Y-Labs: Summer 2020 Mid-Program Update
Y-Labs is wrapping up its third week – with Demo Day showcase next Friday, August 7th
Summer 2020 Fellows have had the opportunity to connect with and be mentored by world-class professionals and industry leaders, develop innovative social enterprise projects, and take classes on emerging technologies like Game Design, AI and Machine Learning, Space Technology, and New Venture Design. At the end of the 4-week program, innovation projects will be displayed at Demo Day.
Our Speakers
So far, we have welcomed eight speakers to our program. We have been honored to host an incredible group of professionals to our virtual classroom this month. Our speakers include:
Bob Purcell — Bob is the former Chief Marketing officer of Dunkin’ and Boudin. Apart from marketing, Bob enjoys working with youth to inspire and educate. Today, he coaches Women’s Basketball & Tennis at Carlsbad High School in Carlsbad, CA.
Kevin Okseniuk — Former SpaceX Engineer, Aeronautics and Astronautics Graduate Student and Knight Hennessy Scholar at Stanford University.
Dan Kammen — Nobel Prize winner, former Environmental Envoy for the Obama Administration, and University of California Berkeley Energy Professor. He currently leads the RAEL lab on Berkeley campus.
Tom Kosnik — Retired Stanford Marketing & Entrepreneurship Professor and Venture Partner at FounderX Ventures.
Larry Namer — E! Network Co-Founder & CEO of Metan Global. Larry is the first Westerner to distribute a successful comedy series on Chinese television.
Dr. Pablo Paredes — Pervasive Wellbeing Technology researcher at Stanford University School of Medicine.
Jason Scott — Head of Startup Developer Ecosystem at Google. Graduate of Stanford Graduate School of Business and MIT.
Isaac Nwokocha — Product & Program Manager at Microsoft. Issac has an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Josiah Koons — Senior Manager of Creative Services at Bandai Namco Entertainment. Josiah has over ten years of experience managing marketing campaigns in the entertainment industry.
Alec Wright — Chief Innovation Officer at GSVlabs. GSVlabs is a global startup accelerator that connects startups with the best tools for business growth.
Joshua Armah — Managing Partner at Wiase Capital. AI engineer and ecosystem builder.
Virtual Classroom Experience
Y-Labs Fellows benefit from courses developed by education experts from Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania, UC Berkeley, and Stanford. Our curriculum includes courses that steer students to learn not only about social enterprise but also about the technologies and business models that drive social innovation. Fellows have taken courses in New Venture Design, Emerging Technology, Social Ventures, Teamwork, and Human Centered Design. New Venture Design focuses on building a new venture from zero to one, empathizing with users, defining problem statements, prototyping solutions and building MVPs. In Emerging Technologies, Fellows learn the hard-skills required to build 21st century innovation in Blockchain, AI and Machine Learning, Game Design, etc. In Team Formation, Fellows learn the importance of team building, team roles and teamwork. Our Human Centered Design curriculum teaches students how to develop a product or service centered on human needs.
Our education and curriculum team is led by Lauren McElhatton and comprises Prerna Munoth, Margaret Wang, Isabella Arreola, Shirley Wang, and Yuman Li.
Idea Hub
Idea Hub projects were crowd sourced from the Y-Labs Community and partner organizations including Stanford Hospitals, NuMarket, WeHope and Second Harvest. Fellows are working with Y-Labs Coaches to create solutions to problems brought to light by the pandemic. Projects include improving service to the homeless in a COVID-19 world, building more effective digital neurological exams while limiting physical doctor-patient contact, creating credit risk models to provide liquidity to small businesses, and building an online platform of mental health resources for young people and adolescents adversely affected by anxiety disorder.
Mentor Highlights
Our Coaches are industry experts that guide Fellows through social enterprise projects.
Lisa von Rabenau — 2017 Forbes 30 under 30 and Product Manager at Proxy. MS Engineering and Design, Stanford University.
Jenae Richardson — Postdoctoral Fellow at the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System. BA Psychology and Journalism at Syracuse University and Phd Clinical Psychology LIU Post.
Chika Ugboh — Product Manager at WorkDay. MS Engineering Management at Dartmouth College and BS Chemical Engineering at MIT.
Sheela Toprani — Neuroscientist and Well-Being Expert. Currently a Postdoctoral Scholar in Neurology at Stanford Medicine.
Lucas Blauch — — Director of Microfluidics, SageMedic. MS and PhD Mechanical Engineering at Stanford University. During his PhD, Luke developed numerous microfluidic devices to study different aspects of biology, including single cell wound repair, RNA self-replication, cellular heterogeneity, and antibiotic resistance. Simultaneously, he designed new biological assays to perform experiments. Luke’s groundbreaking research resulted in high-impact publications in peer-reviewed journals including Science and PNAS. Most notably, Luke invented and patented the microfluidic guillotine, originally as a way to study the ability of cells and tissues to heal from wounds.
