Knowledge@Wharton High School

The Girl with the High IQ

Knowledge@Wharton High School — Wed, 15 May 2013 13:52:05 +0000

Neha Ramu has a love of learning.

Neha Ramu, 13, is like any other girl her age: She loves friends, movies and Harry Potter. Lately, however, Ramu — a native of Bangalore, India, who now lives in London — has risen to celebrity status, at least in intellectual circles. She recently achieved the highest possible IQ (Intelligence Quotient) score — 162 — for people under 18 in the Mensa Test run by Mensa International, a society of people with high IQs. British newspapers gushed that she had trumped theoretical physicists Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking, who are thought to have IQs of 160 (an average IQ score is between 85 and 114; 144 or above is considered genius-level).

What does someone who has been elevated to genius status do first? Read a biography of Albert Einstein, of course. “He changed the world with his theories,” says Ramu, a student at Tiffin Girls’ School in Kinston upon Thames. “I never thought about being smarter than Einstein; I know I am not.”

She is, however, above average – and ambitious. This year, Ramu scored a 740 out of 800 on the math SAT, the standardized test for college admissions in the U.S. That won her a seat in the “Study of Exceptional Talent” program offered by the Center for Talented Youth (CTY) at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md. She has been a CTY member for a few years and attended a three-week summer course in Baltimore last year on “Sensation and Perception.” She has completed several Johns Hopkins online courses in math and science.

Curing Cancer and The Hunger Games

Last summer’s Johns Hopkins course led to other, longer-term plans. Ramu now wants to be a neuroscientist — a specialist who studies the structure and function of the brain and nervous system. That is a change from what she had originally planned for a career. “I had always thought I would find a cure for cancer, but now I may try to find cures for other brain-related diseases,” notes Ramu.

Ramu says that her parents, who are ophthalmologists, have inspired her. “They are both extremely hard working,” she says. “They sometimes miss their dinner because they are too engrossed in their work. My dad came from India [to the United Kingdom in 2007], worked hard and within a year or so made a very comfortable life for me and my mum.”

Life for Ramu is not all brain analytics and IQ scores. She also spends time reading, watching TV and swimming. Recent titles added to her bookshelf are The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho, and The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins. In addition, she has also started to learn about space and astronomy, thanks to an online Johns Hopkins course she is taking on earth and space sciences. She plans to join the Army Cadet Force, a British youth organization that focuses on military and adventure-based training. And now that she is 13, she is designing her first Facebook profile. Friends, not test scores, will keep her grounded, says Ramu. “My friends began treating me like I knew everything in the world” after the Mensa news hit the papers, she says. “Eventually, they realized the achievement hasn’t changed me.”

Questions

How do you feel about so much emphasis being placed on an IQ test score? Do you think this number defines Neha Ramu as a genius? Or is it something else?

It is never too early to begin exploring your interests. Have you taken courses or participated in programs that helped guide your potential career choices? Describe your experiences.

Have you ever achieved something that changed the way your friends perceived you? How did they respond and how did you handle it? What did you learn from the experience?

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GDP: The Rock Star of Economic Indicators

Knowledge@Wharton High School — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 00:47:23 +0000

This week, the U.S. Commerce Department released the nation’s first-quarter GDP (Gross Domestic Product) report. Analysts expected that the U.S. economy would expand by more than 3%, driven primarily by the housing market (in other words, people are buying more houses). GDP instead expanded at a 2.5% annual rate, falling short of expectations but improving over the previous quarter. The economy had a lukewarm rise of 0.4% during the fourth quarter of 2012.

Truth be told, you may dismiss this GDP talk as just another confusing and unimportant alphabet-soup government statistic. How wrong you are – at least in terms of its significance to our lives. In reality, GDP is the most important economic indicator of the U.S. economy as well as economies around the world. GDP measures all goods and services that a country produces – from cell phones and strawberries to the plumber who fixed your sink last week — and it can be a kind of directional marker, giving clues about everything from your likelihood of getting a job, to the interest rate you will pay on a car loan or other debt. It also tells economists when to start using the “R” word: A recession is often defined as two consecutive quarters of contraction in GDP. Robin Li, a senior at New Jersey’s West Windsor-Plainsboro High School North and an economics fan, makes it a habit to pay attention to GDP. “GDP growth is tied to the economy’s performance, and that can affect the lives of many people,” says Li. “GDP is a good gauge of the direction of the economy because it measures things like consumer spending and business investment.”

The Number to Watch

In normal times, GDP growth doesn’t bounce around much, so it doesn’t have a big impact on the average consumer. As a result, there is not much movement in fiscal and monetary policy. But during a recession or recovery, like we’ve seen in the past few years, GDP growth is much more closely watched and can play a big role in determining how the government controls the supply of money to influence the economy.

Li, 17, plans on studying economics when she enters Princeton University next semester. Currently, she is president of her high school’s Fed Challenge Team, which competes in the High School Fed Challenge, a series of events sponsored by the Federal Reserve that gives students in grades 9 through 12 an opportunity to analyze economic conditions and recommend a course for monetary policy. The Federal Reserve is responsible for setting monetary policy in the U.S.

When someone talks about GDP moving up or down, they’re talking about the change from one quarter to the next. The GDP equation is made up of several components: consumption, or consumer spending; investment, or business spending; government spending; exports, or goods that are made in the U.S. and shipped out for sale to other countries; minus imports, or goods that are made outside the U.S. and bought here.

Here’s the detailed 411: GDP = C + I + G + (X-M). C is consumption, I is Investment, G is government spending, X is exports and M is imports. Consumer spending — as in how much you bought at the mall last weekend — makes up about 60% of GDP, which is why economists get worried when they hear that consumer spending is down. Business spending accounts for about 20% of GDP, and government spending makes up about 15% of the number. Finally, the difference between imports and exports increases or decreases the balance, making up the final 5%.

So every time you go out and buy something, like a new suit or chicken for dinner, you’re making a difference and helping to prop up GDP by raising the “C.” But if you decide to hold off on buying that dress, or shoes or car, you’re putting a dent in “C,” which holds back the GDP number. The same thing happens if a company buys a new fleet of delivery trucks — that boosts GDP. But if the business decides to keep its old trucks, maybe because profits are down, it won’t add anything to GDP.

Keynesian Economics

Concerns over sluggish GDP growth, along with other issues, have led the Federal Reserve to take steps to keep interest rates low. The Obama administration has called for billions of dollars in so-called stimulus spending aimed at boosting the economy.

The changes in GDP are important because “they send signals about the economy, and those kinds of signals ultimately affect government policy,” says Doug Young, director of the National Center at the Council for Economic Education. “Generally, if GDP is rising steadily, it means the economy is humming, and that could mean companies will be hiring. Of course if GDP is rising very fast, it could also mean that inflation may start to creep up and interest rates may rise. But if GDP is weak, it may mean that companies and consumers are buying less, which could weaken the economy, drag down job growth, and possibly lead to a fall in interest rates.”

Fiscal policy and deficit spending (when the outflow of federal money is greater than the inflow, leading to a budget deficit) are important during an economic slowdown, Li says, noting that she considers herself a Keynesian, a reference to a philosophy articulated by British economist John Maynard Keynes, who in 1936 called for government spending as a way to address economic doldrums. In contrast, American economist Milton Friedman advocated for less government intervention. “Although there are concerns that excessive government borrowing can push up interest rates, crowding out private investment, that doesn’t pose a threat right now,” Li says. “Nevertheless, fiscal deficits are unsustainable in the long run, so who knows what the situation will be 10 years from now?”

That speaks to the one certainty about the economy: It never stays in one place for too long.

Questions

How is GDP growth tied to the economy’s performance?

What indicators are included in the measurement of GDP?

Robin Li considers herself a Keynesian. What does that mean?

Lens of Opportunity: Alex Kukoff’s Incredible Virtual Community Connection

Knowledge@Wharton High School — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 14:01:24 +0000

Alexandra Kukoff, 14 and a high school freshman from Thousand Oaks, Calif., enjoys going to the movies with her friends and family. Several months back, she hit the local theater to see “Taken 2,” where she and her family munched on Kit Kats and mixed M&Ms into their tub of buttered popcorn. While she could taste her movie experience, hearing it brought special challenges. Kukoff is missing two out of the three bones in her left ear, leaving her with limited hearing. That means she can’t always pick up dialogue in the midst of loud noises, action scenes and foreign accents.

Maybe it was during that screening of “Taken 2” or another movie that an idea began simmering in Kukoff’s subconscious. Why not find a way to improve the quality of her cinema visits? Kukoff now has a plan that could improve the movie-going experience not only for herself, but also for 36 million deaf and hard-of-hearing Americans, plus people with autism and other sensory disorders. “My idea is to create a pair of glasses similar in design to 3D glasses that will allow closed-captioning for any movie to appear at the bottom of the lens,” she says. Unlike movie screenings that have the captions displayed on the screen, which must be specially scheduled by theaters and can be hard to find, Kukoff says that these glasses would be available for moviegoers to use at any screening in the world, or even at live theater performances, meetings or museums.

Email with Great Timing

Though she knew she was onto something, Kukoff quickly realized she needed some technical reinforcements to help make her glasses a reality. After doing research on engineering firms, in December 2012 she found GrabCAD, a Boston-area startup that offers a virtual community for mechanical engineers to collaborate on projects and share their expertise. In other words, it is an online open engineering platform that gives people the tools, knowledge and connections they need to build products faster.

Typical GrabCAD clients include mechanical engineering or design firms that have an idea sketched out but need some engineering work to come up with a prototype. Kukoff wasn’t even that far along. Luckily, her plea for help – which she sent to GrabCAD’s general email account – hit the firm at the right time. Community manager Sara Sigel says the company was on the brink of launching a new collaboration tool on its website, and Kukoff’s idea seemed like an ideal way to take it on a test drive.

“We were wanting to stretch our tools, so we thought it would be great if we could see this product from its idea stage all the way to producing a prototype on our platform,” notes Sigel. GrabCAD threw the idea open to its community, creating a challenge for its members to come up with a design for Kukoff’s closed-captioning glasses. More than half a dozen engineers have responded so far; after the four-week challenge period is done on April 23, Kukoff, Sigel and others will review the submissions and work to find the best option.

Not only is this Kukoff’s first entrepreneurial effort, it’s GrabCAD’s first pro bono challenge. Sigel says that the firm’s clients usually have to pay several thousand dollars to submit an idea, but the company decided to make the glasses the first of what they plan to be many community service projects. “I thought it was an amazing idea,” Sigel says. “We wanted to support her mission and idea and help her take advantage of our community of engineers. … She knew the pain [of hearing challenges]. She had the idea, and that’s where we started.”

Kukoff has a long way to go before her glasses hit the multiplex: Not only does she have to find funding to get them produced, she will have to find an “in” with Hollywood studios and megaplex owners to convince them that her idea has merit. “I’m aspiring as high as possible at this point. At the end of this year, I’d like to have these out in the open, to get people knowing about them,” she says. “Right now, I’m focusing on the glasses. I’m trying not to put the cart before the horse.”

‘My Story Had an Effect on People’

While Kukoff is new to the business world, she is no stranger to ambition. She is already working on a college degree at Moorpark College in Moorpark, Calif. By the time she’s 18, she plans to be graduating from both Oak Park Independent School – her high school — and have an associate’s degree before moving on to finish her bachelor’s degree.

She is also a published writer, winning Seventeen magazine’s short fiction contest in 2011. Her personal essay on hearing loss, “Glittering Pixie Dust,” won an honorable mention in the 2013 California Art and Writing Awards. Her essay also will be featured in an upcoming ebook anthology through The New York Times Learning Network. “I never imagined myself doing anything like this. I am still very much into writing, but after one of my essays was honored, I just knew that my story had an effect on people,” says Kukoff. “I don’t know if I want to ultimately be an entrepreneur or an inventor, but I definitely want to keep reaching out to the community and helping people.”

Questions

What is Alex Kukoff’s entrepreneurial idea? Why did she come up with it?

What is GrabCAD? How does it work?

If you were Alex, how would you prepare to collaborate with a community of mechanical engineers who are interested in your idea? What questions might you ask? What knowledge would you need going into the meeting? What might be some of the challenges in speaking with them?

Earth Avengers: ‘If It Is to Be, It Is Up to Me’

Knowledge@Wharton High School — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 14:03:08 +0000

Jason Bonet attends the High School for Environmental Studies in Manhattan.

Today’s young adults — also known as Millennials — are passionate about everything from technology and fashion to politics and the economy. But according to a recent study published online in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, environmental issues are no longer a top priority. The study notes a decline in young people’s concern for the environment and taking action to protect it.

“I totally don’t agree,” says Judi Shils, executive director of Teens Turning Green, a student-led movement that seeks to engage youth in environmental awareness. “I see nothing among young people but an incredible willingness to mobilize and get involved and take on any issue.”

Tanya Heravian, director of operations for Sprout Up, a California-based nonprofit aimed at promoting environmental stewardship throughout communities, is similarly impressed by the environmental action among young people. “The professionalism and creativity they devote to the back end of the organization never ceases to amaze me,” she notes.

Not only do environmental leaders such as Shils and Heravian passionately disagree with the Journal study, but they are quick to name numerous youth who are leading change at home, at school, in the community and around the world. KWHS spoke with some of these Earth avengers.

Taking on Pepsi

Anna Hankins, a senior at Wachusett Regional High School in Holden, Mass., has always had a passion for the environment — and not just because her birthday is on Earth Day, April 22.

Since entering high school, she has participated in an Earthwatch Institute Fellowship in Canada, taken a National Science Foundation sponsored college course, participated in a sustainability internship and been involved in her school’s “Think Globally, Act Locally” club. But it wasn’t until Hankins participated in Teens Turning Green’s “Project Green Challenge” that her environmental efforts became more personal. “Every day for a month, I received a challenge that inspired me to take a closer look at things I used daily, like make-up, shampoo, clothing, food and water,” says the 18-year-old. “I was completely shocked to discover the conditions in which my clothes are produced, and how many foods contain genetically modified organisms.”

In addition to making a conscious effort to buy more eco-friendly and organic products, she also became passionate about the impact that single-use bottles have on the environment — from the plastic waste to the energy needed to produce them. Now she only uses reusable water bottles and spearheaded a “Ban the Bottle” campaign at her high school. “My school just signed a 10-year contract with Pepsi to sell its products … most of which are in bottles,” she says. “My mission is to get students to stop purchasing bottles from the vending machines. We need to stand up and let corporations know this is something we care about.”

With plans to attend the University of Massachusetts Amherst in the fall for hydrology (the study of water), Hankins is excited to continue what she started at her high school. During her college visit, she noticed water bottles being distributed with the school’s logo on them. “That’s one of the first things I plan on changing,” she says.

Embracing the Concrete Jungle

Born in Puerto Rico, Jason Bonet was surrounded by nature. At age 7, however, he moved with his parents to the Bronx, N.Y., and suddenly realized just how limited green space was and how important it was for him to find ways to protect it. “Living in an urban area has only helped strengthen my commitment to the environment and my interest in urban conservation,” says the 17-year-old. “It wasn’t until I decided to attend the High School for Environmental Studies in Manhattan that opportunities really started opening up for me.”

