native, won an award for having the highest GPA of her graduating class at the College of Charleston, and triumphed over the 200+ people we had apply for this position.
VFA in the News
Venture for America was recently featured in both the Wall Street Journal and Forbes as an innovative way to spur job growth. In addition, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island has agreed to attend our Training Camp this summer. There is a tremendous amount of excitement around VFAs mission to get more of our best and brightest innovating and creating opportunities for themselves and others around the country.
What’s going on at VFA?
For those of you near New York, Venture for America will be hosting its 2012 Annual Launch Event the 2nd week of June. We will have details for you as the summer approaches.
Right now, we’re fundraising to support operations and expansion. We are looking to raise approximately $500,000 from private individuals and Foundations. If you believe that Venture for Americas mission is one that you would like to support, please take a moment to make a contribution on our website. Any amount helps, big or small.
VFA is making phenomenal progress in record time, and it wouldn’t be possible without you. Thank you all for your confidence and support.
Fellow Spotlight
I’ve attached below an excerpt from the application essay of one of our Fellows, Scott Lowe. Scott has a 4.0 in Engineering Physics with a Computer Science emphasis from the University of Oklahoma.
From Scotts application:
Just months ago, I was on track towards becoming a quant, in fact my senior capstone research is centered around financial mathematics: studying information cascades in FOREX markets using Fokker-Plank equations, researching several econophysics models including the statistical treatment of money, wealth, and income, and learning traditional financial mathematics including option pricing theory via the Black Sholes equation. While I enjoy the work because of my love of mathematics, I luckily realized that this career path was simply designed to exploit inefficiencies in markets in order to extract profits from others. This financial realm known as trading is a zero sum game where for every dollar you make, someone else loses a dollar, and I know Im not destined to become such an obvious parasite on society. Granted, not all finance organizations are so void of value; I see private equity and venture capital firms as providing the necessary service of allocating capital to companies that need and deserve it. Their funding allows entrepreneurs to transform ideas into reality, and for that reason I was very excited to learn that Detroit Venture Partners had been enlisted as a VFA startup.
In searching for other ways to apply myself towards improving the world and making a difference while also satisfying my intellectual curiosity, I luckily stumbled across Venture for America. Regardless of what startup I potentially end up at, I know that I will have the opportunity to absorb vast amounts of knowledge on how to create and lead organizations from successful entrepreneurs while also adding value to distressed communities through job creation. This is something I am very passionate about, and I believe that this passion, when combined with my broad background and excitement to relocate after graduation makes me the perfect VFA applicant.
Scott Lowe is an extraordinarily talented young man who would be successful in most any field. We believe that, if placed in an appropriate environment and given some training and support, Scott is the sort of young person who will someday start or lead a company that will create dozens, perhaps hundreds of jobs. We are looking forward to seeing if we are right, and we hope that you are excited to join us.All of the best,
Andrew