Other Coaches include: Josiah Koons, Naisha Silva, Shaina Silva, Amanda Banducci, Kevin LaGuerre, Laya Atchan, Jonathan Spitz, Dennis Obigwe, Chinyere Agunwa, Pierre Fuller, Ola Muse, Robert Greenfield, Ubani Balogun, Chris Maurice, Eden Kfir, Kevin Okseniuk, Mridula Saini and Diane Smith.
Fellow Highlights
Our Fellows are working on social enterprise projects from healthcare to financial inclusion. Fellows apply their ideas to real-world social enterprise and nonprofit clients.
Bianca Louis-Jacques, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Sophomore at Lexington Christian Academy. “Y-Labs has been a wonderful and enriching experience so far. From meeting peer Fellows who share similar values and passions, to connecting with well accomplished individuals (during the Speaker Series) from different backgrounds who share a passion for sharing their talents and experiences with teenagers. Y-Labs has done a great job of challenging me to solve real world problems and provided me with the tools and resources to do so”.
Vincent Lo, San Jose, CA. Grade 8 at Chaboya Middle School. “I have a strong passion for math, coding and entrepreneurship and have scored many achievements in major contests such as AMC 8, AMC 10, and USACO. My experience at Y-Labs has been amazing. Y-Labs connected me with successful entrepreneurs and taught me many business skills that culminate in solving real-world problems. For example, my project is getting homeless people the healthcare they need so that they can get back on their feet. In addition, there are many guest speakers from established companies that share their story of how they became successful. Because of Y-Labs, this has become the most memorable and educational summer”.
Other summer 2020 Y-Labs Fellows include:
Janice Hu: Grade 12, Canyon Crest Academy, San Diego, CA.
Talal Muzaffar: Grade 12, KGS Faisalabad, Faisalabad, Pakistan.
Amy Zang: Grade 11, Chantilly High School, Chantilly, Virginia.
Michelle Chen: Grade 12, Brooklyn Technical High School, New York, NY.
Phoebe Nabua: Sophomore, Penn State University — Main, Los Angeles, CA.
Jessica Gao: Grade 11, Mountain View High School, Maintain View, CA.
In addition to: Neel Chatterjee, Gabrielle Carrillo, Sana Aliminati, Gabriela Frajtag, Raveera Toqeer, Akash Dasgupta, Olaoluwa Ajayi, and Ademola Adeboyejo.
What’s Next?
Industry Networking — Our Industry Networking Event is an opportunity for Y-Labs Associates to connect with our Coaches (Advisors, Mentors and Facilitators), Speakers, Parents and guardians, Friends of the House, and Industry Partners from GSVlabs, Alchemist and Wiase Capital.
Demo Day — On August 7th 2020, we will hold Demo Day, the most exciting day of our accelerator course. On Demo Day, our students showcase their incredible hard work of the summer. Students show and present their projects to a panel of judges — some of whom were previous coaches or speakers!
Robert Chestnut — Robert is the former Chief Ethics Officer at Airbnb. He legally advised many technology companies including; Upwork, Prosper, Turo, Uber and Poshmark. Robert is now a best-selling author, his book Intentional Integrity released July 28th, 2020.
Partners
Y-Labs has been proudly supported by GSVlabs, Alchemist Accelerator and Wiase Capital.
GSV Labs is a startup accelerator based in Silicon Valley as well as Boston MA. Their organization specializes in providing new startups with the tools to make their ideas a reality, helping them find co-working spaces, providing enterprise tools, and giving access to their Passport, which allows them to connect with investors and mentors in their fields. GSV Labs assists startups in more than 100 countries.
Alchemist Accelerator is a program similar to ours, just focused on adults in the tech space. Alchemist provides a highly selective program that gives students the fundamentals of creating an enterprise-facing company, and that connects companies with early adopter customers, with fortune 100 companies ready to accelerate customer development and validation.
Wiase Capital is a venture philanthropy and impact investment firm based in Palo Alto. They focus on creating impact with their investments, funding companies that show promise in affecting the global landscape. They provide a large network of vetted investors for their companies, composed of top-ranked VC’s in the valley.
About Y-Labs
Y-Labs is a highly selective entrepreneurship, venture design and social innovation program for talented teenagers who have demonstrative potential in STEAMS (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics, and Sports). Our mission is to accelerate the talent and passion of young people for innovation-led entrepreneurship that leads to real social change within their communities. Our network of experienced Silicon Valley professionals provide mentorship and coaching to Y-Labs Fellows. We are dedicated to promoting diversity, equity and inclusion.
Learn more about Y-Labs here.
Find Y-Labs on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Medium blog.
Check our Podcast Silicon Valley Founders Secrets Podcast.
To support our non-profit: GoFundMe.
Our Team
Y-Labs Founders include Mahama Nyankamawu, Christina Weaver, Michael Olorunninwo.
Marketing, Partnerships, and Communications: Jewell Nathan, Sarah Kacmarsky, Catherine Woodwell, Pranay Mamileti, Ethan Huang, and Amber Khan.
Curriculum: Lauren McElhatton, Prerna Munoth, Margaret Wang, Isabella Arreola, Shirley Wang, and Yuman Li.
Design: Laura Soyoung Lee, Vijita Singh.
Project Management: Joyce Feng.
