Last Friday, the Class of 2013 wrapped up the second Venture for America Training Camp at Brown University. If you’ve been following along, you know that along with daily trainings and speakers, the Fellows redesigned the VFA website, created their own products, and had to make as much profit as possible in 10 days. To see more on our challenge winners and impressive speakers, and read reflections directly from the Fellows, you can look back through our Training Camp Blog.
Read on for more on the final days of training:
The Final Challenge
For the last challenge, the Fellows were charged with individually creating as much value as possible for their company, city, or Venture for America. Some Fellows prepared for their upcoming start dates by becoming experts in a new program, software, or language in a matter of days. Others began creating relationships in their cities or came up with ways the Fellows could stay in touch once they land across the country.
Check out some of our favorite projects below:
Alex Rawitz created a public speaking module for Startup Effect, a non-profit co-founded by four VFA Fellows that teaches entrepreneurship in middle schools in Detroit and New Orleans and is looking to expand its program this year. In only 48 hours, Alex created a full lesson plan including worksheets, role playing activities and accompanying presentations that could be immediately implemented in the classroom.
While Venture for America offers its Fellows mentors through its network and encourages Fellows to find their own mentors on the ground in their cities, Ali Sheppard created Fellow 2 Fellow: a peer mentoring network to connect Fellows across classes and cities. In two days, Ali identified a need, developed a program, evaluated interest, identified leaders to pilot the program, and developed a matching process outline to help implement the program.
Throughout his challenge, Eric Olson embodied value creation by identifying a real and immediate problem for his company– a bug in the software they provide– and spent his time digging in to find the solution. At the end of the two days, Eric had added significant and evident value; he actually improved the product he will be working on in a real way for his company’s users.
Congratulations to our Top Fellows
Once the Fellows wrapped up their final challenge, we ended Training Camp on a high note with the VFA Pentathalon and our Awards Dinner.
The Awards Dinner recognized a handful of Fellows for outstanding performance in various areas throughout Training Camp, including winning teams from challenges, top presentations, and those Fellows who demonstrated outstanding value creation on the final challenge.
The most prestigious of these awards– the Top Performing Fellow Award– is awarded to those Fellows who demonstrated overall outstanding performance, achievement, and integrity throughout Training Camp. We believe these Fellows embody the spirit of Venture for America and serve as an example of what a Fellow should be. Congratulations Astrid Schanz-Garbassi, Sean Jackson, Matt Fulton, Jon Hills, Mike Wilner, and Shilpi Kumar, who were named Top Performing Fellows for 2013.
We’re so proud of what our Fellows have accomplished over the past five weeks, and are even more excited to see what they are able to do on the ground in their cities over the next five years. Congrats, Class of 2013!