These experiences ranged from sailing along the Hudson River, which helped him discover the diversity of the local environment, to working as a wildlife technician at the Mianus River Gorge preserve for two years, where he studied coyotes. It was an internship with The Nature Conservancy’s Leaders in Environmental Action for the Future (LEAF) program that he says ignited his interest in pursuing a career in environmental conservation and education. “This internship has opened my eyes to the beauty of my home state, [showed me] a number of colleges and universities that I [could] see myself in, and shown me the different aspects and jobs within nature conservancy,” Bonet says.

For his senior thesis, Bonet researched and wrote about the impacts of natural gas drilling, or fracking, which is taking place in a lot of areas in New York and northern Pennsylvania. “A lot of people here don’t understand what it is, so I wanted to learn more about it in order to spread the word about its harmful impacts on the environment so we can work to stop it,” he notes.

Before attending SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in the fall, Bonet is also excited about traveling to Germany this summer to learn more about green technology through an educational program offered by AFS-USA Faces of America.

The Power of Solar

In India, 72,000 villages and roughly 400 million people have no access to electricity. That’s where 21-year-old Pranav Desai comes in. As a student at H.R. College of Commerce & Economics in Mumbai, he has become a project leader for a youth initiative called Project Chirag.

By introducing solar lighting to rural villages, Desai says he hopes to decrease the use of kerosene lamps, which emit poor quality light and release lethal toxic fumes that cause health and environmental problems. “I personally feel, ‘If it is to be, it is up to me,’” Desai says. “If youth today decide to bring about change in their own capacities, the impact will be phenomenal.”

Growing up in Mumbai and watching new high-rise buildings go up, Desai began thinking more about the environment and worrying whether his country would be as green and lush in 20 years. He convinced his parents to move out of the city where he was able to attend RiverDale International School, which was surrounded by 50 acres of lush greenery. “In the first few days, I had moved closer to nature,” Desai recalls. “Instead of watching a movie like I would have in Mumbai, I’d go for a trek. I was fitter, and I was healthier in my body and mind. It was a turning point in my life.”

Since moving back to Mumbai, he has become more involved in change through the United Nations Environment Programme, in which he serves as a member of the TUNZA Youth Advisory Council 2013. In addition, as the vice president of his college’s Enactus Team, he helps to identify complex community problems while using an entrepreneurial approach to solve them. “I for sure am looking forward to a career where I can work along with the youth to do something for our global community and impact those people in need faster and better,” says Desai, who is pursuing a degree in management studies with a specialization in marketing.

He urges his peers to heed the words of former Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi: “Be the change you wish to see in this world.” Be innovative, be creative and never give up, says Desai. “Simple changes, drives and campaigns in your neighborhood can change a lot.”

Think Locally, Act Globally

Not many teenagers are tuned into the global water crisis. Kate O’ Rourke, a senior at Lebanon High School in Lebanon, Ind., hopes to change that. O’Rourke, 17, was first inspired by a visit to her school from The Thirst Project, a program that has raised over $2.6 million, providing more than 100,000 people around the world with safe, clean water. “[My classmates and I] realized that raising enough money to build a well in a developing nation was not as unattainable as we thought,” O’Rourke says. “Before long, I found myself fully invested in completing my small part of the global water crisis solution.”

That “small” part involved organizing her school’s first ever Dance-a-thon to benefit the Thirst Project, which raised nearly $7,500 — enough to finance an entire well. “We saw our potential to actually make a tangible difference in the world and pounced on it,” O’Rourke notes. “Thankfully, our classmates and our community felt the same compassion to help make our campaign possible.”

Throughout the process, O’Rourke recognized her own capacity to make a difference in the world. Her message to other teens is to not discredit their influence and the powerful effect it can have on people’s lives. “With assistance from your friends, family and community, your campaign becomes pretty easy, and you have fun in the process,” says O’Rourke, who plans to become a broadcast journalist. “Find a cause that touches your heart and use your brain to find the best ways to solve the problem.”

Questions

Think about your family and friends: Do you agree or disagree with the conclusion of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology study? Why or why not?

What are some of the common characteristics of these student environmentalists? Do you share some of these qualities? If so, what project would you like to tackle?

What does Mahatma Gandhi’s quote mean? Why is it so powerful? How might you apply this to your own life?

Do you celebrate Earth Day? Let us hear about your projects and passions on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/whartonhs.

Giving Some Thought to College Majors: In-demand Careers

Knowledge@Wharton High School — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 13:35:53 +0000

Megan Wilkes, 18, has a passion for zoology. But zoology majors, along with those who major in philosophy, art history, humanities and anthropology, are among the least likely to find jobs upon graduation. Not surprisingly, Megan isn’t confident she can find employment as a zoologist, and instead plans to major in education in order to teach high school biology.

But even if Wilkes majors in education, her prospects aren’t secure. A recent MSNBC survey shows that 53% of all college graduates under the age of 25 are either unemployed or underemployed. When you consider that most graduates carry about $26,000 in student loan debt, many college graduates find themselves not pursuing their passions and unable to pay back their student loans.

For these reasons, it is more important than ever to be smart about choosing a major. According to Career Explorer, Monster.com and other sources, students are landing jobs and receiving competitive wages in a few disciplines.

Medical Field Careers

The baby boomers are aging, which means their collective health care needs are on the rise. In fact, the number of health care jobs is expected to grow by 22% from 2008 to 2018, creating 3.2 million new jobs. Furthermore, due to the broad nature of the medical field, you should have no problems changing career paths. Here are a few of the hot medical careers:

Registered Nurse As a registered nurse, you can focus on a range of specialties: pediatrics, intensive care or emergency services, to name a few. And while traditional nursing is viewed as hospital work, registered nurses also work in physicians’ offices, outpatient clinics, patients’ homes and even from their own home doing telephonic nursing. To become a registered nurse requires a four-year degree in nursing and a passing score on a licensing test. Registered nurses have a starting salary of $53,000.
Physician Assistant More and more, people are becoming physician assistants instead of actual physicians, which is appropriate since the number of physician assistant jobs is expected to grow by 39% in the next 10 years. Physician assistants practice medicine under the direction of a physician and can do many of the same tasks as physicians. While physician assistants make less money than physicians — about $89,000 a year with a starting salary of $77,000 — they typically work fewer and better hours, and only need two years of graduate school in a physician assistant program.
Nurse Anesthetist A nurse anesthetist, also known as a certified registered nurse anesthetist (CRNA), assists the anesthesiologist during surgeries and can earn more than primary care physicians — approximately $189,000 per year. The training to become a nurse anesthetist includes becoming a registered nurse and working in an intensive care unit or equivalent for a minimum of a year before going on to a graduate program: either CRNA training or physician assistant training specializing in anesthesiology. Both of these graduate programs require about two years to complete.

If you are interested in the medical field, but the thought of blood is more than you can stand, you are still in luck. It takes a lot more than medical professionals to run the health care industry, and jobs in areas such as health care administration, health information technology and management engineering are also on the rise. Salaries for these positions range from $30,000 to nearly $100,000 annually.

Financial Sector

In the financial sector, accounting majors are quickly finding accounting jobs, which are expected to grow by 18% from 2008 to 2018. To find even more success as an accounting major, work towards earning your certified public accountant (CPA) license. Becoming a CPA is a difficult task to undertake and includes getting your bachelor’s degree, working in the industry for a number of hours designated by your state of residence, and passing a series of rigorous tests.

CPAs earn an average of $74,000 a year, and the average entry-level accounting position earns $44,700 a year. Other growing, in-demand financial sector jobs include financial advisors, industrial engineers, actuaries and budget and financial analysts.

IT Jobs

A college student most likely can’t go wrong by earning a degree in computer science, as the rate of technology is expected to continue to grow exponentially over the coming decades. Leading the pack for in-demand IT jobs are software developers, with a projected growth rate of 30% from 2008 to 2018 and an average yearly wage of $90,000, with a starting salary of $55,000. In fact, all computer-related jobs are expected to grow by 20% during that time frame.

Other potential careers for computer science majors include network systems and data communications analysts and database administrators, both with projected growth rates of 28%. For greater career security, find a job within the health care industry. A graduate degree is not always necessary.

When choosing a college major, pick one that appears likely to lead to a future that will last — and then find your niche in that field. Taking time to think about this now will be to your benefit when you graduate with a job and a salary to pay back student loans. Consider what you enjoy, but focus your decision on the reality of the major you choose and its ability to sustain you financially and fulfill you professionally.

Breaking Down Community Barriers: The Fight for Environmental Justice

Knowledge@Wharton High School — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 15:12:00 +0000

Environmental justice activist Asa Needle

If you grew up in a city during the 1990s, you probably saw the posters in your pediatrician’s office. They detailed the causes, symptoms and options for treating lead poisoning, and urged parents to ensure that their children were not exposed to lead, especially through chipping or peeling lead-based paints in the home. Maybe you studied these posters while your pediatrician checked your blood pressure. Maybe your parents asked the receptionist for a pamphlet on the way out.

But according to Asa Needle, a teen living in Worcester, Mass., these preventive measures were flawed: The children who were at the highest risk of suffering from lead poisoning rarely had the opportunity to see a doctor.

Needle, 17, is an up-and-coming activist in the environmental justice movement. Recently, he won the Brower Youth Award, which goes to a young adult who is making outstanding contributions to the cause of environmental justice. For decades, factories and industrial operations have clustered in urban areas, putting residents at a higher risk for air-pollution-related illnesses and other ill effects. Environmental Justice — EJ for short — is the notion that low-income and minority communities should not face a higher share of pollution, and if they do, it constitutes a form of discrimination. Activists like Needle fight for the environmental rights of these groups.

‘Fields Where Nothing Grew’

Lead exposure, says Needle, is a critical component of that fight. Cities often build low-income housing in areas with the greatest concentration of lead and other pollutants. This negatively impacts the health of the urban poor, and can also extend to people of color, women who still make 77¢ to the average man’s dollar, and people who are unable to find and/or keep jobs that pay well. The lead in these neighborhoods is particularly dangerous for pregnant women and children under the age of five, and has been linked to everything from anemia to poor performance on standardized tests. In extreme cases, it has been known to cause seizures. With these significant, well-documented health risks in mind, cities have come under fire for their lack of assistance for people in these conditions. At worst, it has been likened to a kind of tacit population cleansing.

“Growing up in Worcester,” Needle says, “I spent a lot of time walking through different neighborhoods. From an early age, I was observing trash and needles in the street, abandoned factories, fields where nothing grew. Even then, I could see that poorer communities were being left behind; that the attention of the city was directed elsewhere. Now, as a community organizer in Worcester, I see environmental justice as a way to bring attention to, and break down, the barriers that exist between communities, based on class, race and documentation status.”

Needle was awarded the Brower for his work with the Worcester Roots Project, a nonprofit organization that aims to make post-industrial urban neighborhoods more habitable for children and families. As “toxic soil busters,” Needle and his coworkers have devised a system that involves testing soil for toxic levels of lead, growing plants that will absorb the lead, and subsequently disposing of the plants.

The problems that the environmental justice movement seeks to correct are not limited to urban areas. For example, migrant workers are often exposed to pesticides during their long and physically taxing workdays. Urban issues, however, are typically the most publicized, and often pit corporations that are thought to be causing environmental hazards against local residents and environmental groups, even resulting in high-profile environmental justice lawsuits. Back in 2001, for example, a federal judge halted operations at St. Lawrence Cement, a Camden, N.J., cement plant, saying toxic emissions from the facility would harm nearby residents and violate their civil rights. The precedent-setting environmental justice ruling came in a case filed by South Camden Citizens in Action, a community group formed by local residents who worried that the cement plant would increase their health risks by adding to the already polluted air in the region.

The Business Side of EJ

As the environmental justice movement has grown, so too have the enforcement and penalties against companies. According to U.S. attorney general Eric Holder, “Our environmental laws and protections must extend to all people, regardless of race, ethnicity or socioeconomic status, which is why the Department of Justice is committed to addressing environmental justice concerns through aggressive enforcement of federal environmental laws in every community.” In early April, for instance, The Department of Justice and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that Dominion Energy would pay a $3.4 million civil penalty and spend approximately $9.8 million on environmental mitigation projects to resolve Clean Air Act violations.

“This settlement will improve air quality in states in the Midwest and Northeast by eliminating tens of thousands of tons of harmful air pollution each year,” said Ignacia S. Moreno, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division. “These reductions mark the latest step in our continuing efforts, along with the EPA, to protect public health and the environment through rigorous enforcement of the Clean Air Act.”

Due, in part, to the environmental justice movement, some businesses have become more sensitive to their surrounding communities, improving the dialogue with local residents. Donald McCloskey, director of environmental policy for PSEG, a utility based in Newark, N.J., says many businesses know that their decisions about setting up facilities and changing existing operations must consider impacts to low-income and minority communities. “The fundamentals are pretty easy to address,” he notes. “It’s regular communication when major changes to the facility are going to be made, ongoing dialogue during those changes, and after the changes are made, an opportunity for the community to give feedback and tour the facility. You don’t have to be a large company with a lot of resources to have an effective communication and a working relationship with your surrounding neighborhood.”

Robert E. Maher, Jr., assistant section chief of the environmental enforcement section of the U.S. Department of Justice, notes that the civil penalties against companies are often reduced if the violator agrees to undertake an environmentally beneficial project in the affected community. Maher has worked on cases where the violators paid to upgrade school buses in order to reduce the pollution in diesel exhaust. EJ, adds Maher, is an unending process. “Environmental justice may not be achievable,” he says, “But it is a worthy goal.”

Needle, who has been home-schooled, unschooled, or some combination thereof for a significant portion of his life, earned his GED in April 2011 in order to pursue activism and community organizing full-time. “If I find something I want to do that college is necessary for,” he says, “I know I can translate my work into some kind of coherent application. As a career, I’m already doing what I want to be doing most. I will most likely be doing some kind of organizing or education for the rest of my life, and getting paid for it is a skill I am slowly learning.”

Needle is getting the kind of hands-on education that comes from the daily pursuit of his passion. “I have learned that issues are always more complicated than you think, and that I hold assumptions about race, gender and how I relate to my environment that I can never stop undoing. At the same time, the things that make a difference are often small: Having a conversation with someone of different views or background, buying from your local co-op, volunteering at your community center, planting a seed. I translate my rage at injustice into small steps towards a new way of relating to each other and the earth, without losing sight of the systems that make resistance necessary.”

Questions

What is environmental justice?

Is pollution a concern in your neighborhood or in a nearby city? What have you observed or read about the relationship between businesses and residents as it relates to the environment?

What, specifically, is Asa Needle doing to address EJ issues?

Like Asa, do you hold assumptions about race, gender and how you relate to your environment? Discuss this with a partner at home or in your classroom.

Biofuel Bonanza: Insight and ‘Nerdy’ Earrings from Intel’s $100,000 Winner

Knowledge@Wharton High School — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 23:44:49 +0000

Last week, some of the country’s most innovative high school seniors traveled to Washington, D.C., for the Intel Science Talent Search 2013. The Intel Science Talent Search, a prestigious science and math competition, recognizes 40 high school seniors who are leaders in innovation and who are seeking to solve some of the world’s greatest challenges. Jonah Kallenbach, 17, of Ambler, Pa., won $75,000 for a bioinformatics study that breaks new ground in predicting protein binding for drug therapy. Adam Bowman, 17, of Brentwood, Tenn., won $50,000 for designing and building a compact and inexpensive, low-energy, pulsed plasma device. Hannah Larson of Eugene, Ore., received a $40,000 award for her research into an abstract mathematical structure that is important in many areas of theoretical physics and computer science.

