Along with visits to Princeton and Johns Hopkins, VFA takes New England this week with info sessions and career fairs at at Wesleyan, Dartmouth, Williams and more:

Monday, September 23rd Wesleyan Info Session 41 Wyllys Ave Olson Commons (First Floor) 6:00-7:00pm Wednesday, September 25th Johns Hopkins Career Fair O’Connor Recreation Center 10:30-3:30pm Dartmouth Career Fair Alumni Hall 12:00-4:00pm

Tuesday, September 24th Princeton Info Session Jones Hall Room 100 5:00-6:00pm Friday, September 27th Williams Career Fair Paresky Student Center 11:00am-3:00pm Tufts Career Fair Gantcher Center 161 College Ave Medford, MA 12:30-3:30pm Smith/Mount Holyoke Career Fair Smith College Campus Center Carroll Room 3:30-6:00pm

Next Monday, September 23rd, VFA Founder Andrew Yang will head to Cleveland for the first ever Demo Day for Cleveland accelerator FlashStarts. With Cleveland as one of our newest cities, VFA is excited to be involved in this exciting day, where FlashStarts will present 10 new startups.
Companies include everything from The BranDR, a company that does online marketing for Doctors by allowing them to create personal branded profiles, to Ohio Independent Cinema, which is trying to make independent films more accessible for the general public in Ohio.
The event will be held on the day a new SEC regulation goes into effect that will allow startups to solicit from a national audience in source of funding. If you’re interested in seeing the Demo Day, FlashStarts will broadcast it live here.
Congratulations to FlashStarts leaders Charles Stack and Jennifer Neundorfer, along with it’s inaugural 10 companies, on a successful first program!

Dan Gilbert, Steve and Jean Case, Jack Dorsey and more gather in Detroit for the 2nd Techonomy Conference.

Today in Detroit, some of the country’s leading entrepreneurs, including our very own Founder and CEO Andrew Yang, addressed the role of technology and innovation in boosting American economic growth, job creation, and urban revival. As expected, much of the conversation centered around Detroit itself.
Throughout the day, the conference streamed live on Techonomy.com (we were able to watch Andrew all the way from New York!). You can catch any of the day’s speakers and workshops below, or fast forward to 5:08:00 to check out “Everybody’s Starting Something”, a panel including Andrew, Josh Linkner of Detroit Venture Partners, who is one of VFA’s biggest champions in Detroit, and Jocelyn Benson of Wayne State University.

Our Fellows were lucky enough to get the invite as well, and tweeted away from the audience! Over the past week leading up to the conference, Techonomy also published a series on VFA Fellows and what they’re doing in cities around the country. Check out the profiles below:

Kathy Cheng, DoodleHome
Navigating Detroit: A VFA Fellow Discovers
Ideas, Energy, Opportunity

Tim Dingman, Accio Energy
Venture for America Made This Young
Easterner a Detroit Believer

Chelsea Koglmeier, Roadtrippers
Venture for America Brings a Socially Conscious Entrepreneur Home

Check out the schedule below to see where we’ll be this week! Get the details here:

Tuesday, September 17th Cornell Career Fair Day 1 Barton Hall 10:00am-3:30pm Vassar Info Session Faculty Commons Dining Room 6:15-7:00pm Thursday, September 19th NYU Tech Career Fair NYU-Poly, Jacobs Gymnasium 6 MetroTech Center Brooklyn, NY 11:00-3:00pm Boston College Career Fair Conte Forum 3:00-6:00pm

Wednesday, September 18th Cornell Career Fair Day 2 Barton Hall 10:00am-3:30pm Brown Career Fair Sayles Hall 12:00pm-4:00pm Friday, September 20th Georgetown Career Fair Georgetown University Hotel and Conference Center Ballroom 10:00am-3:00pm Stop by to meet 2013 Fellow and Georgetown alum Zubin Teherani (’13)! Princeton Career Fair Dillon Gym 10:30am-2:30pm Columbia Career Fair Turner Hall 11:00am-4:00pm

After spending his first 22 years in New England, Fellow Tim Dingman reflects on how Venture for America altered the course of his career and his life. Now, he may never leave Detroit!

