Di Cui
On July 1, 2024, we greeted 39 dedicated and talented students at The City College of New York at the beginning of their entrepreneurial journey. One month later, we heard 8 community-minded pitches around building healthy communities; we also celebrated the accomplishments and friendships of these aspiring female entrepreneurs, another cohort of proud Bossgirls.
Sponsored by Standard Chartered Bank’s Futuremakers Initiative and powered by The Zahn Innovation Center, Bossgirls has sent off eight summer cohorts, and continues to teach high school girls and non-binary students about entrepreneurship with an experiential learning model. Follow along to find highlights from our eighth summer.
For this iteration, we centered the program around healthy communities, a common theme in this year's Bossgirls’ applications and pertinent to the ongoing epidemic of loneliness since COVID-19. Healthy communities not only involve the physical well-being of people, but also encompass the mental health of individuals, the social connections, the sustainable built fabric and the natural environment, and more. We examined the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and OneNYC 2050 Strategy; the students also heard from a panel of entrepreneurs and practitioners who had been building healthy communities in different fields. With the bigger picture in mind, Bossgirls delved into the foundations of entrepreneurship through intensive workshops and built their own startup ideas based on new learnings from class, interviews with potential customers, research and mentors’ feedback. Check out their ideas below.
- Advocare (Avery, Nuzhat, Subrina, Tianxiao, Vivian): Advocare is developing an app to help non-English speakers in Queens, NY connect and communicate with doctors with a software and AI-driven call service.
- Anchor (Camila, Elia, Emily, Kaitlyn, Rebecca):Anchor is developing a service to help newly immigrated parents and teenagers from East Asia and Latin America assimilate to Washington Heights and South Brooklyn using a catalog of communities, classes, ethnic grocery stores, and other available opportunities for them to utilize.
- Campus (Ainsley, Nicole, Shannon): CAMPUS incentivizes NYC college students to effectively manage their screen time and increase social interaction by connecting them with activities catered to their interests throughout the city, and thus providing a way for students to live productively and in the moment instead of through their screens.
- CareCompass (Angela, Badma, Chloe, Eva, Ilina): CareCompass is an all-in-one app designed to ensure that the elderly and their caregivers have seamless access to quality medical care. With our advanced filtering system, users can easily discover the right practitioners. Our integrated calendar helps manage appointments and prescriptions efficiently, while our chat feature ensures direct communication with doctors and volunteers, making healthcare more accessible and organized for everyone involved.
- Frienderflies (Adalia, Aliyah, Cammyla, Favour, Joyce, Sammy): Frienderflies is a nonprofit organization developing a website to help unemployed immigrants in NYC find local job opportunities with matchmaking algorithms.
- GenTogether (Bailee, Joyce, Nia, Sarah, Tabitha, Tiffany): GenTogether is developing a call and transportation service to help older adults aged 70+ with physical and mental health issues easily access free transportation to suggested events tailored to their interests and create friendships with like-minded people.
- Limitless Ventures (Annie, Grace, Leanna, Sharon): Limitless Ventures is developing an in person tutoring program to help K-12 NYC special needs students who lack educational resources by providing tailored education support.
- Student Stories (Aihya, Eliana, Kaylee, Michaela, Rachel): Student Stories is developing a social networking app where high school students can search for colleges and be connected with vlogs, tips, advice, and authentic experiences shared by current college students for personalized guidance and a community driven platform
Role models inspire, guide and challenge us. Our students heard from two entrepreneurs, Aishwarya Balaji, founder of A Fresh Sip and Marwh Alzandani, founder of Easy Meets. “[You] should always put your resources to the best use and take advantage of people around you,” recounted one of our students after the talks. Others also took away that we all, especially women of color, had “something to offer to the table” and we should “keep persevering and never take no for an answer.”
We also brought the students off campus to take advantage of the abundant resources in the city. On their field trip to Chase’s Harlem Branch, Bossgirls received training on financial literacy and participated in a moderated discussion with two local founders who shared their educational, professional and entrepreneurial stories. At Mastercard’s headquarters, students got to know Mastercard’s initiatives that made smarter and more sustainable cities and checked out the latest technology at the Experience Center. Many Bossgirls regarded the mentoring time with Mastercard’s Women’s Leadership Network volunteers as one of their best moments of the program. Besides working hard, we also had fun: Bossgirls played bowling and enjoyed the serene scenery at the Pier 57’s rooftop park on one of the final days of the program.
At the Finale on August 1 at the Standard Chartered New York headquarters, Bossgirls pitched their ideas to their peers, mentors, family and friends. Many of them found the questions and comments from the audience informative and applauded the other teams’ presentations. Their families shared similar sentiments, including Heather Romero (Mother to Adalia Romero): “Watching my daughter and her team's pitch at the final Bossgirls presentation filled me with so much pride and joy. I know how hard all the participants worked, but I couldn't imagine how polished and professional they would be as they delivered their company's value proposition, financial plan, and solutions to the problem statement. This program will prepare her for many opportunities ahead, both personally and professionally. Thank you.” Mercedes Madanire (Mother to Michaela Madanire) said, "The [Bossgirls] Summer Program was an incredible growth experience for my daughter! She thrived in the immersive, fun environment, making lifelong friends and building her confidence. The emphasis on leadership and teamwork, coupled with dedicated mentorship, allowed her to collaborate on a business idea from scratch and develop an impressive pitch. Highly [recommended] for students looking to build their entrepreneurship skills!" We at Bossgirls were also proud to see our eighth cohort finish their five-week exploration in the realm of entrepreneurship on a strong and celebratory note, confident that their passion, skills, connections and dedication would take them far and beyond.
The Bossgirls program could not have been made possible without the support of our sponsor, Standard Chartered, along with their mentors. We would also like to acknowledge and thank our “Healthy Communities” panelists who shed light on the breadth and depth of this topic, founders who shared their experiences and judges who provided feedback at round robin sessions. We appreciate everyone for making this summer an inspiring experience for our 2024 cohort.
- Guest Facilitators: Chantele Pereira, Christina Torres
- Healthy Communities Panelists and Mentors :Laura Collins | Psychotherapist, Co-host of the podcast, “Hahnacity”, Judi Desire | Founder Uptown & Boogie Healthy Project, Colette Ellis | Founder at Libbie Health, Michelle Ng | Founder at Neuemoon Health, Katherine Gloede Silverman | Assistant Director, M.S. in Sustainability (CCNY, CUNY)
- Founders: Marwh Alzandani | Founder of Easy Meets, Aishwarya Balaji | Founder of A Fresh Sip
- Founders at Chase Field Trip: Erodita Agard-Anderson | Founder and Workshop Facilitator of Power2Plan Youth Financial Literacy Program, Shawnique Woolfalk | Founder & CEO of Art in the Park inc
- Industry Mentors: Chris Bobko, Valentina Cafarelli, Veronica Fey, Hana Kassem, Anicka Lewis, Malcolm Paul, Gina Ramcharan, Ariana Rodriguez, Laura Thomas, Kristina Unker
- Standard Chartered Mentors: Elizabeth Aldridge, Ganesh Asirvatham, Hanna Decker, Fernando Didier, Osamwonyi Igbineweka, Haseeba Karim, Kiran Kumaranayakam, Carolina Leon, Robila Mahmood, Shantadurga Mutha, Madina Noorza, Kathy Netto, Asude Ozenc, Minal Rana, Sriram Reguraman, Sonia Rossetti, Sachi Vazm, Julian Willoughby, Erwen Yu