The spotlight shone the brightest, however, on Sara Volz, a senior from Colorado Springs, Colo., who received the top award of $100,000 from the Intel Foundation for her research on increasing the oil content of algae to create an economically viable source of biofuel. Knowledge@Wharton High School spoke with Volz a few days after the event to discuss her algae exploration and her new honor as Intel Science Talent Search champion.

Knowledge@Wharton High School: What has been your path to the Intel competition?

Sara Volz: I’ve always loved science. My real scientific passion has been biochemistry because these molecular interactions have always fascinated me. These cells are like tiny microcosms that have so much complexity and so much interesting stuff going on. I’ve also been interested in the issue of alternative energy since about 7^th grade. I started doing science fairs in 6^th grade. I really liked the experience of doing research projects and the experience of getting to meet other people who liked science inquiry. When I was thinking of project ideas for Intel, I wanted to think of some sort of problem that was an issue for the world, something that needed to be fixed. That’s when I came on the idea of alternative energy. And when I found out about algae biofuel in 9^th grade, that was a perfect fusion of my two passions: biochemistry and alternative energy.

KWHS: What is alternative energy, and why does it really interest you?

Volz: Fossil fuels [petroleum, coal, natural gas] are not sustainable; they’re running out. Because these sources are made over a course of millions of years, we don’t have enough to power our economy in the future. Fossil fuels also increase carbon in the atmosphere, which is bad due to global warming. People are looking at a lot of different alternatives to fossil fuels, like biofuels.

Biofuels are fuels that are made from renewable, natural oils. For instance, biofuels can be made from vegetable oil or soybean oil. That is awesome because it is renewable and sustainable, but the problem is that land crops like soybeans and corn, which makes ethanol, are not a good way to produce oil. Plus they take up land, which takes away from food supplies. Land crops are not the [best] way to make these [renewable oils]. Algae biofuels use algae as an alternative producer of these natural oils. Most of the algae that people are looking at are these unicellular organisms, so they’re not quite kelp but they look green in water, basically. I like algae because you can grow them on land that we don’t need for food, you can grow them in salt water and you can even use things like waste runoff to get the nutrients that these algae can take in. You can also use carbon dioxide emissions from factories [as a nutrient] because algae is photosynthetic and takes in carbon dioxide, sunlight and water to make this energy.

KWHS: How long have you been researching this form of alternative energy?

Volz: I’ve been working on algae biofuels for four years. I started by doing some basic experiments on my own. I was able to talk to some companies working in algae biofuels and professors and researchers at a couple of different institutions. I accumulated supplies to furnish a laboratory setup in my bedroom, which is actually pretty functional. After preliminary work like that, I was interested at looking at alternative ways to make algae increase their oil production. Some ways that have been used in industry include changing the genome of the algae or limiting nutrients to stress them into producing more oil. Those work all right, but I had a new idea that I haven’t seen before, which is artificial selection. As a concept it isn’t new, but this particular application is new. It’s the same principle as bacteria gaining resistance to an antibiotic or a weed gaining resistance to an herbicide. In this case, artificial selection is actually giving the algae a trait that we want, which is more oil. I used this chemical that kills cells with low oil production, which is then selecting for populations of cells with high oil production. So if you kill everything with low oil production, then that basically says to the cell that you have to evolve and adapt to survive by producing more oil. Eventually I developed these cell lines with high oil content. I don’t know of anyone having done this before.

KWHS: How was your overall experience at the Intel Science Talent Search?

Volz: There were 1,700 submissions from across the country. You had to submit a bunch of essays and recommendations and a 20-page research report. This competition is more about your potential as a scientist and less about your particular research, although it is a big part of it. There were 300 people selected as semifinalists, then that was narrowed down to 40 finalists who got to go to this week-long event in Washington, D.C. It was an amazing, fantastic experience. It’s a really big event. I got to meet a ton of awesome peers. It’s really wonderful to meet other people who are so passionate about science. When you are just working on your research by yourself you wonder, ‘Ok, does anyone else really care that I’m doing this?’ You’re always looking for that intellectual connection with someone else. I’m really nerdy about algae, but at this event I met so many people who are passionate about their particular fields. We got to shake President Obama’s hand, which is an experience I will remember for a long time. The people were the best part of this competition. Frankly, I wasn’t expecting to win anything. I was going to be pretty happy to be one of these 40 finalists. When my name was called, I was really surprised. I still feel like I don’t deserve it, because there were so many really smart people with amazing research. I feel honored to have met them. I made some lifelong friends.

KWHS: What does it feel like to be a science celebrity, and what do you plan to do with your winnings?

Volz: It’s been a whirlwind. I was supposed to fly home last Wednesday, and they pushed my flight back so I could do some interviews in D.C. It hasn’t quite sunk in yet. I am going to use the $100,000 for school; I’m going to MIT in the fall. It’s going to defray a significant portion of those expenses, which I’m psyched about.

KWHS: Do you anticipate companies possibly wanting to commercialize your algae with increased oil content?

Volz: Potentially. My results are still preliminary, which I tried to emphasize when presenting my work. There are still several molecular analyses that I still want to do to confirm my results. I would like to do some molecular biology techniques that I can’t really do well in a home lab. When I get access to more professional locations in which to do my experimentation, it will be a lot easier to test my selection scheme more efficiently.

KWHS: What is your ideal career path? Will you become a professional scientist?

Volz: At this point, I’m thinking I want an academic career. I’d like to get my PhD in something like biochemistry, go on to do research and become a professor somewhere.

I feel like a very unfortunate misconception is perpetuated in our society about science. Too many people view it as some strange thing you can’t understand and that is confined to a laboratory. They think that it can’t be relevant to the layperson. I believe that is the wrong way to be thinking about science. I like to think of science as a process; a verb rather than a noun. It’s not a database of facts; it’s the process of questioning. Even if you are not in a scientific field, you can still be a scientist if you have that curiosity.

KWHS: What are your other interests outside of science?

Volz: I am a musical theater person. I sing and act. I’m also in speech and debate. I have a range of eclectic interests, such as collecting earrings. I have a science earring collection, such as DNA, periodic tables and all sorts of things like that. I have more than 50 pairs of science earrings, and my favorite is a pair that spells a word with elements of the periodic table: Nitrogen (N), Erbium (Er) and Dysprosium (Dy), which spells ‘Nerdy.’

KWHS: How are your friends at home reacting to your big win?

Volz: Lots of congratulations, and ‘Hey, Sara, want to give me some money?’

Questions

What is biofuel, and how does algae produce this kind of alternative energy?

How does Sara Volz describe science? Do you agree?

Volz has a unique earring collection related to her passion for science — do you have a similar collection? If so, share it on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/whartonhs.

Twitter Feed: The Merging of Journalism and Technology

Knowledge@Wharton High School — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 14:24:27 +0000

When Ashley Mateo, a news editor at Seventeen Magazine, needs a little editorial inspiration, she does what most young journalists are doing — she logs on to Twitter. “I tweet all the time,” she says. “It’s been a valuable tool in helping me build a brand, interact with readers and find teens for the magazine’s ‘My Life’ column.”

Although tweeting has become part of her daily work routine, Mateo admits that when Twitter first hit the social media scene in 2006, she wasn’t so quick to jump on the bandwagon. “At first I tried to ignore it thinking it was just a fad,” recalls Mateo, who at the time was attending Boston University and majoring in magazine journalism. “Thanks to a great internship with MTV News around the same time, I learned the importance of embracing all social media platforms, no matter [your] career paths.”

Pinning, Blogging and Posting

According to recent stats from MuckRack, a platform that connects journalists and sources, the top news outlets for journalists using Twitter are the Associated Press with 471 accounts, followed closely by The New York Times with 463.

Social media are Internet platforms that connect people through dialogue, photos and videos. For today’s job-seeking journalists, experience in tweeting as well as pinning, blogging and posting is becoming as important on a résumé as multiple degrees, says Joshua Benton, director of the Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass. “The way news is presented and consumed today is very different from just 10 years ago and requires a new skill set,” he says.

In recent years, the publishing industry has been undergoing a transformation. Take, for instance, Newsweek and Spin magazine, both of which shut down their print editions at the end of 2012 to expand their digital offerings. This is creating some interesting job opportunities in everything from video streaming and blogging, to writing content for apps. “Journalism is far from dying; it’s just changing,” says Maggie Shiels, program administrator for Google’s Journalism Fellowship, a 10-week program aimed at journalism students interested in using technology to tell stories in new and dynamic ways. “Students coming through are approaching technology as a tool to help them do their jobs. As a result we’re seeing the worlds of technology and journalism merging.”

Lindsay Graf, a sophomore at the University of Iowa’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication, isn’t worried at all about what the future holds for her. In fact, she’s very excited about all the changes taking place and says her classmates are, too. “I think because the industry is changing so much, companies will be looking to hire people who know how to use the technology and how to really market it,” Graf says. “In college, I’m being taught how to use social media to actively engage my audience, post and share stories and ask a question about what people think to give readers more of a say.” After graduation, Graf hopes to work for a music/entertainment magazine and eventually launch her own online magazine with a small local print base.

Journalists today must be multi-talented, says Vanessa Shelton, executive director of Quill and Scroll, an international honorary society for high school journalists organized at the University of Iowa in 1926. “In addition to the traditional traits of being curious, ambitious, well-informed and organized, writers today need to be tech-savvy and have various interests,” says Shelton. “Writers are expected to take a greater role in getting their stories out there and building an audience, which is why it’s also a good idea to take some entrepreneurial and marketing related courses.”

Having more than one interest hasn’t been a problem for Graf, who is pursuing a major in creative writing as well as a double major in journalism and mass communications. Her extracurricular activities include providing design and layout for various campus publications, serving as the assistant editor for Quill & Scroll’s magazine, blogging about music and writing novels.

MTV for Writers?

If you are interested in a career in journalism, take the time to explore the different options in the field, suggests Shelton. She sees students pursuing broadcast journalism, photojournalism, investigative journalism and public relations. “To think that the only job opportunities out there are with a magazine or a newspaper is outdated,” says Mateo. “For example, there are places hiring writers that I never would have thought about, such as record labels and fashion companies. MTV has a huge editorial team.”

Benton suggests first figuring out your passion, exploring it further and writing about it. Start a blog, and every time a new digital platform or tool emerges, give it a try. “There was a time when you needed someone’s permission to be published,” Benton says. “Thanks to social media, that’s not the case anymore.”

Take a few extra courses to complement your interest area, adds Shelton. “If you want to write about politics, consider taking classes or getting a degree in political science. The same goes for interest in being a business writer, sports journalist or music critic.” As Graf notes, “There are plenty of job opportunities out there, but you definitely can’t sit around and wait for them to come to you.”

Questions

What is social media, and how is it changing the face of journalism?

What other types of studies might help budding journalists build the necessary skills these days?

Do you write a blog? If so, what is the focus? If not, what type of blog might you like to start?

Restoring the Rainforest: Guayakí Brews Environmental and Social Change

Knowledge@Wharton High School — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 15:21:10 +0000

Extending into Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina, the Atlantic Forest is a 1,500-square-mile stretch of land devastated by recent deforestation (the removal of a forest or a group of trees, often for real estate development or to use the timber for wood-based products). While estimates say more than 95% of the region has been deforested, one company, Guayakí, has begun to reverse the trend. Its weapon of choice: beverages.

A ‘Restoration’ Business Model

Started by five friends from California, Guayakí specializes in Yerba Mate. Made from the leaves of the South American rainforest holly tree, naturally caffeinated Yerba Mate beverages are touted as healthy and energizing drinks that can be prepared like a tea, percolated in a coffee brewer or consumed cold in cans. And while nature-inspired drinks are nothing new to thirsty, health-conscious Americans, Guayakí’s business model is unique. Its entire operations are centered on what the company calls the market-driven restoration business model. “We needed to build a new business model that reflected our philosophy on how business should be done — one that gives to the earth,” explains David Karr, co-founder and vice president of marketing. “We’re passionate about people voting with their dollars. We believe business can drive environmental and social change.”

Leveraging this model, Guayakí wants to accomplish a few more things besides making a profit while selling beverages. One of its missions is to “steward and restore 200,000 acres of South American Atlantic Rainforest and create over 1,000 living wage [the minimum income necessary for a worker to meet basic needs] jobs by 2020,” says Karr. It is accomplishing this through various means, including partnering with farmers to harvest sustainably and creating native hardwood nurseries.

Guayakí’s dedication to the triple bottom line — a phrase used when a company accounts for financial, social and environmental health — has infiltrated every aspect of its business. In addition to its work to restore the rainforest, the company also employs many other strategies, including using eco-friendly packaging material and paper supplies, powering up its operation via solar energy and working exclusively with certified organic farmers.

Beyond beverages, Guayakí is in the business of sustainability. Sustainability is a buzzword in the marketplace today, and companies large and small are scrambling to find ways to become more sustainable by incorporating strategies to protect the environment, people and the company’s own profits. Consumers, including teenagers, yield tremendous influence on how businesses operate and are helping to encourage the sustainability movement.

Guayakí is a partner with Teens Turning Green, an organization comprised of young people “with a passion to change the world.” The nonprofit primarily serves as an educational and advocacy group, aimed at equipping and mobilizing youth to make wise buying choices and impact the business world by urging companies to adopt and honestly uphold their environmental and social practices. “As a consumer, the power you have to vote with your dollars is tremendous. That is at the heart of what we do at Teens Turning Green,” says Erin Schrode, a student at New York University, who co-founded the group with her mother eight years ago at the age of 13. The organization facilitates a number of projects and events throughout the year, including its Project Green Challenge. Project Green Challenge assigns daily challenges to college students throughout the world during the month of October. Each challenge has a specific theme, and students earn points and a chance to win daily prizes.

Schrode has seen a general upswing in the number of businesses interested in implementing environmentally and socially responsible practices. She notes two drivers: One is “visionary CEOs driven by the most honest of intentions to create environmentally and socially responsible businesses. But there is also a change in consumer desires. Businesses can’t afford not to jump on the bandwagon [if they want to have] a competitive and economic edge.”

Sustainable and Profitable

Not all businesses waving the pro-environment banner are created the same, however. Some, such as Guayakí, have a more holistic strategy. These types of companies incorporate a “systems thinking approach to their business,” says Schrode, adding that other business owners “tack it on” by making small, incremental changes in order to avert public reproach or improve their competitive advantage in the marketplace.

While there aren’t specific practices that serve as the hallmarks of a sustainable business, “[companies] that truly live and breathe this look across all areas of their businesses. Their eco-practices are not in one silo,” notes Schrode.

As a consumer, you can verify a company’s sustainability claims. One way is to search out and purchase from B Corporations. Certified by the nonprofit agency B Lab, more than 600 companies have met its standards for social and environmental performance, accountability and transparency, earning them the designation of a B Corporation. B Lab aims to “redefine success in business.”

