#ytili

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Experience the United States as a YTILI Fellow

Launched in 2016, the Young Transatlantic Innovative Leaders Initiative Fellowship is the flagship program of the Young Transatlantic Innovation Leaders Initiative (YTILI) of the U.S. Department of State and is supported in its implementation by The German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF).

Entrepreneurs are a driving force for economic development, job creation, security, and good…

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Q & A

Tento artefakt vznikl na základě přednášky Moniky Ptáčníkové na téma Czechitas - bussines & career development, která se uskutečnila 6. 10. 2017 na Filozofické fakultě Masarykovy univerzity.

1. Co je SXSW?

Letos Czechitas získala ocenění SXSW Community Service Award 2017 za pozitivní ovlivnění své komunity prostřednictvím technologie a grant 1000 dolarů. SXSW (South By Southwest)  byla založena v roce 1987 v Austinu v Texasu. SXSW pomáhá tvůrcům dosáhnout svých vysněných cílů. Společnost je známá svými konferencemi a festivaly, kde se oslavuje sbližování interaktivního, filmového a hudebního průmyslu. Díky těmto setkáním se objevují nejvíce nečekané objevy, protože se zde setkávají různá témata a různí lidé.

Zdroj: 

SXSW Conference & Festivals. SXSW Conference & Festivals [online]. [cit. 2017-10-10]. Dostupné z: https://www.sxsw.com/

2. Co je Ytili?

YTILI (Young Transatlantic Innovation Leaders Initiative) se zaměřuje na rozvoj podnikatelských dovedností a zvyšování ekonomických příležitostí pro mladé profesionály z celé Evropy. Jde o iniciativitu amerického ministerstva zahraničí. Díky ní  se vytvářejí mezi podnikateli Evropy a americkými podnikateli vztahy, které mohou vést k dlouhodobé spolupráci mezi sebou a které tak posílí transatlantické vztahy a podpoří celkový globální podnikatelský ekosystém. Mezi fellows patří i dva lidé z České republiky - Lenka Kučerová, firma StarLift.org a David Drobik, firma Startup Fund.

Zdroj: 

YTILI: Young Transatlantic Innovation Leaders Initiative. YTILI [online]. [cit. 2017-10-10]. Dostupné z: https://share.america.gov/ytili/

3 .Co je Rails Girls?

Rails Girls má za cíl otevřít technologii a učinit ji dostupnější pro dívky a ženy.

Založena Lindou Liukasovou a Karri Saarinenovou, finské programátorky. Z Rails Girls si berou příklad i Czechitas. Jde tedy o neziskovou operace organizaci - akce jsou organizovány společně s místními sponzory. Akce Rails Girls se rozšířila do celého světa. Dnes se tedy jedná o globální neziskovou organizaci.

“Czechitas vychází původem ze skandinávského projektu Rails Girls. To je systém veřejných přednášek, kde se holky učí programovat a šíří pak své znalosti mezi další posluchačky.”

Zdroj:

Rails Girls. Rails Girls [online]. [cit. 2017-10-10]. Dostupné z: http://railsgirls.com/

Citace: MATOLÍN, Matěj. Jak HR holky naučit technologie a IT ? In: Lovec Hlav [online]. 2016 [cit. 2017-10-10]. Dostupné z: http://lovec-hlav.cz/blog/czechitas-hr/

Pozn.: Článek od Matěje Matolína doporučuji přečíst. Najdete zde i odkaz na kampaň, jak dostat holky do IT v USA.

Dominika Miholová, 462748

[rebweicht]

The ingredient for driving a successful entrepreneurial ecosystem you never knew

Did you ever think that kids could add to your entrepreneurial ecosystem?

Let me convince you: as YTILI fellow on placement with Youth CITIES in Boston, I did not just have the chance to hear about nearly ten years’ worth of experience in setting up kids to run their own ventures but I got to meet some of them too. And you will be impressed.

Starting with teaching entrepreneurial skills as life skills

Youth CITIES (aka Youth Creating Impact Through Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Sustainability) is a non-profit founded and run by Vicky Wu Davis that teaches creative and innovative thinking to high school and middle school kids. Vicky - like myself - is a firm believer in entrepreneurship as a life skill that transforms the way kids work, live and play. She was inspired to organise the first Youth CITIES programmes when she became a mum. Today, Youth CITIES runs five programmes that seed students with an entrepreneurial mindset that turns them into the game-changing leaders of tomorrow. The network that Youth CITIES builds creates mentorships, work opportunities and spans industries.

