Part 1: Introduction to LIPS — Keys to A Successful Passion Project

By Jeffrey Yu, Yale Class of 2023, Computer Science and East Asian Studies

INTRODUCTION

In an earlier post about the Pyramid Problem, we discussed how the Upside-Down Pyramid Game could help college applicants who were not predisposed to winning the Upright Pyramid Game demonstrate a competitive edge. Not only does it help applicants showcase traits like creativity, leadership, and soft skills, but it’s also much less competitive, creating more pieces of pie rather than competing over slices.

But one of the reasons that the upside down pyramid game is so underplayed is due to its nontraditional nature and its lack of guidance. It’s easy to follow a predetermined path or competition format. But when you have to create everything by yourself? That takes entrepreneurship, bold risk-taking, which are all challenges in a category of their own.

Luckily, you’re not alone. Education has started to embrace this philosophy of pushing students to create a social impact outside of the classroom. Not everyone is destined to be book smart and succeed at exams. For a lot of us, our talents lie outside of exams and competitions, and in business or startups or arts or humanities or athletics or passions, things that cannot be conveyed through a numerical score. And that’s how things should be, except our education system doesn’t reward those alternative talents.

Showcasing those hidden talents is the motivation behind the 20% project in education, an initiative inspired by a workplace habit at Google. It’s goal is to inspire students to use 20% of their time to do something greater that they are passionate about. 20% projects can range from starting a travel journal to opening a nonprofit, creating a skydiving club to teaching math to local community students. The key thing in common? All are motivated by a common passion, something that students genuinely want to do.

Okay, it seems too good to be true. Students get to do something they’re genuinely passionate about, not face that much competition, AND benefit college admissions? They get to do something that more closely models success in real life, and put agency in their success back in their own hands? Well you’re right, sort of. It CAN be too good to be true, if you approach these projects in the wrong way. But with a little guidance, you’re on track to winning the upside down pyramid game. And by reading this article on LIPS, you’re already taking the first step.

WHAT IS LIPS?

As mentioned in the title, LIPS is an acronym that represents four characteristics of successful 20% projects or initiatives. While the 20% project is focused on passions solely, we’ve adapted the idea to preserve the core tenets and benefits of the project, such as passion and engagement, while also adding a few modifications to make sure it helps their chances at college admissions. If they’re doing it, they may as well get a win-win, you know?

L: Legitimacy

As mentioned in the Pyramid Problem part 2 article, legitimacy is a must when playing the upside down pyramid game. The reason obtaining the stamp of legitimacy is because, in brief, colleges have no way of knowing whether what you are doing is actually true or not. How do they know you’re not just making up the fact you created this nonprofit? How do they know that what you’re doing is actually making a tangible impact on society? By obtaining these stamps of legitimacy, you are effectively getting the endorsement and transferring the legitimacy of more established institutions to your own project. In turn, the bigger (and more renowned) the stamp, the more impressive.

There’s a few ways to obtain legitimacy.

1. Get published by a newspaper. Local is a great place to start. Find your town newspaper and ask if they can share your story. If you can truly scale up your project to the regional, state, or even national or international level, getting featured in even more prominent papers like the New York Times is a huge accolade and wow factor that most students don’t achieve.
2. Get interviewed by a TV station. This is definitely one of the more fun ones. After all, who didn’t want to be on TV as a kid? Well now you can — and help your college admissions chances while doing it. Again, local TV stations are a great place to start. As your initiative grows in scope, so does the opportunity to get featured on some of the world’s top networks.
3. Partner with a more established organization. Large organizations and nonprofits are always looking for grassroots partners to spread their mission. See if you can find groups with similar missions to your own, or better, organizations that might not be connected at first glance.
4. Get sponsored by more established organizations. Very similar to 3), except sponsorships deal a lot more with particularly large organizations with the capital and resources to donate to your mission and get it off the ground. Lots of nonprofits have nontraditional sponsors — take HLAB, an educational nonprofit started by students at Harvard, which partnered with the Mitsubishi Corporation, known for cars, to help promote Japanese students studying abroad! Cars and education? You never know what people out there are willing to help.

I: Interest

Arguably the most important aspect of the 20% project and initiative, interest is what distinguishes upside down pyramid players from upright pyramid players. In a similar vein, interest is what distinguishes the students who truly take this project to heart and excel, and those who burn out after a few hours.