It’s also important to remember, from a business perspective, that the triple bottom line includes a focus on profitability: At the end of the day, sustainable companies still want to make money. Has Guayakí’s emphasis on environmental and social integrity negatively impacted profits? The model has required some sacrifice, Karr admits. Standards like paying fair wages and using exclusively organic products come with a higher price tag. Founded in 1996, Karr estimates it took much longer to initially reach profitability employing socially and environmentally beneficial strategies. However, in the end, “We are proving to the world that we are running a profitable business, we are operating sustainably and we are driving restoration [in the environment],” says Karr. “Everyone buying our product is making our business model work.”

Questions

What is sustainability?

How does Guayakí’s business model affect the Atlantic Forest? In what other ways is Guayakí promoting sustainable business practices?

How does the consumer influence sustainability in business?

You’re Fired! Now What?

Knowledge@Wharton High School — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 02:40:17 +0000

It happened to Groupon CEO Andrew Mason. It happened to Scott Thompson, once the CEO of Yahoo!, and Scott Forstall, the guru behind Apple’s operating system for iPhones and iPads. And someday, getting fired may happen to you.

Getting fired is hardly a unique occurrence these days; it affects about 1.5 million Americans each month, according to government data. Take a survey of your friends, and you’ll likely find one who has either been fired from a job or had a parent or relative who has been let go.

Pink Slips and Blue Men

Sometimes people get the dreaded pink slip (notification of termination or layoff) because of their performance at work, but more than likely it is because their company decided it didn’t have enough money to keep them on the payroll. Countless companies facing profit losses and poor financial returns have announced corporate downsizings and layoffs during the economic crisis of the past several years. For instance, in early March Compuware of Detroit said it would lay off 160 employees and close or shrink 16 of its offices around the world in the first round of its “cost-cutting plan.” The automotive and financial services sectors have been particularly hard-hit. General Motors, for example, has cut more than 100,000 jobs since the recession began in December 2007. Whether you are terminated for your bad job performance or laid off due to broader corporate circumstances, getting fired stinks — but it’s far from the end of the road for your career.

For some, in fact, it is a new beginning, though it may not look or feel like it at first. “When I was working as an audio engineer for the Blue Man Group in New York City, I was 100% career-focused. But one day I was called into a cold room and told, ‘Your position is being eliminated,’” says Ania Grzesik, 26, in a Women’s Health magazine article entitled “What to Do Next.” “But the layoff made me realize that even if my old job was great, I wasn’t totally happy: My boyfriend was 800 miles away. I moved to Chicago and began negotiating with my former employers about freelancing. My new gig is more lucrative than my salaried job, and I get more time off!” Grzesik’s take-away from her abrupt departure? “Use a job loss as an opportunity to take stock of your life: If I hadn’t been laid off, I would still be in New York, in that same little room.”

Still, the realities of layoffs and firings have hit many families hard. Tyler Fugazzie was a sophomore in high school a few years back when his dad, John, lost his job. His dad’s unemployment not only gave his family a financial shock, it shook his confidence that studying and doing hard work would lead to a good future. “I viewed the working world as almost nonexistent,” says Tyler, now a 21-year-old senior at The College of New Jersey in West Trenton, N.J. “I literally believed that there were no positions available. It took me a while to figure out the field and area I’m most interested in, which is still an ongoing search.”

Losing a job isn’t part of anyone’s ideal plan, but in the long run the experience that comes with working at multiple companies in different corporate cultures is a value to most employers, notes John Challenger, CEO of Challenger, Gray and Christmas, a Chicago-based employment consulting firm. “There is no more lifetime tenure. No matter how good you are, situations change. Even the very best people find themselves without a job. CEOs are the most accomplished people in the country, and they’re losing their jobs all the time,” he says. “In a career, the ability to go from place to place, from one job to another and be resilient in the face of setbacks is important. Some of the most successful people build their careers that way.”

All three of the CEOs mentioned earlier are destined to land at new jobs after being fired from their tech firms. Andrew Mason got canned on February 28, following several disappointing quarterly financial reports. Scott Thompson was ousted after Yahoo! execs found out he lied about his academic credentials, but now he is CEO at ShopRunner, a membership-based Internet shopping service that offers two-day shipping to dozens of retailers. Scott Forstall was removed from his post after Apple’s new mobile map service was widely criticized, but he is still working as senior advisor to CEO Tim Cook; he plans to leave the company sometime this year.

Tyler’s dad, John Fugazzie, eventually found work but was laid off again last fall. Although his dad is job-hunting yet again, Tyler says that he’s learned an important lesson from the experience: When you lose a job, do something to fill your down time in addition to looking for work. “Invest in a skill, activity, or hobby and invest in your community,” he says. “I feel that too often people get caught up in having to plan or think through their future. There is definitely a degree of thought that needs to happen, but at the end of the day, you need to roll up your sleeves and try something.”

Building a Strong Network

That investment may just pay off in new and unexpected ways, as Tyler’s dad discovered. In 2011, John Fugazzie founded Neighbors Helping Neighbors USA, a support group for job seekers. It started out as a weekly meeting in New Jersey, has now expanded to include chapters in Boston and Buffalo, N.Y., and has received national media attention.

John’s No. 1 piece of advice to anyone, teen or adult, who is looking for work: Use your personal network to find new job opportunities. Top-flight CEOs may get a job based solely on their reputation, but most people who find work are doing so by talking to former co-workers, friends and classmates who have leads on jobs. “If I have a job to fill [as an employer], I want to find someone I know, someone I worked with before,” says John. “I might have to hire someone who is related to one of the bosses, or to a client who makes you a lot of money. Nobody’s sending a résumé in off the street and landing a job anymore.”

That makes Challenger’s top tip for gracefully leaving a company all the more valuable – even if you are really angry at being let go. “Whenever you leave an organization, you leave it with dignity. Don’t burn any bridges,” he says. “People go back to work at companies they’ve worked for in the past, they work with former coworkers or suppliers elsewhere. When you’re leaving, leave in the right way.”

Questions

How is today’s job market contributing to more people getting laid off or fired?

Why should you not look at being fired as the end of something, but instead as a new beginning?

What does it mean to build your network, and why is that important in today’s job market?

Related Links

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‘Hairy’ Potter and the Tale of a Mumbai Teen Blogger

Knowledge@Wharton High School — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 15:23:19 +0000

Monik Pamecha does research for his technology blog.

When Monik Pamecha was in the fifth grade, he wrote a funny piece in his newly launched site on Google’s Blogger about a classmate with a lot of body hair. He says his story, titled “Hairy Potter,” became an instant hit among his schoolmates. It started him thinking of bigger things, even dreaming of becoming India’s Steve Jobs.

Today, 17-year-old Pamecha runs a popular technology blog and an enterprise providing website design and social marketing services, both with modest revenues. His top distraction is being a 12^th grade student at the Lilavatibai Podar Senior Secondary School in Mumbai, India.

Since the “Hairy Potter” story of 2005, Pamecha’s blog, www.etiole.com, has grown through several iterations into a popular site featuring technology news features and reviews of gadgets and services. It draws between 50,000 and 80,000 unique monthly visitors. Pamecha’s second venture is Etiole Media, a web design and social marketing agency that he founded when he was 13 years old.

Clicks, Beats and Purple Cows

For Etiole.com, Pamecha initially tapped bloggers he knew of to write and later publicly invited others on his site. It now has 20 regular bloggers from India, the U.S. and elsewhere who write between 10 and 15 posts in a typical month. The blog articles cover social media, devices such as tablets and smartphones, new media personalities and regulatory moves. Recent posts include a product review titled “Why the Samsung Galaxy S3 Won’t Fly in India,” a discussion on Mona Simpson’s eulogy in The New York Times for her brother Steve Jobs, and a useful cheat sheet for “How to Find a Song Name by Lyrics, Humming, Beats or Melody.”

The bloggers earn money through Google’s AdSense, which connects publishers with advertisers. So far, Pamecha’s own writings have earned him about $2,000, while the other bloggers have brought in a total of about $5,000 through AdSense.

Launched in 2003, Google’s AdSense feature uses a pay-per-click model to enable content publishers to attract advertising to their posts and to earn money. Publishers that sign up with AdSense paste a code and identify spaces alongside content on their sites for marketers to place relevant ads. Content publishers receive 68% of the money Google collects from advertisers. Pamecha signed up with AdSense four years ago after he read about it on a blog site. He had earlier experimented with similar online ad exchanges like WidgetBucks and AdBrite, but was not happy with the revenues they generated.

Etiole.com’s bloggers find it an attractive place to post their pieces for other reasons, too, notes Pamecha. Soon after its launch, the site achieved a Google PageRank of three out of 10, which he says is impressive for a new site; the higher the rank, the greater the probability of random web visitors stopping by to read blogs. Bloggers also like the audience demographic, which is 15 to 30 years old. Still, Etiole.com had low traffic in its very early days, and Pamecha knew he had to distinguish it from “the millions of other blogs.” He focused on improving his content’s quality, researching some 40 websites before writing a 500-word piece.

For Etiole Media, Pamecha assembled a freelancers’ team of 15 programmers and web designers from among friends and acquaintances. He offered each of them 100% of the revenues from their specific project contributions, such as programming or designing. For technology marketing advice, he tapped his friend Sandeep Bali, an expert in Internet marketing. Pamecha acknowledges that marketing is not one of his strengths, so he also tries to absorb what he can through reading. His favorite hangout is marketing writer Seth Godin’s blog. He especially likes that Godin compared a “remarkable concept or service” to a “purple cow” – one you would notice when the other cows are far less dazzling.

Etiole Media has thus far earned about $10,000 for Pamecha and another $18,000 for others on its team – all from 26 assignments. These involve website designs and promotions through social channels such as Twitter and Facebook. Clients include Merlin Digital, an electronics retailer in Dubai, and ActiveLifeNYC, a website that lists sports and other activities in New York City.

Pamecha’s entrepreneurship journey began when he was three years old. His father, Manoj Pamecha, enrolled him in a beginner’s class in computer skills for kids. In seventh grade, he learned the basics of HTML programming in a course at his school. He next discovered free video tutorials and e-books to learn computer languages and web designing.

As Pamecha grew up, he would spend hours at his home computer, falling asleep at times in school. He says he had his share of fun and games, too: “I did not miss a single party, and would play football, badminton and table tennis after school.”

Pamecha initially did not feel the need to make money from his ventures. However, when his monthly Internet bills shot up from an average Rs. (Rupees, the Indian currency) 1,200 ($US23) to Rs. 15,000 (US$280), his father admonished him. “I felt very bad,” he says. “I needed to get rid of this problem somehow.”

Soon, a law firm in Chennai, India, chanced upon his blogs and, after reading one of his tutorial posts about website design, asked him to create its website. When it mailed Pamecha an advance check for Rs. 4,000 (US$75), he took it to his father since he did not yet have his own bank account. The senior Pamecha says he was “shocked but happy.” Since then, Pamecha has funded all the expenses for his ventures. The only exception was a Rs. 500 (about US$9) payment that his father made for Etiole Media’s domain registration costs.

Speed to Market

Manoj Pamecha runs a retail business in decorative lighting and chandeliers and confesses he does not understand much of what his son does. However, he set one condition: “Score 80% or higher in school exams or your computer and Internet connection go.” The younger Pamecha did not do well enough in his ninth grade year. He improved his scores the next two years, scoring 87% in his latest exam.

Pamecha cannot wait now to launch the next phase of his career in the U.S., where he has applied to several schools. He says the U.S. will be an ideal setting for him to be a student-entrepreneur. Rhea D’Souza, a teacher at his school, agrees: “He will constantly have ideas while studying and he needs to be in an environment where he can take those ideas to fruition.”

Pamecha wants to build a network connecting digital outdoor advertising billboards. This would involve creating an online back-end platform that connects digital billboards through a local area network. He would secure contracts with billboard owners to enable advertisers to select the times and locations for their ads.

He estimates start-up costs at Rs. 30 lakhs (US$56,000) and a 15% annual return in each of the first three years. “You need partners,” Bali advises. “You can never pay enough to a person who can pitch amazing ideas to investors.”

D’Souza feels he has “an innate ability to spot an opportunity and is very driven.” However, he needs to use his aggressive trait carefully, because some could perceive it as a threat. Bali advises Pamecha to slow down the flow of ideas to change the world and, instead, “do something very specific.” He thinks Pamecha’s concept of networking digital billboards is promising. “It’s a natural idea that will happen anyway. It needs to be done.”

If anything, Pamecha has learned not to procrastinate. “Speed to market,” he says, is especially important in the technology world, as long as you are also paying attention to the quality of your product. More than five years ago, he began thinking about designing a website for people to upload podcasts. A year later, somebody else (SoundCloud) beat him to it. “I was very slow and didn’t put my energy into it,” he notes. “The most important lesson I have learned is to be quick, regardless of what you are doing — responding to a customer, breaking news or designing a product.”

Questions

What are Google’s AdSense and PageRank? Why are they important tools for small business owners like Monik Pamecha?

What does Pamecha’s entrepreneurship journey tell you about today’s global market? Has the Internet made the world a smaller place? In what sense?

Name three valuable business lessons Pamecha has learned. How might they prepare him for his next venture?

The 3-D Printing Revolution: Students Make their own ‘Big Bang’ with Businesses

Knowledge@Wharton High School — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 20:18:30 +0000

In case you haven’t noticed, 3-D is all the rage these days. Sure, you can brave the movie Texas Chainsaw in 3-D or even see a 3-D version of Oz the Great and Powerful, but in this case we’re talking about something more hands-on – 3-D printing. During his State of the Union address this month, U.S. President Barack Obama referred to a lab in Youngstown, Ohio, where “workers are mastering the 3-D printing that has the potential to revolutionize the way we make almost anything.” And how about those researchers at Cornell University who built an ear out of living cartilage cells with the help of a 3-D printer? Add that to the recent episode of TV’s “Big Bang Theory” where Howard Wolowitz and Raj Koothrappali created action figures of themselves on a 3-D printer, and you’ve definitely got some buzz around a technology.

Put a Lid on It

While it may be a while before we all have 3-D printers on our countertops, the excitement around 3-D printing – where designs are created using specialized computer software and sent to a high-tech printer, but instead of printing in ink, they print in plastic (and sometimes in metal) – has actually been building for years, grounded largely in the technology’s value to the business world. The most common corporate use for 3-D printing is rapid prototyping. Rather than spending millions on research and development to make a prototype of a new part or product, manufacturers can design them on computers and produce them much more quickly on their own 3-D printers. Companies like Sony Ericsson and New Balance use rapid prototyping extensively to test their phones and shoes before they ever get near the consumer market.

Think of the financial savings for businesses, says Vincent Uribe, 17 and a senior at Chico High School in Chico, Calif. “With a 3-D printer, you already know what the product looks like, how it’s going to work and how it moves. It really cuts costs in the manufacturing process if you avoid the trial and error of making it.”

Whereas most high school students have yet to hear of 3-D printing, Uribe and his classmates are on their way to becoming experts in the technology as they prepare for careers in engineering and architecture. Chico IT instructor Mike Bruggeman purchased his first 3-D printer in 2008 to better prepare students like Uribe, enrolled in his school-to-work program, for success in the field of engineering.

