Author: tbrg

blog | 3min Read

5 Reasons to Participate in the IE Junior Entrepreneurship Challenge

Published on July 22, 2022

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5 Reasons to Participate in the IE Junior Entrepreneurship Challenge

1. Get the chance to attend free masterclasses.

All participants will get to attend a pre-challenge session on the 11th of July 2022 on “Innovative Mindset” with Professor Balwinder Powar. The top 20 teams selected will go to the next round where they will receive free masterclass sessions on:

  1. “Effective brainstorming/ideation development” on 18th July 2022
  2. “How to deliver a persuasive pitch” on 25th July 2022 
  3. Mentoring Week starting 3rd August 2022

The team that won the competition last year raved about the masterclasses they got the opportunity to be a part of and thought of them as quintessential in their win. They believed that the magnitude of learning was “beyond measure”. 

2. Win exciting prizes!

Apart from gaining invaluable entrepreneurial skills, there are some exciting prizes for the participants- 

1st Place

  • Exclusive scholarship to pursue an undergraduate degree at IE University 
  • University merchandise 
  • Winning certificate 
  • 50% scholarship to Ivy Early Entrepreneur Program with Big Red Education

2nd Place

  • Runners-up certificate 
  • University merchandise 
  • 25% scholarship to Ivy Early Entrepreneur Program with Big Red Education 

3rd Place

  • First runners-up certificate 
  • University merchandise 
  • 25% scholarship to Ivy Early Entrepreneur Program with Big Red Education

Register now to win these exciting prizes! 

3. Learn the ins and outs of the booming industries of start-ups and entrepreneurship!

If you’re somebody who is intellectually curious about how startups work, like taking risks, have decision-making abilities, and are constantly trying to keep up with the start-up ecosystem, the Junior Venture Capitalist challenge by IE University is made for you. 

This is a three-week challenge, where you will understand what is relevant in today’s start-up ecosystem, learn the tools required in ideating for them, and understand the fundamentals of Market Research, Design Thinking, Marketing, Sales and Pitching & Fundraising, and how to implement them into your own start-up ideas. The top 20 teams selected, go through a mentoring week where they get to develop their business pitch deck under a mentor. 

On the final day, they pitch their ideas and the team with the best business deck gets an exclusive scholarship to pursue the undergraduate programme at IE University Spain!

4. It is absolutely free of cost!

This challenge is absolutely free of cost as it strives to reach every student possible and give them an opportunity and platform to gain entrepreneurial knowledge and develop their very own projects alongside a mentor which they ultimately get to pitch. Consider it a free version of Shark Tank India!!

5. Learn to work in a competitive environment and some essential skills that stay with you throughout your life.

Moving forward in your school or college life, you are bound to be faced with competitive situations where you will need skills like working alongside others, cooperation, working under pressure, negotiation and so much more. The IE Junior Entrepreneurship Challenge will prepare you for these instances and free you of your fear and inhibitions about competing in general. Apart from this, it will also immensely enhance your resume and the skills you will learn from it are bound to help you in every sphere of life. 

So if you haven’t registered for the IE Junior Entrepreneurship Challenge already, what are you waiting for?

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blog poetry | 5min Read

5 reasons to join the Poetry in America Intensive Programme

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5 reasons to join the Poetry in America Intensive Programme

1. Learn how poetry intersects with other art forms like music, rap, dance, sports etc and how one can express their emotions through it.

Poetry is a means of self-expression which in today’s world has found several other channels such as rap, music, dance, sports and more as well. For me, it is dance and it serves as a form of therapy oftentimes not just self-expression. This is what poetry does as well. It is a beautiful art which is enhanced even more when found in the intersection with other forms of self-expression! This programme will streamline the expression of emotions, feelings and thoughts in your writing. 