Whatever you choose to do for your 20% project, you must genuinely be interested in the subject matter to truly make the most of it. Kevin and I advocate initial 20% projects to be small in scope, perhaps done in a weekend, and then increase in scope over time with experience. A weekend 20% project becomes a month long one, then 3 months, then even 6 months!

Note: drawing is not made to scale. Note that some projects can be skipped depending on comfort.

The head honcho 20% project, the lynchpin you show to colleges, is one that takes months and months of planning and execution. It sounds like a lot of work, and that’s because it is. But that’s where the beauty of this letter comes in. When you are genuinely interested and passionate about the activity, it doesn’t feel like work anymore. Sure, participating and studying for competitions might be a drag. But when you’re doing something you love, like dance, or video games, or cooking, or travel? Heck, sign me up — I could do this forever!

P: People

This letter, along with S, are one of the main distinguishers from traditional 20% project structure. While normal 20% projects can be completely personal, like creating a travel journal, Kevin and I advocate that your project involve a lot of people. What kinds of people? All fold — people who help, people who cofound, people who you serve, people who mentor you, people who volunteer, people who get involved … you get the point. The reasons for this are twofold.

One, assembling a team and involving a lot of people demonstrates soft skills. Colleges want students who will take initiative on campus and get others involved in whatever thing they’re passionate about. Pretty much any hobby, and I mean any hobby, can be converted into a productive one that instigates social change when people are involved.

Take video games for example. Solitarily playing video games? No one really benefits besides yourself and the company’s bank account. But creating a video game esports club that travels to competitions across the states? Now you’re directly creating social value in creating a community, you’re demonstrating organizational and people management skills by finding the mentors, students, and volunteers willing to help out. You might even demonstrate marketing skills by finding local businesses to sponsor your trips, or even competitions that you host at home!

Two, surrounding yourself with people promotes accountability. One of the hardest things about the 20% project is that, for the large part, you’re alone. Unlike competing for a competition, where there are dozens of other students you can commiserate with, by solving a problem that no one’s solved before, it might feel like you’re entirely on your own with no guidance. But, this is definitely not the case. One of the most rewarding parts of the 20% project is assembling a team that you handpick and have complete control over. These can draw from your friends, family, teachers, family friends, acquaintances. You might even find other people to help in unexpected places when you ask teachers or family friends to refer you! This is actually a really important life skill, of learning when to ask for help. And not to mention, when you have all of these people relying on you as a lynchpin, suddenly the project becomes a lot more real. And finally, when you have this team behind you, it feels like you’re all in it together, and what you’re capable of doing increases exponentially.

In general, the more people you involve, the better, in whatever role. It shows that what you’re doing has more impact. Whether that means helping 3–5 kids versus helping 300–500 kids, or having 1–2 people help you or 10–20 people you, it does make a difference.

S: Social Impact

This is the other distinguishing factor from a traditional 20% project. 20% projects should make some kind of social impact that creates value, in whatever form or another. While it’s one thing to do something because you enjoy it, like playing video games, what distinguishes a person who’s doing it for fun and leisure and someone who is changing the world? The impact they create.

“Social impact” is a very broad term and could mean a lot of things. There are an infinite amount of causes and problems in society, and it’s up to you to pick the one that has the most meaning. It could deal with spreading awareness for a social issue, raising money for a cause or charity, building a club that gets dozens of community members involved, organizing an event that celebrates a community, whatever. The choice is yours as to how you can convert your interest into something that makes a tangible impact on others or society.

BONUS LETTER! U: Uniqueness

What’s the final letter and category that we didn’t cover? Creativity! This is where the 20% project, in addition to I, can become truly fun. Thanks to the open-ended nature of the upside down pyramid, the possibilities are endless for how you want to incorporate your other passions into it. Have a passion for video editing? See if you can create a YouTube video to showcase your project. Interested in graphic design? Create posters to spread awareness. Enjoy music? If you have an event, see if you can get your friends involved and provide live entertainment. This is the pillar that really distinguishes you in the admissions office and makes the reader go wow, blown away by your ingenuity and passion.

This letter is also important because it helps projects stand out from other related ones. Taking the example edge of math as an example, it’s one thing to create a nonprofit that teaches underprivileged kids or communities math. It fulfills LIPS for sure — it’s legitimate, the student might be interested in math, it involves people like the kids, and it has a demonstrable social impact. But it’s missing that “wow” factor which makes the reader think this goes beyond just doing the nonprofit for college admissions, rather than a genuine passion.