Soon, the local business community learned of the students’ hands-on 3-D training and wanted in on the available rapid prototyping. “Our first big break was a company called Kleen Kanteen, which makes an environmentally friendly stainless steel water bottle that is manufactured here in Chico,” notes Bruggeman, who has traveled to conferences in Florida and Texas to learn more about SolidWorks 3-D design software. “They had a lid design problem and were in China trying to get this manufactured with no success. We had just purchased our 3-D printer, so we designed the lid on our software, printed it on our printer and screwed it on.” The lid designs were taken to China and served as prototypes for the final production pieces. Other designs have been created and printed for Kleen Kanteen as well, and have become part of its new product lines.

Bruggeman now has two 3-D printers in the classroom and a team of engineering and architecture students who work regularly with nearby companies. Tyler Ceccato, a junior at Chico High, recalls first wanting to work with the school’s 3-D printers when he was in junior high. Following a few years of introductory courses, he got to work on the 3-D printer for the first time this school year. “As a class project, we designed a car that had moving parts,” says Ceccato, who is 17. “We got to make a six-inch car: Mine had moving wheels and a hood that came up. We learned about tolerances; how small the pieces should be so that they will actually spin and have [room] to move.”

Hands-on Appeal

Those design techniques have come in handy during Ceccato’s recent work with Westside Research, a local company that designs and manufactures cargo accessories for trucks and cars. “My partner and I created a mud flap on SolidWorks that you can attach to the hitch of a truck if you are towing a boat,” says Ceccato. “We used prototyping to develop the product. We could send it to the printer and actually print it out so we could touch it and see how it worked.” The product is currently being produced in China. “I want to go to school for engineering and I have a job in engineering. I have a huge advantage over everyone else,” adds Ceccato. “I will have used 3-D printers when people going into college won’t even know what they are yet.”

It’s hard to ignore 3-D printing technology’s hands-on appeal for students who are considering a variety of careers: Nothing replaces touching, tasting, experiencing a concept, especially if it is the design for your future.

In a corner of Bruggeman’s classroom, senior Olivia Somhegyi, 17, sits carefully painting 3-D-printed Bee-line buses and trees with foliage for a full-scale model of a proposed bus transit facility designed by TLCD Architecture Firm in Santa Rosa, Calif. “Our idea for making the model [on the 3-D printer] is so that somebody who doesn’t know the project well can see what it will look like. We’re trying to make it look as realistic as possible,” says Somhegyi, who took Bruggeman’s class to explore a potential career in architecture, which included an internship with TLCD. “The biggest part for me was learning what I like to do. Doing this project, I realize I still like architecture but I can’t see myself doing it. I’ve gone to a few meetings where there are 12 architects in one room and watched them sit back and plan ideas. That was really interesting, but it’s not for me. I’m really interested in environmental science and chemistry. That’s what I plan to major in when I go to college.”

Questions

What is rapid prototyping? What companies use this technology?

How can 3-D printers help businesses save money?

What type of work has Tyler Ceccato done for Westside Research?

How are 3-D printing and career preparation similar?

Do U Know the Economics of Your Cell Phone?

Knowledge@Wharton High School — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 03:34:13 +0000

When Gwen Truman turned 16 last year, her parents fulfilled a wish for the North Carolina teen: She got her own cell phone.

From the start, Truman knew the ins and outs of her family’s cell phone plan and the rules that she had to follow to keep her privilege – basically, do chores around the house and not run the family’s plan over its calling or texting limits.

Now that her family’s plan has been upgraded to include unlimited calling and texting, she’s not as concerned about her hours-long phone calls to her grandparents. But she and her younger brother, David, 14, do share four gigabytes of data each month, and that’s where Truman says she has to keep a keen eye on her usage. “If I know that I’m going to receive a message, I’ll check Facebook really fast, but that’s about it,” she says of her mobile Internet habits.

Master the Budgeting Process

Keeping track of cell phone calling minutes, texts and data may seem like a lot of work, but it’s a good way to learn how to keep a budget, especially if you’re paying part of your bill. And with 75% of kids ages 12 to 17 using their own cell phones, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, plenty of students should try to ace cell phone economics before heading off to college or the working world, notes Peter Dunn, an Indianapolis personal finance expert, author and blogger known as Pete the Planner. “Everybody hates budgeting [planning how you will spend available funds], but the funny thing about a cell phone is that it’s the perfect thing to teach budgeting,” he says. “You’re budgeting how much money you spend per month, plus your minutes, texts and data. It’s a little more complex than a household budget, but this is a good opportunity to master the process.”

That process begins when you sign on for one of three cell phone plans:

Individual plans cover a single phone, with no sharing of minutes, texts or data, but have a monthly fee for the length of a contract. Typically phone companies won’t allow teens to get an individual plan until they’re 18 and legally allowed to sign a contract.

Family plans allow multiple people to have their own phones and share pools of minutes, texts and data. This plan involves a monthly cost, and the phones and service are part of a contract that usually lasts one or two years.

Prepaid or pay-as-you-go plans cover one phone, but don’t require a contract or set monthly payment. Some have a monthly flat fee for service, while others allow users to pay only based on how much use the phone gets each month.

With any of these plans, it’s important to know some basic information, including:

How long your contract lasts
How much it costs per month, including taxes and other fees
Potential penalties if you go over your minutes, texts or data
Potential penalties if you want to leave your contract early
What happens if you break your phone and need to buy a new one

Dunn says that even those with unlimited calling, texting or data plans should look at their bills (or ask their parents) to understand how much they’re using their phone. “It’s important to take two minutes every month to look at your statement. It’s easy to develop a stupid habit of being afraid to see what’s on there,” Dunn notes. “If you can look at how much data you’re using, how many texts and calls you make can help you shape your behavior.” Most companies will let you switch your calling, texting or data plans to match your usage, he adds.

But remember: Unlimited doesn’t always mean carefree cell phone use. Some companies will “throttle” data use, or slow down your data speeds if you hit a certain threshold each month even on an unlimited plan. Unlimited calling and texting plans exclude most international travel, so Dunn urges caution when heading overseas.

Don’t Be Late

It’s especially important to keep track of costs because, like credit cards, unpaid cell phone bills can be blemishes on credit reports and make it harder to get loans for college, cars and houses. (When a person uses credit, such as making a purchase using a credit card or paying a bill, the lender sends information on payment history and balances to a credit-reporting agency. The information supplied by lenders comprises a person’s credit history and is contained in an individual’s credit report.) When the phone is in a parent’s name, it won’t directly affect your credit, but once you turn 18 and get your own phone, that unpaid bill can mess up your credit, too.

Truman says she has been very careful about her mobile Internet usage in the past year. She’s doing what Dunn suggests — keeping an eye on her data throughout the month — which is helping her rest easy that her phone habits won’t get her, or her parents, in trouble with Verizon. “For the past few months, we haven’t gone over (our data plan),” she says. My mom will check on the account during the month to let us know if we’re running into trouble, but we haven’t had a problem yet.” Still, Dunn should proceed with caution. According to a 2010 report by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, older girls who text are the most active, with girls between the ages of 14 and 17 typically sending 100 or more messages a day or more than 3,000 texts per month. That might quickly throw the Truman family plan off-balance.

Questions

Is understanding the economics of your cell phone like budgeting? If so, how?

How can unpaid cell phone bills get you into trouble?

If you have a cell phone (if not, ask your parents), have you ever gone over your monthly allotment of texts, calls and data? By how much? How much did it cost you/your parents? How did you modify your cell phone use?

Tools for the Tank: Tips from World Record Holders in Fuel Efficiency

Knowledge@Wharton High School — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 18:16:02 +0000

Like many college students, Kirsten Anderson, a nursing major at Seton Hall University in South Orange, N.J., sees her car as a precious commodity.

Her ride, a 2003 Ford Focus that she paid for herself, has a combined EPA fuel economy of 23 Miles Per Gallon (MPG). A good rating is anything between 20 and 30, though 25 and over is ideal. Set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the EPA fuel economy is based on tests and refers to how many miles a car can be expected to travel on one gallon of gasoline. The combined number is an average of two figures: City Miles Per Gallon and Highway Miles Per Gallon. The figures are different because one test is intended to simulate an urban driving experience with multiple stops, while the other models a freeway driving experience with steady speeds and no stops.

With work and school 19 miles away, Anderson puts gas in her car weekly. Although she doesn’t always fill the tank, when she does, a stop to fill up can cost $40. “Gas is expensive, and living in an area where most stores and shops are 15 to 20 minutes away, gas is used up quickly,” Anderson says, adding, “I am always looking to save money on gas. For example, I pay attention to gas prices to find the cheapest station, and I look for ways to make extra gas money.” Gas prices at the pump, which have been notoriously unstable in recent years and are often on the rise, are impacted by a number of complex factors — among them, speculation that demand for oil will either increase or decrease and uncertainty over whether or not there are temporary supply shortages – caused by, for example, U.S. refineries shutting down due to natural disasters.

Around the World on 24 Tanks

Fuel economy is a much-discussed topic among those looking to save money. Even if purchasing the latest hybrid vehicle (which runs on both electricity and gasoline) is not in your budget, there are many other ways to cut fuel costs through better purchasing and driving habits.

Perhaps the most obvious way is to buy a car with fuel efficiency in mind. “The teenagers we know are financially not well off, so it makes sense to purchase a smaller, more efficient car with good fuel economy,” says mileage expert Helen Taylor. “There are many cars in the U.S. that return great MPG figures, are affordable to drive and would make a good starting point for any teenager, no matter what their budget.” Taylor, along with husband John, runs the Smarter Driving Fuel Efficiency Program in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

Never underestimate the power of the MPG figure. Assuming 15,000 miles of annual driving and a fuel cost of $3.36 per gallon, the cost difference between driving a car with 20 MPG and one with 30 is $840/annually, according to a U.S. government site, www.fueleconomy.gov. As gas prices continually fluctuate and have historically risen, this number could be significantly larger. According to inflationdata.com, the average cost of gas by month in the U.S. has risen to as high as $4.00 a gallon in 2008 and has more recently hit $3.85 and higher.

However, even if your first car purchase isn’t exactly the EPA’s top fuel economy pick, it is not necessarily doomed to be a gas guzzling money pit. MPG figures are not the end of the story, notes Helen Taylor, who has come to know a thing or two about fuel economy. She and John – known as the world’s most fuel-efficient couple — are credited with 46 Fuel Economy Driving World Records, including driving around the world in 78 days and on only 24 tanks of gas.

Impossible? Not at all, say the Taylors. In order to meet the challenge, the couple used a VW Golf FSi 1.6 vehicle and the knowledge of a dedicated seven-person crew that included a fuel scientist and maintenance experts. In 2006, the car traveled on a carefully planned route through 25 countries across Europe, Asia and North America, traversing more than 18,000 miles and using only Shell’s Fuel Economy Formula Fuel. Although challenged with 50 fill-ups, the couple completed the task using only 24.4 tanks of gas. The VW Golf FSi has a 36.75 US MPG, but the Taylors averaged 52.27 MPG, according to the couple.

Through their educational programs, the Taylors have worked with large corporations around the globe to improve the fuel efficiency of their drivers, saving companies as much as $6 million a year on fuel costs. Their tips have also helped individuals. “Most drivers attending our fuel economy clinics save between 10% and 50% off their weekly fuel bill, based on slightly changing their driving habits. Everyone can do it. You don’t have to do anything [special] with your car and you can start to save today,” says Helen Taylor.

Smart, Smooth and Steady

While other tricks can help you save fuel costs no matter what the advertised MPG, the Taylors offer their top three most effective strategies.

Use a good quality gasoline or fuel. The couple primarily uses Shell fuel. “We have tested all the fuels against each other and found Shell fuels give us 80 miles further on every tank,” says John Taylor. “With Shell fuels and oils, we have visited the refineries, and the scientists have shown us how their product keeps the engine clean, removing gunk and thus giving the car more efficiency.”
Service your car as the manufacturer recommends. “We have all our cars serviced as recommended by the car manufacturer, [which] prevents engine damage,” says Helen Taylor, who adds that a well-serviced engine enables the car to run efficiently.
And finally, most importantly, drive smart, smooth and steady. Aggressive driving with frequent accelerations and braking burns more gas than maintaining a slow, steady pace. “If everyone in the U.S. stuck to the legal speed limit or under, the U.S. would save billions of dollars a year at the gas pump, the environment would benefit and drivers would be more relaxed getting to their venues,” says Helen Taylor.

Questions

What is EPA fuel economy and how is it determined?

How have Helen and John Taylor proven the power of the MPG?

Do you agree or disagree with the Taylor’s assessment of Shell as the most efficient fuel? Why or why not?

Looking Up: An Aspiring Aviation Analyst Talks Airline Mergers

Knowledge@Wharton High School — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 18:07:21 +0000

Jonathan Heckman prepares for take-off.

KWHS first met Jonathan Heckman as a high school student in 2008 when he wrote a piece about his experiences creating and writing “Aviation Buzz,” a blog about the commercial aviation industry that eventually became known as JetCheck.net. His life-long passion for everything airplanes — which he described back then by saying, “For me, flight is an escape; a freedom and diversion from everyday life. Flying takes us to new places, and old; it’s a bridge to culture that’s unparalleled in speed and perspective” — found a fascinating outlet in his devotion to the business of aviation. His blog covered airlines, airports and aircraft manufacturing. This was only the beginning of Heckman’s interest in the business of the skies. Today he is a senior at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Fl., pursuing a bachelor’s of science degree in business administration with majors in air transportation and management. KWHS asked Heckman to offer some insight into this week’s merger between two of the largest commercial airliners, US Airways and American Airlines.

Knowledge@Wharton High School: Were you surprised on Thursday when you heard the news that American Airlines and US Airways plan to merge?

Jonathan Heckman: Industry analysts and participants speculated about this merger a long time ago. Following the mergers of Delta-Northwest and United-Continental, the two major legacy carriers left to complete a mega-merger were US Airways and American Airlines. This process began as a sort of courtship by US Airways and, until now, it remained uncertain as to whether or not American [which filed for bankruptcy in 2011], its creditors and board would choose a standalone plan or merge. The industry struggled through the recession but recent years have shown recovery and better [strategies] to weather tough periods. The airlines’ largest cost, fuel, continues to play a major role in determining profitability.

KWHS: What does this merger mean for travelers?

Heckman: American and US Airways share just 12 overlapping routes, which is very minimal. The routes that overlap are generally hub-to-hub routes (like Philadelphia to Dallas/Fort-Worth). The Department of Justice and industry analysts use route overlap and combined market shares at airports as a measurement for competitive impact. The biggest and most widespread fear among consumers is ticket prices: How will this merger affect my wallet? Consumers argue that they have fewer choices, while the combined airline argues that they now are the right size to adequately compete with their larger peers. Honestly, it is uncertain what the impacts will be on airfare. Reduced competition and a greater market presence in some regions may push fares up, but more competition among three large carriers may spur “fare wars” that could lower prices. There are benefits, however, to [having] mega carriers [like this new merger will create]. Consumers have access to a wide route network that includes some 336 destinations worldwide. Additionally, the merger of frequent flyer programs allows consumers to redeem miles to more destinations and will provide additional opportunities to earn and redeem miles. Once the merger is finalized and some time has passed, large mergers like these allow consumers to fly a single airline with a consistent look and feel to more places.

KWHS: Have you been blogging about this recently? How closely do you still follow the industry?

