Spring Semester Recap

As we gear up for our final semester I feel more prepared than ever to tackle our first series of summer sprints. I’ve worked on a lot of interesting projects over the last several months including a chatbot, a low-income meal kit service, and an accessibility research project. I’ve compiled a few highlights of the semester and several key skills that I’ve picked up along the way.

NVC Women’s Entrepreneurship Prize Finalists

This semester our entire cohort applied to CU’s New Venture Challenge, a competition to develop and fund entrepreneurial ideas. Our entrepreneurship class was already well into the research phase and this opportunity pushed us to develop a cohesive story and practice pitching our business ideas. There were a lot of talented teams involved in the NVC and none of the groups in our cohort made it into the main competition. However, our group was selected as a finalist for the Women’s Entrepreneurship prize. We pitched in front of investors and had a chance to chat with the judges and other teams after the competition. While we didn’t win the $10,000 prize, it was a valuable experience and we made some key contacts along the way.

Exploring Service Design

UX encompasses so many facets, I loved digging into service design this semester. Service design explores every touch point a customer has with a service as well as the backstage interactions of the business. My group tackled the unsexy task of researching the oil change experience and gained insights into potential improvements we could make from a customer and employee perspective. While these jobs aren’t as mainstream, I’d love to pursue opportunities in this field in the future.

Prototyping Skills

I’ve been building a portfolio with bootstrap this semester and have been dabbling with javascript. There are so many prototyping programs out there, we worked with Axure and Framer this semester. I really enjoyed learning Framer and I look forward to continuing to build these skills over the summer.

Catalyze CU

Catalyze CU is a 10-week summer startup accelerator designed to provide capital and mentorship to students interested in launching a business. My entrepreneurship group applied for the program and we have been accepted to join the summer cohort. This will be a great opportunity to gain insight and build skills needed to build a successful business. Overall, I’ve learned a lot in the last 10 months and I’m looking forward to a productive and engaging final semester.