World, meet aspire.

Who doesn’t recall being asked as a kid some variation of “who/what do you want to be when you grow up?” According to the photo below, I apparently wanted to be a policeman at the age of four.

I’ve deviated a tad from that aspiration in ’98. I’m now a senior at UPenn studying Computer Science. But I am fascinated by this question because I think people’s answers provide a window into their interests and aspirations at a point in time.

As a college student preparing to enter the workforce, I’ve observed that many students — freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors alike — struggle to identify how they should best position themselves. Surrounded by an abundance of opportunity — courses, jobs, internships, professors, other students, online content — it is often unclear which opportunities we should try to harvest to enhance our skills and compete while also finding meaning and value in the endeavors we pursue. Often, we are so close to an opportunity or experience yet miss it simply because we don’t know it exists!

In an attempt to address this problem, I started building aspire to help students connect to opportunities by matching them with peers who may have knowledge or an experience they can learn from.

Just as our own personal experiences influence our interests, aspirations, and how we view the world, learning from our peers can be super valuable too. I think other people’s experiences can help inform the decisions we should be making as each of us navigates our own path.

Here’s a short video I made about the project…

Through aspire, I hope to inspire a culture of sharing, inclusion, and self-purpose and hopefully bring more students a bit closer to pursuing and achieving their aspirations. 🌠

Who do you aspire to be? Sign up here today!

Finally, have feedback or want to join the team? Reach out to hello@iaspire.me