Heckman: Upon beginning internships, I determined it would be best to discontinue blogging. Yet, I continue to follow the industry very closely and regularly keep up-to-date on news via the A4A Smartbrief (Airlines for America) and airline forums (airliners.net), and I subscribe to a daily update on changes and announcements of global airline routes (airlineroute.net). In my second year at Embry-Riddle, I researched and penned a paper on the effects of airline consolidation on employee productivity and morale. I would say airline mergers and acquisitions have always fascinated me. Mergers surely pique my interest, as there are so many factors and decisions to be made when combining two carriers. What routes are we going to keep? What on-board product are we going to offer? What brand and name will remain? The decisions seem infinite. Yet, ultimately, the combined organization’s culture and dynamics are likely the most importance aspect to any merger in any industry. The numbers may add up on paper and the route maps may align, but if the people are not on board and enthused about coming to work everyday, it’s difficult for the merger to “succeed.”

KWHS: Will the shakeup in commercial aviation continue?

Heckman: I think the dust is starting to settle in the U.S. The moves have been made, and now it’s time to start seeing these merger synergies come together.

KWHS: Are you happy that you made the choice four years ago to attend Embry-Riddle and pursue aviation as a career?

Heckman: My experience at Embry-Riddle has been truly incredible, eye-opening and life changing. I have had the opportunity to attend a university where I am surrounded by all components of the industry — from those pursuing a career as a pilot, an air traffic controller, a mechanic, a career in aviation business and aerospace engineering. I have completed internships with Delta Air Lines (Network Planning), Daytona Beach International Airport (Administration/Operations) and the Allegheny County Airport Authority — Pittsburgh International Airport (Capital Planning). I suppose you could say kerosene has always been in my blood. Even at age seven, I found commercial aviation fascinating and made it my goal to attend Embry-Riddle. Yet ultimately, the mixture of aviation and business, the like-minded students, the international and diverse culture, and the tight-knit community attracted me to the university and its college of business. It is exciting to attend courses with students and faculty who offer unique backgrounds, yet share similar interests and passions. Following my graduation in May, I will be starting my career as a pricing and revenue management analyst at United Airlines in Chicago. It’s a real thrill to see my dream career come to fruition.

Questions

Will consumers pay higher ticket prices as a result of the US Airways/American Airlines merger?

Jonathan Heckman has had a love of flying since age 7. How has he developed that passion through the years?

What are the dangers of choosing a career track so early? The strengths?

Solar Eclipse: What Happens when Your Startup Fails?

Knowledge@Wharton High School — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 16:49:14 +0000

Ryan Marschang is a junior at the University of Pennsylvania pursuing dual degrees in economics and chemical engineering. Last year, Marschang and some of his classmates launched Invisergy, a developer of solar technology building materials. While the technology showed great potential, building owners weren’t quite ready for Invisergy, and its founders dissolved the business in December 2012. Marschang talked with KWHS about his passion for renewable energy, technology and business, and why understanding your market is so critical to start-up success.

An edited version of the interview appears below.

Knowledge@Wharton High School: Dual degrees in economics and chemical engineering — that sounds ambitious. How did you start down that path? Why did you decide to pursue both?

Ryan Marschang: One of the difficulties I had in high school was that I was interested in a lot of different things. Two of my major passions were energy and finance. So, I got really lucky in finding the management & technology (M&T) program here at Penn, a dual-degree program, which allows you to study two things in four years and get two degrees. While it is ambitious, I think the two concepts of business and technology go really well together. And it fell right in line with what I was passionate about, so it was a natural fit for what I wanted to do.

KWHS: Does it ever get overwhelming, two degrees in four years?

Marschang: Yes, it does. I would say it’s nice, in some respects, though, when you can bounce around [doing] different things. For example, if I were taking a lot of classes and just studying finance day after day, I think I might get a bit sick of it. But it’s nice being able to bounce back from a fluid mechanics course in engineering, and when I’m sick of working on a problem set there, going into finance or management and studying something else. There are so many different concepts flying around.

KWHS: What kind of career path might you pursue with those specialties?

Marschang: There are a lot of things you can accomplish. Say you just have a business degree from Wharton. It’s a very general degree and leads to a lot of different [careers] in consulting, finance and business development. But when you add in a technical component – for example, with me, chemical engineering, [you have different options]. I see myself leveraging my technical expertise on that side and using my business knowledge to actually drive technology forward.

The M&T program was founded on this idea that there’s usually a disconnect in some respect between engineers and business development. The technical guys are very involved in the details of a problem. And the business developers are looking at how to drive something forward. The communication gap [between the two] isn’t always filled. I see myself filling that gap in an entrepreneurial setting, or even in a company where you want to commercialize [transform a useful idea into an actual product that is sold on the market] a technology. You need to understand the technical components of it, but understand how to actually commercialize it.

KWHS: Interesting. When did you decide to launch Invisergy? What was your business model?

Marschang: Invisergy is a solar technology company focusing on green or [environmentally] clean building materials. The company was actually founded with three dual-degree Penn students who are in the M&T program. I was very involved in entrepreneurialism as a freshman at Penn. [I worked] on a couple ventures, nothing too serious, but just getting [involved in that] community of entrepreneurs, which is very strong at Penn. As I mentioned earlier, I was very passionate about energy. I actually fell into meeting Rishabh Jain, our CEO, who’s an alumnus of the M&T program. He reached out to Penn to look to build a team. Rishabh is now pursuing his PhD at MIT [Massachusetts Institute of Technology]. He had been working on the technical side of a technology called luminescent solar concentrators, which was a technology developed in the 1970s. He wrote his master’s thesis on this, was doing some research up at MIT and thought, ‘Hey, there might be some potential here.’ So, he [reached] out to Penn, knowing that there are M&T students who understand the business side of things and also the technical side of the equation. [We] started talking with him about the technology, then came upon the idea of forming a company and doing something with this.

So, it started out as a technology up [at MIT]. Then we connected with some alumni from the M&T program, which is a very strong network. And from there, we drove the business.

KWHS: What is the business? Help me understand it.

Marschang: I mentioned luminescent solar concentrators. Basically, that’s a novel way to trap solar energy [generated from the sun]. You can envision our technology as a transparent solar window. We use a transparent surface, like glass or even Mylar, or something like that, where the light hits that surface, and we redirect it to capture that energy. The problem we’re trying to engage is that in the United States, buildings in general consume 70% of the electricity. They’re energy hogs. If you can reduce their energy consumption, then that goes a long way to improving energy efficiency for the United States and for the world. Our goal was to increase energy efficiency for buildings.

One of the major problems with solar [energy] is that when you deploy large solar farms [large-scale installations that use sunlight to produce electric power], it takes up a lot of land. You can generate energy offsite and then transport that to buildings so that they can use clean energy. Alternatively — and what we were thinking much more radically — was that there is a lot of surface area on buildings, on skyscrapers. Why not just try and generate energy onsite? That’s where you see the idea of rooftop solar panels and things such as that. But even more radically, we were thinking, ‘Look at all the windows on these buildings. Why don’t we make these windows smarter? Why don’t we generate electricity from the windows themselves?’

You have a transparent window, and you’re trying to capture energy that goes through that. That’s where our technology comes in. We thought we had a way — and we did to some extent — to efficiently capture that energy, to maintain the transparency of that window and then also generate electricity onsite for buildings.

KWHS: What is your role in the business?

Marschang: I was focused mainly on business development. My major role was understanding the technology, which our CEO and our CTO [Chief Technology Officer] were working very hard on, and then looking at how to commercialize it. We had a very strong scientific foundational technology, and we were trying to decide how to integrate that into a window. [That involved] talking to customers, trying to understand what the market wants, and trying to find a product-market fit for our technology.

One of the difficult things in starting a business in the building space, for example, is that you need to understand who the decision maker is in that process. Once we build our [solar] window, who do we have to sell to? What is our sales cycle like? How are we going to market this? I focused on trying to push our product into market in an effective way.

KWHS: That meant a lot of meetings with people?

Marschang: Yes, meeting with customers, architects, designers.

KWHS: Did you learn a lot through that process?

Marschang: Absolutely. I didn’t know anything about buildings going into this. I knew a lot of the technical side of the equation. But there is so much more to running a business. It was a great learning experience.

KWHS: [This technology] sounds very new. Are you on a new frontier, or are others already doing it?

Marschang: There are competitors in the space. But it’s so new that everyone works together. The market we were entering was called building-integrated photovoltaics [a method of generating electrical power by converting solar radiation into direct current electricity]. I would say – BIPV is what it’s called – is on the frontier of solar. [It involves] finding new ways to implement solar into buildings [and] roof tiles — being smarter about how we deploy existing technologies. We were focusing on this [question of], ‘Can you make a transparent solar solution?’ We weren’t creating transparent solar cells, but there are people doing that. There are also people working on flexible solar cells. I would say that area of solar is on the frontier of the general industry. We found out the hard way that it can be very difficult to [convince] people to take on a bit of risk to try something radical and new.

KWHS: [Let’s] talk about that. All of this was going on last year, correct?

Marschang: Yes.

KWHS: You were doing a lot of business development. How much progress was made with Invisergy? Where does [the business] stand right now?

Marschang: We spent a bit over a year to date on the project. We spun our wheels a bit starting out. The company had four founders, and this was our first real shot at driving a company forward — spending a lot of money and putting a lot of effort into it. It was slow-starting because we had to acquire mentors, figure out what direction we wanted to take the company, and the vision wasn’t entirely clear. The first four to five months [involved] getting a business plan together, talking to people at Wharton in the Venture Initiation Program, entering a lot of business plan competitions and trying to find that vision and understanding of what we wanted to actually do, which was really important.

Heading into last summer, we started to push a bit more. We had won a couple tens of thousands of dollars to develop a prototype [a model built to test a technology]. We got into an incubator/accelerator called Mass Challenge up in Boston, which was where our lab was located. And I spent the summer out in San Francisco.

KWHS: Can you explain what an incubator does?

Marschang: There are incubators and accelerators. [An incubator] incubates your business. [An accelerator accelerates your business]. [They might] provide you with capital. So, some incubators might have you apply and if you get in, you get, say, $10,000 for a couple months to support yourself. [They also provide] resources, in terms of mentors and being around entrepreneurs who can help you solve similar problems. The idea sometimes is to connect you with potential investors. [Incubators] provide you with all those nutrients that you need to grow and launch your business.

We were in Mass Challenge, the largest accelerator in the United States right now, which was cool. And then I spent some time out in San Francisco, starting to talk to angels [high-net-worth individuals who invest money in promising startups], and starting to talk to people who had been in the [building-integrated photovoltaics] space. And that’s when we really started to learn about the industry; meeting with Kevin Surace of Serious Materials, which is a great company in the space, and just learning. Instead of making the mistakes ourselves, [we found out] what they had learned through their mistakes. [It] was really enlightening in terms of our business.

We learned that renewables [sources of renewable energy like solar and wind] are having a difficult time right now in general, and in the building space in particular. We had a lot of wrong assumptions. We started to find this out [after] about six months, in June or July. [For example, we assumed that people would embrace our radical idea] to produce energy from windows. But building owners are very conservative and not necessarily willing to make an investment in a radical technology like that.

If you think about it, it makes sense. Buildings are erected and might stand for 50 or 100 years. Then you start thinking, ‘Do I want to put a technology like this, which might become obsolete or might not work, [on my building]? Once I put that building up, how am I going to take that technology down?’ Those are things we hadn’t necessarily thought of, but were really important. We found that yes, building owners are trying to increase the efficiency of their buildings, because it makes sense; it costs a lot to heat them and to cool them. But they’re looking to do it through different technologies, like energy software. [This includes] startups, for example, that help you track what appliances are using that energy. It is very capital-efficient to implement those technologies. And they have a shorter payback period [the period required for a return on the initial investment].

Our payback period was on the order of five years. And some of these software efficiency companies could pay back in under a year. We found that the adoption for those technologies would probably happen before ours. With those realizations and a lot more, we decided in December [2012] to dissolve the corporation. We were a bit naïve in thinking that we could move forward a lot quicker than we could. I think the technology still has potential, for sure. But it would definitely be a five- to 10-year commitment to make this succeed. That’s a tough choice when you are [also] in school.

KWHS: So how does that feel, when you invest so much time and energy into something, and you have to give it up?

Marschang: It’s tough. We could have made the decision [to dissolve the company] earlier. I think it took us a [long time] because we didn’t want to give it up. But it’s much easier to make that decision when you’re in school and you have a lot to fall back on. You’re still studying. You could still get a job out of school. You could still start another company. I think the decision gets a whole lot tougher when you’re working on this full-time. [This] is one of the reasons I think you should definitely start a company when you’re in school. It’s the safest time you will ever have to run a company. If you fail, nothing’s gone wrong. You can learn a lot through your mistakes, and so failing is probably a good thing.

It was tough to make that decision. But there are a lot of cool things still to do. I’m excited about working on new projects, new businesses.

KWHS: Before we talk about that – energy is a passion of yours. We hear so much about the energy economy [the supply and use of energy], the green economy. Is it really holding promise for jobs and economic development in the future? What’s your take on the energy economy?

Marschang: I think we’ve seen a lot of progress over the past decade in terms of energy. I come from an oil family, actually. My dad’s a petroleum engineer. I’ve been around that conventional side of energy my whole life. And now, I’m very passionate about renewables. I think there’s a lot of promise there, but the problem with a lot of renewable technologies is energy density, in comparison to coal and oil. The infrastructure is not in place.

KWHS: We’re talking about [the infrastructure for renewable energy like] solar and wind technology.

Marschang: Yes, exactly. Costs are very high. Over the next 50 years or so, I think we’ll see the different alternative energies working together. That’s what is really needed. There’s a lot of work being done right now to upgrade our [electrical] grid [a network of power plants and transmission lines that deliver electricity from suppliers to consumers]. So, instead of the old model, where at a power generation plant, you would generate all your electricity and then distribute it. Now, you might be able to generate your own electricity at your house, through solar. The grid isn’t really set up to handle generation from all those different points. Once the grid is updated, we can start deploying more solar. And everything, through smart grid technology, can start to work together.

The shale boom [where natural gas is now extracted from shale formations] over the past five [to 10] years [also] changed the [energy] landscape a lot, decreasing prices in natural gas. [This has] made renewables not as competitive, because [we can get] cheap energy from natural gas. Natural gas is going to play a huge part in the energy economy moving forward. I think things look well. But there’s just a lot of stuff happening, and it’s tough to say.

KWHS: You said you were excited about the future. Do you think you’ll resurrect Invisergy at some point? What’s happening next for you?

Marschang: [Invisergy] is definitely a possibility. I’m very interested in energy. To be an entrepreneur in the energy space, in terms of technological development, I think I might need to pursue a PhD. I’m looking at MIT or Stanford to pursue a PhD in chemical engineering. When I’m there, [I hope to work] on some technology with the hope of commercializing it. The time frame for developing energy technologies is much longer than the typical tech start-up scene. That is one of the things I was a bit naïve of heading into Invisergy. When people think, ‘Oh, startups, entrepreneurialism,’ they are drawn to TechCrunch [a publication that covers Internet and tech startups], Y Combinator [an accelerator for aspiring digital entrepreneurs], and things like that. I found out that the landscape of the entrepreneur, or of startups, is very different. Energy is a capital-intensive startup versus just launching a website. It is tough for me [to decide] what type of startup I want to work on. But because I like energy and I think energy is more suited toward that capital-intensive side of the equation, I think I need to develop my technical skills a bit more. That’s my plan now. We’ll see.