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Originally published on Techonomy.com.
I found my future on Twitter.
Two weeks into a summer research internship in Singapore that I had already lost interest in, I saw the tweet that would change my life. It linked me to an article describing the kickoff event for Venture For America, a new program dedicated to placing top college graduates in startups in economically troubled cities. I knew right away what I would be doing with my first two post-collegiate years.
The application process started with a written submission followed by a phone interview, and culminated in a day of group and individual interviews by VFA board members and staff. After a few tense days, VFA founder and CEO Andrew Yang called me with an offer.
Over the next few months, VFA arranged interviews for me with several companies. I ended up with a job at Accio Energy, a wind power company in Southeast Michigan. Accio’s bladeless generator uses electrohydrodynamics (EHD) to harness the power of the wind, much in the way a thunderstorm generates lightning. The system sprays charged water droplets into the wind, which carries the droplets away. The separation of charge creates a voltage difference, which results in power generation. (Watch Accio’s CTO explain the technology in this talk from TEDxDetroit 2009.) The focus of the entire nine-person company is on research and development of the EHD generator. All but the CEO have at least one degree in physics or engineering. My job involves computer modeling of virtual prototypes, which allows us to quickly iterate over many possible designs.
At work, the benefits of VFA have been twofold. First, I would not have found my current position. Never in my wildest dreams could I imagine the technology behind my company, let alone the job I have there. I also have much more latitude than a typical engineering hire; my supervisor is the COO/CFO, not the CTO, so I see all aspects of the company on a daily basis.
Second, I would not have moved to Detroit. As a Massachusetts native and Brown alum with no connections outside of the Northeast and California, my pre-VFA career path led nowhere near the Midwest, let alone a city like Detroit. Now that I’m here, I have trouble imagining how I could lead the same life anywhere else. Opportunities abound for people who want to commit themselves to the future of the city.
As a staunch urbanist, I find Detroit the ideal setting for my words to become deeds. One way I’m joining the Detroit renaissance is through Rebirth Realty, an initiative I co-founded with two other VFA Fellows. Rebirth Realty will acquire and restore a house in Detroit for future Fellows to live in. We plan to purchase a foreclosed, abandoned house in the tax auction, then spend the next year or two revitalizing the property. Rebirth Realty will strengthen the community with stable, responsible tenants, while creating a shared space for VFA classes to come.
Rebirth Realty isn’t alone in its efforts. The spirit of renewal penetrates every sector of society here, appearing daily in the lives of Detroit residents. Areas like Downtown, Midtown, Corktown, Lafayette Park, and Woodbridge are filling up with young new residents. Organizations like Detroit SOUP, Midtown Detroit Inc, and D:hive are practically mass manufacturing committed citizens. Big companies like Compuware and Quicken Loans have brought their workforces into the city, while startups like the ones hosting VFA Fellows are creating a new class of entrepreneurs. The municipal government may be bankrupt, but many citizens across the rest of the city are firing on all cylinders to bring Detroit back.
I have now completed half of my VFA tenure. Though my VFA Detroit fellowship will conclude in August 2014, I plan to stay. Startups are inherently unpredictable, but I hope to retain my post for the indefinite future. Rebirth Realty has only just begun its work, which might expand to new houses in new communities around the city. Whatever happens to me, VFA will be here, helping to push the Detroit renaissance to great heights. The city’s 200-year-old motto is as apt today as when it was rebuilding after the Great Fire of 1805: “speramus meliora; resurget cineribus,” or, “We hope for better things; It will rise from the ashes.”

Welcome back to campus, everyone! We’re officially on the search for the Class of 2014.

Throughout the fall and spring, we’ll have VFA team members and Fellows at schools across the country answering your questions and helping find our next class. Check out the details for our events this week below, or visit our upcoming events page to mark your calendar now!

Tuesday, September 10th Yale Info Session & Fellows Meet-and-Greet Yale Entrepreneurial Society 254 Elm Street 8:00pm Come meet VFA Fellows and Yale Alumni Tom Lynam and Frank Teng (’13)! Thursday, September 12th NYU Career Fair Kimmel Center for University Life 11:00-3:00pm UNC Career Fair Ram’s Head Recreation Center 12:00-4:00pm George Washington Career Fair Charles E. Smith Center for Athletics 1:00-5:00pm Georgetown Info Session Smith Center White Gravenor Room 201B 6:00pm Come hear from the VFA Team– t-shirts will be given to the first 10 attendees!

Wednesday, September 11th Duke Career Fair Wilson Gymnasium, Duke’s West Campus 10:00am-3:00pm UPenn Career Fair University City, Sheraton Hotel 10:00-3:00pm Friday, September 13th Barnard Career Fair LeFrak Gymnasium 1st Floor, Barnard Hall 11:00am-3:00pm

It’s back-to-school season, which means VFA is coming to a campus near you!

Throughout the fall and spring, we’ll have VFA Fellows, team members, and campus ambassadors at career fairs, info sessions, and campus events across the country. If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to be a VFA Fellow or are thinking about applying to join the Class of 2014, this is your chance to have all your questions answered!

Check out our events calendar for our schedule of campus visits, and be sure to check back often as we add events throughout the fall.

If you’re interested in getting involved with Venture for America right away and helping to spread the word, there are still openings for campus ambassadors at schools across the country to work with us on the ground. We welcome applicants of any class year who are enthusiastic about supporting our mission, interested in entrepreneurship, and excited to help create an on-campus presence for VFA. For the job description and application instructions, visit our careers page.

Schedule of Events this Week

Tonight, we kick off the VFA tour at Villanova with an info session hosted by Fellows Kate Leisy and Paige Boehmcke, 2013 Fellows working at startups in Philadelphia. Details are here:

VFA Info Session and Fellow Meet-and-Greet
Wednesday, September 4th from 7:00-8:00pm
Villanova University
Devon Room, Connelly Center

If you don’t see an event scheduled at your school and are interested in bringing VFA on campus, e-mail events@venturforamerica.org.