Furthermore, the intersection between poetry and other forms of art like hip-hop, ballet, jazz and more will be prevalent as the Poetry in America Intensive Programme progresses. You will be learning with jazz pianist Herbie Hancock, poet Sonia Sanchez, and a group of students from Harlem, New York, in the study of Langston Hughes’s Harlem, studying alongside hip hop legend Nas and friends as they discuss Nas’s iconic song “N.Y. State of Mind”, joining basketball stars Shaquille O’Neal, Pau Gasol, and Shane Battier as they explore the love of the game through the lens of Edward Hirsch’s great basketball poem, “Fast Break.”

Moreover, you will get to witness actor Cynthia Nixon, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, and poet Marie Howe as they explore Emily Dickinson’s “I cannot dance upon my toes,” a journey into what musical, theatrical, & literary performances all have in common and examine Robert Pinsky’s “Shirt” alongside young fashion designers, as well as fashion icons Stuart Weitzman, Johnson Hartig, and Betty Halbreich. 

I honestly did not know of a lot of these people but after searching up about them, I was in awe. You all will learn so much from these legends and will be grateful for the skills you will pick up, which are essential and will come in handy throughout your life. 

2. Learn under Professors from Harvard and Arizona State University.

PROGRAMME CREATOR

Elisa New is the Director and Host of Poetry in America, the director of the Center for Public Humanities at Arizona. State University, director of Verse Video Education, and Powell M. Cabot Professor of American Literature at Harvard University. 

New created Poetry in America, a PBS series, to bring poetry into living rooms and onto screens of all kinds. Guests include Joe Biden, Herbie Hancock, Gloria Estefan, Shaquille O’Neal, Elena Kagan, & Nas. Along with the series, New produces educational materials on American poetry for all ages—from middle- and high-school students, to K-12 teachers, to lifelong learners—distributed by Harvard University, Amplify Education, and Arizona State University.

OUR MENTOR

Ross Weissman is a poet, educator, and entrepreneur. His poetry and translations have appeared in Blue Lyra Review, Exchanges, Caliban Online, Pusteblume, and elsewhere.

As both a poet and educator, he values the diverse life experiences, contexts, and voices of each of his students. This has motivated his work in entrepreneurship too, having served as a founding team member of an environmental education summer camp in the Arctic Circle, a boutique leadership development firm in Vancouver, Canada, and a global ed-tech company in Boston, MA. He holds his master’s degree in education from Harvard, where he also served as a teaching fellow and researcher on a range of projects with humans and birds!

These professors are absolutely amazing at the work they do and their work has left me fascinated. They are going to positively impact everyone they mentor and interact with and hopefully, it includes everyone reading this blog as well!

3. Earn a transferable ASU College-level credit while in High School.

College credits are used as a metric to award students academically in return for the effort they put in their coursework, along with the number of hours dedicated to finishing a particular course. Poetry in America Intensive is the first program for high schoolers in India that confers you one ASU credit which can be transferred to a college or university of your choice!

4. Learn the art of poetry amongst other budding poets in the country.

You will not be alone in this programme in regard to your passion for poetry. You will be learning and flourishing in the presence of other budding and talented poets from across the country as well! You will get a chance to enhance vocabulary, sentence formation, syntax, and creativity. Moreover, you will learn the essential skills that will help you incorporate Argumentative and Expository rhetoric within your writing. Interacting with a diverse group of students will allow you to explore different perspectives and opinions as well! 

Viewing issues and topics from other perspectives is so important when you are developing your argumentative skills and working along with others is bound to teach you essential skills like teamwork, collaboration, negotiation and more. 

5. Create your own poem or another art form focused on a social issue

The final day will comprise of collaboration with fellow students and aspiring poets in order to develop a poem or absolutely any other work of art that addresses a social issue. You will be harnessing all your creative powers to inspire change. 

From the content I have been exposed to, I believe that literature and art are extremely powerful ways of bringing about change and inspiring the youth.

This brings me to what Alice Osborn, a renowned poet, singer-songwriter, educator, and book editor, has said about poetry- “Poetry is so important because it helps us understand and appreciate the world around us. Poetry’s strength lies in its ability to shed a “sideways” light on the world, so the truth sneaks up on you. No question about it. Poetry teaches us how to live. Poetry is like the Windex on a grubby car window—it bares open the vulnerabilities of human beings so we can all relate to each other a little better.” 