KWHS: Good luck!

Marschang: Yes, thank you.

Questions

What two degrees does Ryan Marschang hope to earn, and why are these specialties important to his future in the alternative energy business?

Why were buildings and skyscrapers so important to the success – and failure – of Invisergy?

Based on Marschang’s experience with Invisergy, why is it so important to know the market in which your company operates?

Credit in China: A Culture of Consumer Spending?

Knowledge@Wharton High School — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 03:32:05 +0000

“I’m a little embarrassed.” Liu Jing leaned in closer and lowered her voice, revealing for the first time a hint of discomfort since the topic of credit cards had been broached. After a pause, she smiled, took a breath and said, “but let’s chat.”

Liu was born in Henan, a province in central China 600 miles northwest of Shanghai. Despite coming from a solidly working-class family, she was encouraged to study hard as a child and prepare for the gao kao, China’s rigorous college-placement examination. She received high marks and earned a coveted position at a public university in Beijing. While she had studied English in Henan, it was not until she arrived in Beijing that she discovered her gift for language.

After four years at the university and despite never having left mainland China, Liu gained a strong command of English and an understanding of Western culture and business practices. She stood out as a model of success within China’s stunted education system. She cultivated her skills by befriending Western exchange students and young British expatriates working in the capital. Due to her competent English, she landed a position as a junior executive at a digital advertising firm. While her salary was slightly below the entry-level standard for white-collar jobs in China, the position allowed her to remain in vibrant, growing Beijing.

Soon after entering the workforce, however, Liu began to grapple with economic reality. Her salary barely covered her rent and other basic necessities. She also realized that with Western friends came lifestyle choices. If she wanted to maintain her English skills, she would have to be comfortable accompanying her Western friends to restaurants and bars, which meant additional spending.

On the back of a napkin, Liu spelled out her financial conundrum. As a junior executive, she netted 5,000 RMB (US$800) a month after taxes. From this, she paid 2,000 RMB (US$320) per month in rent for a shared flat near Beijing’s fourth ring road. This left her with 3,000 RMB (US$480) a month in disposable income, or 100 RMB (US$16) a day. With this sum, she had to cover her remaining living expenses. Liu tried to stretch her income as best she could, but when she suddenly lost her job due to a company acquisition, she was hard-pressed to make ends meet.

At this moment, a friend recommended that Liu apply for a UnionPay credit card from one of China’s large state-owned banks. She was hesitant at first, given the Chinese cultural tendency to avoid borrowing, but this was the help she needed. As she was no longer employed and was in a weak position to apply for a line of credit, she begged a friend in the accounting department of her former company to forge the necessary documents to show she was still employed and had a monthly income. Begrudgingly, her friend helped. A month later, Liu had her first credit card.

At first, Liu used the card to make ends meet. She would borrow against her credit at the beginning of the month and pay off most of the balance within 30 days. But as time went on, the allure of this “extra” income and the social benefits it allowed compelled Liu to slowly increase her borrowing. She soon discovered that borrowing is a slippery slope.

After using the card for one year, she had accumulated debt of 15,000 RMB (US$2,400), or three times her previous monthly income. “I don’t really know exactly how my credit card works, like how much interest I need to pay every month,” she acknowledged. Even so, she was acutely aware that this money would need to be repaid eventually.

She had no plan for paying off the balance. She would try to save more, and perhaps her next job would pay her a higher salary. Until then, Liu Jing, an exemplar of China’s new middle class, was trapped.

A Variety of Credit Options

Since being introduced in 1985, the number of credit cards issued in China has grown at an astonishing rate, reaching 285 million in 2011, five times the number in 2006. Growth has remained consistently high and is expected to continue at 31% per year over the next five years, according to an RNCOS report on the industry. According to the 2012 Chinese Credit Card Industry Bluebook, US$1.2 trillion of purchases were made with credit cards in China in 2011, a year-on-year increase of 48%. This figure represented almost 40% of all purchases of consumer goods. In 2000, the corresponding proportion was less than 10%.

MasterCard projects that annual credit card spending in China will more than double by 2025, and over the next decade, the country is expected to become the largest credit card market in the world by number of issued cards, overtaking the United States. Although the figure is high, it is worth noting that in China, credit cards are still used mostly for large-ticket items, while cash is still the predominant payment method for smaller purchases. Indeed, one study on credit card holders in Shanghai showed that 80% of purchases below 100 RMB (US$16) are still made with cash.

The needs of the family have always come before those of the individual in traditional Chinese culture. This, in combination with demographics, has exacerbated the trend toward increased reliance on credit. China’s rapidly aging population and the government’s one-child policy have created a “sandwich generation”: those married with a young child and aging parents who have significant financial responsibilities that lead to higher credit card use. A Jiao Tong University study also examined attitude factors that drive credit card use, concluding that “social power,” the desire to display material wealth, played a significant role in the willingness to take on debt. These findings point to the adoption of Western consumer-centric attitudes and the shedding of traditional reluctance to take on debt among young, urban Chinese.

Paying off Debt

“I have access to credit, but would only use it as a last resort,” said Zhou Lin, a young entrepreneur based in Beijing. In 2007, Zhou opened her first boutique in Beijing’s Haidian District, selling Korean and Japanese apparel to fashion-conscious university students. Since then, she has opened new stores and expanded beyond bricks-and-mortar to new sales channels, including a robust e-commerce platform. With a keen aesthetic sense and an ability to hone in on China’s ever-changing fashion trends, she is part of a wave of young Chinese entrepreneurs with their fingers on the pulse of China’s consumer demand.

Zhou readily admitted that she had more than one credit card. “I applied for them because of the benefits they provide. This one gives me deals when I travel abroad. The bank that offers this card organizes shopping events in Beijing, and if you use your card, you can get deals.” Almost all of Zhou’s friends had cards as well. She noted that having a credit card in the early 2000s was a status symbol. If you had one, it meant that you or your family had money.

In recent years, however, the plastic cards have become commonplace and no longer bestow an air of privilege upon their holders. “I’ll carry them when I travel outside of China for business,” Zhou added. “If something goes wrong and I have to stay for an extra few days to meet with suppliers, I know my credit will cover me.” Despite having multiple credit cards, Zhou rarely, if ever, used them in China. When shopping in Beijing, for example, whether for personal purchases or for business, her cards rarely left her purse. She attributed this behavior to her experiences with credit when she was 19.

When she left Shanghai to attend a university in Beijing, Zhou’s father issued a duplicate of his credit card under her name, for use in an emergency. While a common practice in the West, Zhou’s situation was quite rare in China at the time. She was the only one among her college friends with a credit card.

One day, after a prolonged argument with her father over the phone, Zhou decided to take revenge and used the card to go on a spending spree. She recalled that when her father received the bill, he was outraged and devastated. He spent the next few months paying off her debt. This taught Zhou an important lesson: Credit is dangerous and its use has serious implications — a belief consistent with traditional Chinese values.

Despite rapid economic growth, the Chinese government has recently been attempting to spur consumer spending, which has remained stubbornly low as a proportion of Gross Domestic Product (Gross Domestic Product). Before the global financial crisis, the cliché was, “Chinese save, Americans consume,” with the average saving rate in most Chinese households running at over 40% of annual income.

However, as consumption plummeted in Western countries in the wake of the financial crisis, the Chinese government realized the importance of encouraging domestic spending as a way to compensate for diminished demand for its exports, and it has attempted to change the savings culture. In the U.S., the credit card industry helped give rise to the middle class and the culture of consumerism. The Chinese government has begun deregulating the industry in an attempt to achieve the same result.

As China continues to evolve culturally and its financial institutions continue to mature, growth in the availability of consumer credit is only natural. Will a sophisticated ecosystem around personal credit, including the regulatory system and a cultural familiarity with and acceptance of credit, develop as it has in Western societies? Will the typical Chinese credit card customer look more like Liu Jing, on a slippery slope to insolvency, or like Zhou Lin, whose early credit-related mishaps fostered a mature respect for the benefits and risks of credit? The impact of consumer credit will have far-reaching implications for the overall direction of Chinese economic development.

Questions

Why is credit card use on the rise in China?

Does the adage, “Chinese save, Americans spend” still hold true in China? Why or why not?

If you live in China, what is your experience with credit card use? Do you have friends with credit cards? Siblings? Do you have a credit card? What is your attitude toward taking on debt?

Fashion Meets Function: Deepa Gandhi’s ‘New Dawn’ for Handbags

Knowledge@Wharton High School — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 16:43:26 +0000

Deepa Gandhi is founder of Dagne Dover, a new brand offering luxury quality accessories like handbags at affordable prices that will be launching on the web this spring. She is also a graduate student in the Wharton entrepreneurial program and is scheduled to earn her Masters of Business Administration (MBA) degree in 2013.

Knowledge@Wharton High School: Tell us about Dagne Dover. Where did you get the idea for the business and how did you make it a reality?

Deepa Gandhi: Dagne Dover is a new online-only brand for the modern woman. We’re looking to ensure that women no longer have to compromise their personal style while also being organized. We are starting this spring offering totes and clutch wallets and a variety of accessories that go back to the idea of fashion meeting function. They’ll be beautifully designed on the outside, but with extreme interior organization and the idea of lifestyle functionality at the core of the business model.

I got the idea through one of my co-founders, Melissa Shinn, who prior to going to Wharton to also pursue her MBA had worked at Coach [a luxury leather-goods company that makes purses and other accessories]. When she came back to business school and had to carry a laptop and binders and notebooks and all the crazy things you have to carry to go to class every day, she realized that while her handbags were beautiful, they were not functional. They didn’t do what she needed. All of us realized we were doing the two-bag schlep, if you want to call it, stuffing everything into one. Your life feels like a disaster, even though you’re not a disaster.

So we came up with the idea of Dagne Dover so that women no longer have to feel that level of discomfort or displeasure with the organization in their bags, while still maintaining their level of fashion and sophistication. We believe this is the perfect bag for anyone [who is] busy and on the go and lives a very active lifestyle. She’s looking to go from the gym in the morning to work or classes during the day and then has to go to some sort of professional activity or extra-curricular activity after school. She can carry it all, but still feel very organized and effortlessly chic.

KWHS: I’m wondering where the name comes from.

Gandhi: The name Dagne Dover is our idea of the modern woman. She is someone who is able to balance her professional or career aspirations on one end — that’s the Dagne side –and then Dover is our designer, Jessie Dover’s last name, and that’s the creative side. Every woman nowadays is a balance of both left brain and right brain, and Dagne is actually a Nordic name that means “new dawn.” We believe it’s a new dawn, a new day for handbags.

KWHS: This seems like a particularly crowded marketplace. How do you differentiate your business in this competitive market?

Gandhi: Handbags, absolutely, it’s very saturated. There are many competitors out there. You have Coach, which dominates the market space, and Michael Kors is creeping up on them. But within this space, there is no one that is actually providing the product that we are to the niche that we are looking for. In a saturated market, it’s important to then identify white space where nobody else is addressing a pain point.

To us, the pain point is the lack of functionality for fashionable handbags. You have certain brands that offer the carry-all organizational options, but they’re not stylish and they’re often not high-quality products. Then you have a slew of other brands that are affordable luxury or high-end luxury — Hermes, Louis Vuitton, Prada — but none of them ever focus on the internal smart design. The idea is to pull together something that’s currently not offered in the marketplace and then identify your target demographic that this really speaks to. We’ve identified a pain point, and we’re working backwards into how do we solve that pain point — our pain point in our minds is universal handbag problems.

KWHS: Tell us a little bit about your personal entrepreneurship journey. Have you always been business minded?

Gandhi: I’ve definitely always been business-minded. [My family] has owned a family business my entire life, so it’s in my blood to want to be an entrepreneur, to want to run my own business. As a very little kid, I’d say I’m going to take over my dad’s business, which isn’t interesting to me anymore, so I’ve gone my own route. Even in high school — I went to the Bergen County Academies in Hackensack, N.J. — I had a great opportunity. While my high school focused on science and technology, I found very early on that I was not as passionate about science and technology as I thought I was at the age of 13 when I applied to the high school. While I was there, I decided to pursue my interest in business, and I worked with a couple of classmates to open up a café, which was exciting. We were able to go through the budgeting process, the merchandising — at that time I didn’t even know I was doing merchandising — picking which snacks and which drinks, what we should offer and what were the peak times for students to come and visit the café.

In my senior year, my high school offered an internship program where every Wednesday, students did a senior-experience internship. [When we were juniors], we went through the entire job-discovery process, going through the résumé building and interview process, the networking process, all the way through actually having an internship at a major company through our senior year. I felt this really built a foundation for who I’ve become as an individual and as a professional through my life. I was very passionate about fashion. I always read every Vogue and In Style that came my way. I was able to, through my personal network — and personal networks are very important — find an internship in the fashion closet at Harper’s Bazaar, [a woman’s fashion magazine].

At the age of 17, I realized that I had a passion [for fashion]. Then when I went to [college as an] undergrad, I decided to take a little bit of a detour and go more the traditional route. I went into finance when I first graduated from undergrad. Then after a year of working in finance at a great job — there are people who are very interested in [finance] and passionate about that and that’s what drives them — I realized I still loved fashion, but I was business-minded. So that’s how I found my way back into the retail and fashion industry, working on the operational and financial side of the business. That’s what led me back to business school, so that I could eventually pursue my own entrepreneurial endeavors.

KWHS: Sometimes when people think of entrepreneurship, they think of one woman, one company, one journey, but it really is a collaborative effort. Can you talk a bit about that — the different parts that fall into place to help you create your business?

Gandhi: I think that’s a great comment and question. I would be nowhere without my community, as I like to call it. People say building a family takes a village, building a business takes an entire community. So to start, it’s not a one-woman show. I have two co-founders who are unbelievably talented. One of my co-founders, Melissa, as I mentioned, worked at Coach before going to business school. She focuses on the marketing and the branding and the high-level strategy of our business. I work on the operations, inventory management, sourcing and production. It’s a balance between what the two of us do to run the overall business, and then we have our designer. We’re a fashion business at the end of the day and we have an unbelievably talented designer in Jessie Dover. She went to Parsons [School of Design] for her undergrad and was trained in handbag design.

I believe you can only start a business if you have a strong team. We’ve [also] had multiple people come and help us, whether it’s with graphic design or with the fundraising, and our families and friends are unbelievably supportive. They’re going to be the first people to buy our handbags when we launch, but more importantly get our name out there. It’s also very important to learn from the experience of your peers and people who have actually been through this. I’ve been lucky to have a couple of mentors come on who really walk me through what it means to be an entrepreneur. When it’s midnight and I’m like — ‘What am I doing with my life? This is just craziness. I’m overwhelmed. Are we ever going to launch?’ – when there are production issues and all these things are happening, it’s great to be able to have people who give you their advice and support and help you go through the process.

A great thing about going to a school like Wharton is that whether you’re on the undergraduate or graduate side, there are other people going through the same process as you. We’ve built this great little community that’s very tight-knit, and we’re there for each other. Whether it’s just answering a simple question because somebody else has been through that before, or just listening and hearing. It definitely is a community effort, not just a single individual with an idea.