Programmes that put kids on par with entrepreneurs open doors

A rigorous bootcamp inspires, educates and equips youth to take action and make a difference. Grants are awarded to top students and supported via CITIES Skunkworks. Skunkworks then takes those ideas to develop them into early-stage entrepreneurial ventures and brings the student-entrepreneurs together with their grown up counterparts for support, expertise, development resources, and funding for prototypes to become investment-ready. Yes, you read that right - 12-year olds get funding for ideas they developed.

Through a monthly mini-hack at Venture Cafe in Boston’s Cambridge Innovation Center, arguably the place in the U.S. with the highest density of start-ups and at the centre of Boston’s innovation square mile next to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and not far off from Harvard University, both student-entrepreneurs and anyone else can get help to overcome problems. Based on the business model canvas, the discussion is led by the entrepreneur to get creative ideas.

To day, Youth CITIES has seen over 1,000 students go through its programmes, connected over 70 communities and has over 50 mentors on call. Let that last number sink in when you think about ecosystems...

Student stories - who are these entrepreneurial kids

Let’s look at a couple of ventures that Youth CITIES scholars have founded:

A newspaper about the local community funded by a sophomore high school student

VirtualFoot, a device a middle schooler developed that gets gamers off the couch and moving with their games, and tackles the obesity challenge; the founder was in the process of registering her idea as patent when we met

A non-profit that focusses on anti-bullying whose programme 700 students have completed and that started with $500 in seed funding

An app that through GPS is meant to help reduce car theft and which was in the process of being patented - the same kid is working on a prototype for a tool that tool that uses Google Glass to help blind and visually impaired people make their way around new and unfamiliar place

An app that helps tennis pros find court partners whose inventor has since twice deferred starting uni at an Ivy League college in favour of his business and has taken it through MassChallenge, the world’s biggest and one of the top U.S. accelerator programmes; it’s founder is now 20 with five employees

A social enterprise founded by an 11-year old that won $1500 in seed funding to help Indian and Pakistani artisans sell their goods in the U.S.

There you go. Doesn’t that sound like these kids would be a benefit to your entrepreneurial ecosystem?

But don’t just hear it from me...

…hear it from others about these kids:

‘The students involved in Youth CITIES not only get opportunities to roll up their sleeves and get their hands dirty with designing, prototyping and programming but they also dive into public speaking, make contacts through market research and try to understand who their users/customers would be. The practice and experience they get is invaluable. My HR team interviewed one of them for an intern slot, and not only did he get it as the youngest intern ever, but my recruiting manager said he thought we might be working for him some day.’

Natalya Bailey, PhD, Founder and CEO of Accion Systems

‘Having seen the presentation of a 14-year old, I saw a lot of myself in him from when I was younger. He was very engaged, eloquent and evidently knew what he was talking about. I have gone to investin his business because I truly think that he knows what he is doing and will go far.’

Andy Miller, SVP of Innovation and Product Development at AARP

In short and did you know...?

So do you agree that engagement with kids and students can be a secret addition for a successful entrepreneurial ecosystem? I dare say you will.

On parting, let me leave you with two other pieces of information: 

Global youth tells us that they see successful ecosystems as one of the top three means to empower youth 

Global Entrepreneurship Monitor tells us that key drivers of entrepreneurial economies are those with a deep understanding of an entrepreneurial mindset and an entrepreneurial culture (via Norris Krueger). With these kids, it surely will be. 

In Vicky’s words: ‘Can 11- and 13- and 15-year-olds make a difference? Absolutely.’

[rebweicht]

YTILI (Entrepreneurship) Books - A resource list

Entrepreneurs are readers. I have found this to be the case whilst on my YTILI fellowship placement in the US in the last two weeks.  

I have compiled the below list of recommendations from a wide range of personal and professional conversations as well as from talks and other events (pitch nights!). They were made by entrepreneurs, civil servants, non-profit leaders, academics and everyone in between on all sorts of topics...

In no particular order:

Carol S. Dweck - Mindset; The New Psychology of Success

Gallup’s Strength Finder 2.0

Matt Ridely - The Rational Optimist; How Prosperity Evolves

Anna Lee Saxenian - Regional Advantage; Culture and Competition in Silicon Valley and Route 128

Steven Case - The Third Wave; An Entrepreneur’s Vision of the Future

Gary Keller - The One Thing; The surprisingly simple truth behind extraordinary results 

Paul A. Samuelson - Economics

Eckhard Tolle - The Power of Now; A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment

Aswath Damodoran - The Little Book of Valuation; How to Value a Company, Pick a Stock and Profit

Eric Ries - The Lean Start-Up; How Constant Innovation Creates Radically Successful Businesses

Erich Fromm - The Escape from Freedom

Elmira Bayrasli - From the Other Side of the World: Extraordinary Entrepreneurs, Unlikely Places 

Roger Martin - Getting Beyond Better; How Social Entrepreneurship Works

Steven R. Koltai - Peace Through Entrepreneurship; Investing in a Startup Culture for Security and Development