I instantly connect with this even as an economics major! It has been put absolutely beautifully and brings out the essence of the goal of the Poetry in America Intensive Programme that will make you feel a multitude of emotions, express yours, and drive change. 

P.S. This programme is happening in India for the first time ever and had I still been in high school, I would be the first to apply and so should you!!

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blog Harvard | 3min Read

5 Reasons to join the Harvard Leadership Bootcamp!

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5 Reasons to join the Harvard Leadership Bootcamp!

If you are looking to strengthen your leadership skills and learn more about them, the Harvard Leadership Bootcamp brought to you by Big Red Education, is the best fit for you! Keep reading to find out why!!

1. First offline program after 3 years!!

After 3 years of hosting our programs online due to the pandemic, we are finally back with an offline one! The Harvard Leadership Bootcamp brings in the brightest undergraduate students from Harvard to mentor students in an intensive 2 day Bootcamp. They aim to transform the idea of leadership from a one-sided theoretical lecture into a fun, collaborative and empathetic life skill and turn high school students into effective leaders. This is going to be a level up from all our previous programs and you do not want to miss out !!

2. Learn from the young Harvard mentors from the Leadership Institute at Harvard College!

The Bootcamp will be presented by 9 mentors who are members of The Leadership Institute at Harvard College- a student organization devoted to fostering the awareness, skills, and values of leadership among Harvard undergraduates! LIHC aims to inspire and empower students to fulfil their leadership potential at Harvard, in their communities, and their world. Consequently, these 9 mentors are thoroughly trained and have garnered immense experience with leadership at a young age. They strive to create an open-minded and relatable atmosphere, where our students are not dictated to but actively participate in the process to define what leadership means. They will serve as advisors and friends to the students, breaking down intimidating age-based authority structures and treat you not as blank canvases waiting to be filled, but as bright youngsters with insightful perspectives of their own, that are just waiting to be realized by the rest of the world!!

And more!..

3. Learn how to navigate challenges with confidence and poise.

Students will learn invaluable lessons in problem-solving, innovation, negotiation, teamwork and more, which will better equip them to navigate challenges with confidence. 

Let’s see what Neeraja Asnani of Shiv Nadar School- a student who has been trained by a few of these mentors in the past- has to say about her biggest takeaway: “I learnt how to be a better leader and how by using the root cause analysis I can find a solution to each and every problem!”

Our students leave the Bootcamp as empathetic individuals who can gauge people and problem-solvers that can find a way out of any challenge!

4. Become a confident communicator and master the art of public speaking.

The Bootcamp will develop the students into confident speakers both on the stage and in conversations by deep diving into elevator pitches, and learning to debate and defend their opinions. Being around the brightest students from across the country, that too in an offline setting will facilitate sharing of ideas, perspectives, and collaboration and will subsequently strengthen communication skills!! The skills of public speaking and communication hence imbibed from the program will ultimately prepare students for their college, and career, as well as aid their networking in general life.

5. Say goodbye to lectures and learn through interactive activities!

Leadership isn’t a rigid concept; it is an ever-evolving idea that means different things to different people. And as such, it can’t be taught through rote teaching and memorising. That is why at the Bootcamp, we ditch one-way lectures and invigorate your unique thought process through a ton of out-of-the-box activities! From plane crash role-plays to writing letters to your future self to designing your dream party; learning has never been more fun!

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My Business of Sports 101 Journey

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My Business of Sports 101 Journey

Vaishnavi Sharma,
Bombay Scottish School

I have been an ardent fan of sports, primarily cricket for the majority of my life and always wanted to become proficient in the field. However, being an athlete was not my cup of tea and I thought that my dream of being a part of the dynamic world of sports would just remain a dream. Fortunately this all changed when I read about the Business of Sports 101 Programme and decided to enroll myself in it. 

Being a part of this programme has been one of the most enriching experiences of my life and the credit for that goes to the amazing mentors from Deakin University. The professors introduced us to different aspects of sports management in fun and interactive ways. Sitting in front of my laptop in the morning was not a chore, but the most exciting part of the day for me. 

