I would like to start off first by thanking you all for your time today, i know that me and my colleagues truly appreciate the time others spend learning about our projects and the hard work we put in this past semester.
I am Alyssa Weis, i am a senior here at UWM, and I am the creator of a new social networking site called Thrive.
I want to first recognize my design team. Jess Grech-Cumbo is a recent graduate from Michigan State University with a Creative Advertising degree. She has assisted me in most graphical decisions pertaining to our brand. Then there is Lorenzo McDermit, who is a freshman here at UWM. Lorenzo is one target market sample and has provided me with personal knowledge and ideation in relevance to my service.
The problem I thought to explore was the college retention rate at a national scale…. There is a vast majority of high school students who aspire a post-secondary education. Today 1 out of 4 students who enter college, will dropout within their first year due to academic, financial, and emotional overload. Although Wisconsins retention rate is 85% and stands fairly well compared to other states, our national average sinks down to 70%. That is 30% of our future that will shy away from receiving a college degree.
I believe that prior to college these students are not experiencing the accurate guidance they need in preparing them for these future transitions, and also or making them aware of how beneficial it is to seek their different options and to hone down on possible decisions prior to college.
This is why I have created Thrive, a social networking site designed for prospective college students. Because we believe in the value of early engagement and preparation for college, Thrive provides an online space for these students to connect with like-minded students, academic advisors and alumni.The network students create, combined with the tools and resources we provide enables all students pursuing their college paths to succeed.
To begin with thrive, you are given a sign up page, where you enter your information, and can check either if you are a prospective college student, or if you are an alumni or have college experience and wish to help others.
Everyone is given their own profile. for the prospect they enter there top 3 college interests, an intended date, check off a list of hobbies, possible career interests, so for, and they will be connected to other prospects with the same information, and alumni/recruiters who either attend these colleges and/or have this same career path. (CHANGE)
How we plan to monetize: As of now, we are a sponsorship model. We plan to customize our search to find contributors that are relevant to our business and follow by promoting there banner ads, marketing ads, so for.
I believe that in our future, there are many aspects of our company we are hoping to promote as we grow the business. Futurelistically, there will be other types of monetizing.
Top competitors I have researched are the famous Facebook and LinkedIn. They have made it appoint for every possible connection and possible conversation with someone to be attainable. What differs Thrive from this is that our network is solely intended for these students to connect with others and feel comfortable in a space they can discuss there future, and find an aspiration to continue there future and succeed.
This ends me with why I am so passionate about my service. I will be the first to admit that my college experience was a roller coaster. I struggled with finding my purpose in school. I couldn't picture my future and felt like i was wasting my time and money. Although I am fortunate to be in my position now, I wish i would have found better guidance prior to college and knew my options and generated more of a direction before hand.
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