Sheryl Sandberg / Adam Grant - Option B; Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy

Films/Shows/Other resources:

CNBC’s ‘The Profit’ Show

ABC’s ‘Shark Tank’ 

Marie Forleo

Netflix’ documentary 'I am not your Guru’ about Tony Robbins

Netflix’ ‘Girlboss’ (based on the book of the same name)

Joy

The School of Life YouTube Channel

MIT Launch’s edX course ‘Becoming an Entrepreneur’

What other recommendations do you have? Let me know: @rebweicht

And on that happy note, here is a link to my Amazon Wishlist ;)

[rebweicht]

Rebecca goes U.S. - what is this all about?

First up, do forgive the length of this post. I am today trying to set the scene for my upcoming YTILI Fellowship in the U.S. and want to introduce you to what will happen on my social media feeds over the next weeks. In this post, ‘meet’ YTILI and how it relates to my work at Bantani Education, see what will happen while I’m in Washington D.C. and Boston and know how to follow me!

About YTILI

Launched in 2016, the Young Transatlantic Innovation Leaders Initiative (YTILI) Fellowship is the flagship program of the Young Transatlantic Innovation Leaders Initiative of the U.S. Department of State, and is supported in its implementation by the German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF). YTILI empowers young European entrepreneurs and innovators with the tools, networks, and resources they need to grow their enterprises. Being a government-sponsored transatlantic programme, YTILI is also a vehicle for building a transatlantic network of innovators that can contribute to an ongoing policy dialogue that strengthens the transatlantic relationship. In 2017, we are 100 Fellows that will engage in a series of professional development and leadership activities starting with a two-week professional placement in the U.S.

YTILI and Bantani Education

I have become part of YTILI as part of my work for Bantani Education. Bantani is the non-profit that I co-founded last year that wants to transform learning to develop entrepreneurial and creative mindsets. We do this by supporting organisations with networks, advice and resources in practice as well as work towards mainstreaming entrepreneurial learning across curricula. Why? Because in todays’ world entrepreneurial skills are basic skills that every learner needs to create their own future: the future of work is changing and we need to foster skills that enable any learner to solve problems, think creatively, mobilise resources, persevere and so much more…

In this work, YTILI will be an invaluable experience where I will gain professional experience, skills, and connections valuable to enhancing Bantani’s work, connect with some inspiring individuals in the United States and Europe, and eventually explore the policy context, financial landscape, and networks of U.S. entrepreneurial ecosystems to see how it can influence our work in European policy making.

Where will I go

The programme is made up of orientation days in D.C. to meet national and local thought leaders in innovation and entrepreneurship followed by a two-week placement with a host entrepreneur. My placement will be at Youth Cities Boston in Boston, MA. My placement and the city sound very exciting for someone working in education - I’m sure I don’t even have to explain much why! Boston is a known entrepreneurial hotspot and is considered the East Coast rival to Silicon Valley. In educational terms, Boston has 70+ universities and colleges and is a second-to-none place for education, edtech and innovation!

Youth Cities (Youth Creating Impact Through Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Sustainability) is an organisation/platform that cultivates youth entrepreneurship through programmes, tools and immersion activities. Their work looks very exciting and you will hear from me throughout the placement with more on them!

In addition to my placement, I and the other Fellows in Boston will engage in activities as part of the programme as well as go explore the entrepreneurial ecosystem of the city on our own. In preparation, I have had a look and already spotted great events as part of General Assembly and various MeetUps (including the Boston New Technology group) that look interesting. I also think about heading to Boston TechJam to make the most of innovation and the (hopefully) good weather by enjoying some great music.

How can you follow my journey

I plan to write at least two more long-form blog posts about my experiences and maybe will throw in a couple of shorter reflections throughout the weeks. So do follow on social media for daily tune-ins, see me meet thought leaders and be introduced to other Fellows. You can do so via the following links:

Instagram (with cross-posts to Facebook and Twitter)

Tumblr (with cross-posts to Facebook and Twitter)

Instagram will be my visual diary of where we go and whom we talk to. I will likely post a picture per day, probably more. All posts will be tagged with #ytili to be found easily. On Instagram, you will read reflections and feature introductions of some of the other Fellows as I have already seen that some impressive Fellows are among this year's group and my travelling cohort.

Follow this Tumblr for my main blog posts. These will include reflections on a larger scale (whom did we meet, what did I learn, what does it mean for Bantani).

So that was a very long blog post but hopefully you know better now how come I post about entrepreneurship in the U.S. over the next weeks instead of my usual education, (EU) policy etc. I’m off packing now - if you want to get in touch and chat, I can be reached easiest on @rebweicht.