One of the most beautiful things about Oberlin is that it is a small, close-knit environment. With this come opportunities that you won’t find at other colleges. An example of this is the Launch U entrepreneurship program that I spoke about in a previous blog.
This program was a 10-day boot-camp in the world of business and entrepreneurship. During the boot camp, we were to create and develop our own business and eventually pitch them in a Shark Tank-like format. Being a part of this program led me to be invited to have dinner with the Oberlin College Board of Trustees. This was a tremendous opportunity for me and an amazing example of the opportunities going to the prestigious Oberlin College can create for a person.
To prepare for the dinner with the Board of Trustees, I wanted to find a suit coat to wear with the rest of my dress clothes. I didn’t have to look far, though, as Oberlin College has a supply of dress clothes that any student can take for free to help prepare students for all business opportunities.
After a quick stop at the Multicultural Resource Center to pick up a suit coat, I felt confident and ready to have dinner with the Board of Trustees. As I got dressed for dinner, I thought to myself about how thoughtful Oberlin is for providing students with dress clothes. Things like this remind me that I am cared about as a student and as a person on this campus.
The dinner turned out to be an amazing networking opportunity for all of the students who were invited to attend. While I was at the dinner, I was offered a summer internship in the wealth management industry that I plan on pursuing in the future. Alex Blumberg of Gimlet Media gave a short speech to everyone in attendance about how his entrepreneurial mind developed as his business developed. The speech made me think about the opportunities my company could potentially create for people across the nation and how important it is to have a flexible mindset throughout life.
While I was there, I focused intently on gaining knowledge from these successful people. It was inspiring seeing so many people that came from Oberlin to go on and be not only successful economically, but also revolutionaries in their fields and philanthropists that help people all over the globe. I talked to people involved in everything from the World Health Organization to a nonprofit organization focused on supporting women in the job field. Oberlin creates leaders in the future in every industry.
Launch U’s competition pitch did not end the way I anticipated, as my company did not win any funding, but that will not stop my company’s growth. I truly enjoyed my Launch U experience and hope to one day become one of the mentors involved in the program.
Hopefully, with time I will even be deemed successful enough to be one of the Launch U judges. What is evident throughout this is how lucky I am to go to Oberlin. I wouldn’t want my college experience to be any different than the tight-knit environment I am currently a part of.