During the eleven day long course, we were taught many topics such as sport organization, broadcasting and nutrition. Instead of making the learning process theoretical, we were given an opportunity to practically apply the knowledge during group discussions. At first, I was intimidated at the thought of joining the break out rooms, preparing notes and discussing my opinions with others. But those fears quickly faded away when I saw how supportive the professors and mentors were and how they respected every student’s opinion. 

I enjoyed each session, but the best one for me was the one where we learnt about Operation and Facility Management in sports. During that session, the groups had to make their own Big Bash League Team! We got to choose a city for our team, a marquee player, team colors, in short, we could do what we thought was best.  I was on cloud nine during that session and did not want it to end. 

Till a few years back, sport management was not seen as a viable field but our mentors for the programme definitely proved this fact wrong. There were many students from Deakin who told us about their experiences and inspired many to carve a path for themselves in the sport management field. Another experience that I will always cherish is meeting Mr Zameer Kochar, the CMO of the IPL team Rajasthan Royals. He spoke about the different ways in which a sports team is marketed, how it is important to have a strong foundation for your team and about the ways in which they were giving back to the community. The interaction that we had with him and the other students from Deakin has motivated me to continue to pursue sports management.

I am really happy that I decided to be a part of the programme. The knowledge that I have gained and the interactions that I have had are something I will cherish forever. I want to thank Big Red Education for curating this amazing programme for us. Now I look forward to our internship with Rajasthan Royals where we get to apply what we have learned to a live project. 

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Aarna’s Ivy Early Entrepreneur Journey

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Aarna’s Ivy Early Entrepreneur Journey

Aarna Gupta
Grade 9, Step by Step School

The Ivy Early Entrepreneur program was a wonderful experience for a business enthusiast like me. Learning from professionals in their respective fields, hearing their insights, and learning from their journey were some of the key components that make this program perfect for someone who wants to learn more about the hows and whats of entrepreneurship. During the program, we learnt the process from actually having an idea to it finally culminating into our very own business project. At every step of the way: ideation, brainstorming, prototyping, business modeling, branding, etc you get to hear the valuable opinions from experts, and using that allows you to bring your own project into perspective. We had the opportunity to interact with all of the mentors and it was truly a dream come true and such experiences can’t be replicated and are key to progressing your business idea. The mentors explained the concept to us through extremely elaborate documents breaking down all of it and making it very easy for us to comprehend. 

The process was interesting and thrilling and helped us make our business idea tangible. I spent months wondering how these things might work, but these 7 days have unlocked a plethora of ideas and different ways to work with them. I think one of the most important things I learned from this program is that age is just a number after all. Your entrepreneurship journey starts when you want it to. 

Executing a business includes a number of components that require different levels of creativity, practicality, and brainstorming and during the program, we went through all of these explicitly. I extremely enjoyed the sessions on market research and how to find your target market as well as the one on business modeling and marketing. It was fascinating to understand how to conduct surveys, look at the requirements of your audience, understand how to create a brand, how to keep your customers satisfied etc. 

The great part about these 7 days was that we really got to get into all of the important topics, taking time to absorb all of them and simultaneously implementing them which really helped improve my understanding of it. There were various hands-on tasks, especially during the prototyping stage and it was interesting to explore all of these different avenues of entrepreneurship. The program also played a key role in inspiring and motivating us as we heard so many stories about different start ups and how they progressed and eventually achieved immense success in their fields. Not only that, but the Ivy program also is an opportunity for us to collaborate with other kids around the country and build a brand with them. It was wonderful getting to know everyone and having the chance to work with such an amazing team. 

The experience really gave me a heads-up as to what entrepreneurship entails and helped me contemplate my ideas, organize them and make them into a concrete plan. If you’re someone

wondering how entrepreneurship works and how to work towards your business idea, then this program is your calling. 

Lastly, I would like to thank the mentors and everyone who helped make this program so memorable.

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