KWHS: And you also get support from programs like the Wharton Venture Award, right? Can you talk a little bit about that?

Gandhi: [One of the] reasons I came back to business school to start my own business was that there is a community and there’s institutional support to build your business. [My team] has really benefited from Wharton’s venture initiation program. They select about five to six businesses every semester from the undergraduate or the graduate population to support them and go through the entire initiation process: How do you build your business plan? How do you get your product to market? I’m very proud to say we also won a Wharton Venture Award, which is a $10,000 award given every summer to five businesses. If you’re an undergrad, you’re eligible between your junior and senior year, and if you’re a graduate student, you’re eligible between your first and second year.

If you have an idea that not only you but the entire school believes in, the school wants to support you through the summer to make sure you don’t have to work another internship or work another job. They say, ‘Go for it. You have three months to throw your entire heart and life into this idea and figure out if it’s viable.’ We won one of those awards and it was amazing because we didn’t have to worry about the little start-up expenses like legal fees and filing fees. All of those little things were taken care of over the summer because we had the award, and then we were able to push out the actual fundraising and financing process till this past fall. We’re currently still going through the fundraising process, which is another whirlwind of excitement and lots of learning. But it’s great to be in an environment where they’ve built entire programs to help the venture initiation process.

KWHS: Can you talk about the financing part? You have investors, correct? Did you also have to have some seed investment that all of you contributed to the business?

Gandhi: It depends on where you are financially — so for us, we had minimal seed investment from the actual founders. In terms of the fundraising process and financing, we’ve chosen to do a friends and family seed investment fundraising round so that we can have the people closest to us who believe in us give us our initial investment. [That investment] is under half a million dollars. Between them and a couple of angel investors who are high net worth individuals who know the fashion and tech space and the start-up space very well and also come with their own networks and their own advisory abilities, [we have financial] help to get us through the next year. [We are figuring out thse questions]: Is it a viable product? What is the actual demand? What type of sales projections can we actually achieve, and what can our company potentially be valued at over time? As our business needs evolve, we’re going to figure out what our next financing options are.

It’s always important to keep in mind that there are a couple of different ways to finance your business. The ideal situation is that you’re able to self fund, and depending on what you do and where your family comes from or what your professional prospects were — for example in my case, before coming back to business school — you can potentially self fund.

The second is what we’re doing, which is a friends and family financing round, so you keep it close, you keep it to the people whom you trust. If it’s a more capital intensive, more expensive business to build, especially in the tech space or in the health care space, you might want to look for larger institutional investors, [such as] venture capital or super angels or very, very high net worth individuals who can invest like a venture capital fund. That comes with its benefits and also its downsides. You often have to give up control too early in your business if you go for the venture capital funding, so it’s important to keep in mind the balance between getting the funding that you need and maintaining control of your business early on. If you’re as passionate as I am about it, you want to make sure that you’re able to really impact what that final business ends up being over the next couple of years. Debt, or taking out loans, is always a good option once you have a minimal, viable product.

KWHS: I’m sure this has been an incredible learning experience for you thus far. Do you have one or two lessons that you can pull out? You still have a way to go on the journey of building the business, but what really stands out to you as a lesson learned that you’d like to pass along?

Gandhi: Focus on what you’re passionate about. This is not just something I learned through the entrepreneurial experience or journey, but also through my life from [college] undergrad to today. Know what you’re good at; know your strengths. For me, it’s the fact that I am business-minded. Becoming a doctor was not the right way to go for me. Within [business], you don’t have to take the traditional route, which is often finance or consulting. If that’s what you’re passionate about, go that route. But if there’s something else that gets you up in the morning and gets you excited when you’re reading articles or watching interviews with executives, find a way to build a career out of that.

I went into a traditional finance career after undergrad and even when I was there and working — I was on a sales trading floor as an equity sales trader — it was the mornings when they talked about potential trades for retail companies that I was inherently the most interested. I said, ‘I don’t want to be on this side; I want to be in the industry. I want to actually be making the decisions that these businesses are making.’ Through my personal network, I was able to find a job and work at Ralph Lauren and Club Monaco. [I was] still on the business side, but [I could start] getting perspective on how the actual industry works. There are so many different ways to build your career. Make sure you focus, though, on what you’re interested in and inherently passionate about because you’re going to be that much more successful when you care about what you’re actually doing every day.

Also, while at Club Monaco, I had some entrepreneurial experiences, so I was able to build my own businesses within a larger company. That’s when I realized that I wanted to be an entrepreneur. Having learned the lessons of going to finance and then going to retail, I said, ‘Okay, I’m going to leave this and go to business school and start a business.’ I’ve definitely tried to learn from my own experiences.

The other big lesson I’ve learned is that you have to be resilient. You have to be able to roll with the punches. Make sure that you survey people and listen to what other people have to say, because everybody who gives you advice who you trust is going to give you constructive criticism. Listen to that, and once you get to a place where you think you have a product that you can get to market, go for it. It’s going to be rough, and you’re going to have the highs and lows. I’ve definitely had days when I’ve had the best things happen, but then also the worst all within a 24-hour period. You have to go with it and be resilient.

You’re going to get to the other side. Whether you succeed or fail with your first venture or your second venture, you’re always going to learn something, and it’s going to make you that much stronger as a person. We’re all young; I’m 27 years old. I have a lot of time ahead of me. It’s better to do it now and learn from it. In 20 years, I’ll be able to look back on this experience and either say, ‘Well, that was the most successful thing I’ve done,’ or ‘I learned so much from taking on that risk.’

KWHS: What is next for Dagne Dover? What can we expect in 2013?

Gandhi: 2013 is the year of Dagne Dover, as we like to say. We will be launching our beta in the early spring, so in the next month or so.

KWHS: That’s your website.

Gandhi: That’s our website, so you’ll be able to buy our product, you’ll be able to preorder and then get deliveries this April and then in the fall, in August or September of 2013, we’ll have our official nationwide launch – new products, everything. We’re really excited. Everybody should be excited to be fashionable and functional at the same time in 2013 and also going into 2014.

KWHS: Great. Thank you so much.

Gandhi: Thank you very much.

Questions

Starting in high school, how many times has Deepa Gandhi changed her career focus? How long has she had a passion for fashion?

How is Dagne Dover garnering the majority of its start-up capital? What were some of the other financing options?

What does it mean to be resilient? What might be some challenges that test your resiliency as an entrepreneur?

MLK Day Tribute: Student Lessons in Leadership

Knowledge@Wharton High School — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 20:56:29 +0000

On Sunday, January 20, 2013, Rey David Santiago, 18, stepped up to the microphone in a public school auditorium in his hometown of Madera, Calif., and spoke from the heart – el corazón. In honor of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday, Santiago had been selected to speak to school officials and members of the community about leadership and his dreams. “The theme of my speech was ‘Dreams of Today’s Students and Leaders of Tomorrow,’” said Santiago, a senior at Madera County Independent Academy. “I talked about my personal dreams that started when I was young – for Mexican and immigrant students, no matter what the circumstances, to try and to not give up. They must not let their dreams fade away, because dreams are what push everything forward,” adds Santiago, who moved with his family to California from Oaxaca, Mexico, when he was eight, and plans to go to college next year to study engineering technology. “Leadership to me is to help my people, my community and anybody who needs help — to help them in any way I can.”

A Better Tomorrow

On January 21, King’s birthday, the nation celebrates the life and legacy of the 1960s civil rights leader, whose inspiring “I Have a Dream” speech about a country free of racial divide still resonates with students like Santiago. In his podcast, “Leadership Lessons from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,” author Michael Hyatt says he believes that the “I Have a Dream” speech offers several key insights into what it means to be a great leader. For instance, he notes, great leaders engage the heart, refuse to settle and paint a vivid picture of a better tomorrow.

So as the nation pays tribute to a great leader – on a day that also happens to be the presidential inauguration celebration for Barack Obama, our country’s top leader – Knowledge@Wharton High School asked students from around the country, many of who are involved in the National Youth Leadership Council, a nonprofit that promotes service learning in schools, how they define leadership. Here are their insights:

“Leadership means being actively involved in your community and causes that are dear to your heart. It means inspiring others to be motivated to do something and to accomplish a goal that they have. I will be going to college next year at St. Edwards University in Austin, Tex., and I plan to major in global studies. I want to then go on to medical school, become a surgeon and eventually go to third world countries and do pro bono surgeries [for people who can’t afford them].”

Haley Holliday, 17, senior, Atascocita High School, Humble, Tex.

“A leader has to be charismatic and has to inspire people to follow him. He also has to be confident in the way that he can’t be afraid to share what he is thinking or feeling. He should be determined to stay on his path. A great leader is someone who takes on leadership when other people don’t know what to do, what path to take or how to accomplish some goal. He also does it in a way that is beneficial to everyone around him, just as Dr. Martin Luther King accomplished his [civil rights] goals through nonviolence.”

Sujay Rao, 15, sophomore, Eden Praire High School, Eden Praire, Minn.

“Being a good leader is having people want to follow you rather than forcing people to follow you. You also need to carry yourself in a way that people want to carry themselves similarly.”

Berkley Cohn, 17, senior, The Galloway School, Atlanta, Georgia

“A great leader is someone who is passionate about what they do. If someone is passionate about helping people, they can go into politics and be a great leader. If someone is passionate about selling cars, they can become a great leader as a car salesman. It’s all about your passion. I am really into politics and trying to make a difference. I’m part of student council and the Model United Nations at my school. I volunteered on the Obama campaign. One day I want to run for office, and before that I’m thinking about [pursuing] law.”

Kristopher Brown, 18, senior, Lincoln Charter School, Lincolnton, North Carolina

“A great leader is a person who is able to understand when it’s time to take action and be a leader, but also when it is time to step back and let others become leaders. I do projects with my service-learning group [in my role with the National Youth Leadership Council]. I like to take control of the situation, but I’m learning to let go of some of the control because it’s not just my project; it’s everyone’s project. A person truly doesn’t learn or grow if someone is constantly telling them what to do and they’re not allowed that creative outlet. People have a way of surprising you more often than not, and they are more capable than you think.”

Mallory Keller, 17, senior, Belton High School, Belton, Missouri

Questions

How do you define leadership? Do you agree or disagree with any of these students’ ideas and insights?

In your opinion, can anyone be a great leader? Why or why not?

Are you a good leader? If so, why? In what specific ways do you develop your leadership skills?

Future Tech Exec: An Internship Leads to a Full-time Gig at Google

Knowledge@Wharton High School — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 20:29:49 +0000

Carlos Rodriguez Flores never really thought he had a chance at landing an internship at Google, the Mountain View, Calif.-based multinational company (located inside the Silicon Valley tech hub) that provides Internet-related products and services, including Internet search, cloud computing, software and advertising technologies. But still, during his junior year at the University of Pennsylvania, he decided to give it a shot. “I knew if I didn’t try … I would completely regret it later,” he says.

That was two years ago. Since then, Flores, 22, has completed a summer internship at Google and has also started working for the company full-time at the Googleplex headquarters — a dream come true for someone who has known since he was a teenager that he wanted to be a part of the world of business and economics.

‘Extremely Competitive’

Flores grew up moving around the world — from Mexico to Argentina to Venezuela — because of his father’s job with Procter & Gamble, a consumer goods company. As a high school student at the American International School in Caracas, Venezuela, he applied to business programs at Penn and the London School of Economics. He decided to go to Wharton, and it was there, at an information session during his freshman year, that the Google seed was planted. “It was the first time I heard of the RAMP program, a [Google] program designed to develop the future executives of technology, which sounded awesome and completely different from the banking and consulting positions many people consider post-graduation,” he says.

Two years later, during his junior year, he decided to apply for a summer internship position – even though he knew that the application process was “extremely competitive.” He had two rounds of interviews, the first over the phone and the second in person. The experience was a little different from the traditional interview process. “What separates Google interviews from other interviews I had is the fact that they focus a lot more on the personality of the interviewee, as well as your critical thinking,” says Flores. “I did get a couple of the unusual interview questions you read about, but I think the toughest ones are the ones about yourself.”

Many of the questions also required Flores to call on his business knowledge. Here’s an example: “Imagine you are tasked to design an online marketing campaign for a florist. Please walk me through your process. (Follow-up questions: As you design the campaign, what factors would you take into consideration? How would you go about estimating the total market size? Considering the total market, how would you go about increasing your market share [by 5% over the next year]?)”

All went well, and Flores was offered an internship at Google’s headquarters in Mountain View. He was working in the marketing department as a member of the small business global team for AdWords, Google’s main advertising product and biggest source of revenue. The internship — for which he was paid a competitive salary — lasted 11 weeks over the summer. “My big project was to help develop a guide for SMBs [small- and medium-sized businesses] on the importance of having an online presence, how to manage it and the keys to success,” Flores says. “Each day was very different from the previous. As you spend more time at the company, a lot of side projects are added to your grand project.” In Flores’ case, one of those side projects was helping to support Google’s Get Your Business Online campaign, which aims to make it easy, free and fast for small companies to build their own websites.

The work wasn’t easy, but Flores tackled it with intern-like enthusiasm. “At the beginning, the project you are assigned sounds impossible,” he says, “But then you learn at Google that nothing is impossible. They hired you for a reason, and they provide you with many resources to achieve the ambitious goals you set out for yourself. In the end, everything works out.”

When he wasn’t working, Flores networked and socialized. Google spends a lot of time and resources on its interns, Flores says. Among the perks: He was paired with a mentor who sat down with him every other week to talk about how his internship was going. His mentor would also give him advice about how to “expand his reach” within Google, and recommend fun things to do on the weekends in San Francisco. The company hosted social events for mentors and mentees so they could get to know each other away from the office.

Rubbing Elbows with Page and Brin

When the 11 weeks were up, Flores returned to Philadelphia to finish his senior year at Penn. Just a few months later, though, he got an offer for a full-time job with Google back at the headquarters. He was thrilled. In retrospect, he says, his summer internship with the company “was basically a three-month interview for a full-time role.”

Now Flores is back in Mountain View, taking the Google shuttle bus to work every day from his home in San Francisco and eating lunch at one of the more than 30 cafeterias on the Google campus.

Flores’ full-time title is associate product marketing manager for the SMB Americas team. In practice, he helps small- and mid-sized companies use Google’s AdWords program to boost their business online. “My job is ultimately to help SMBs … make the web work for them,” he notes. “It is the best job I could have hoped for after graduation.”

He adds that he is thrilled to spend every day in the warm and collegial environment that he remembers from his summer internship. “Everyone at Google is extremely approachable, including the founders [Larry Page and Sergey Brin], who you see all the time running around the Google campus, riding bikes that are straight out of a sci-fi magazine and eating tofu next to you at lunch.

Tips from Flores about how to land a Google internship:

“Keep your grades up from the beginning of college. they do matter, especially if you aspire to get a job at Google.”
“Pursue your interests, not what you are supposed to be interested in. You will be more successful if you join a club in school or find a job after graduation in a [field] that you love.”
“Be true to yourself and to your interviewer. Google and many companies on the West Coast care a lot about whether your personality fits with the company culture. Don’t be afraid to share who you are and the experiences that have groomed you to be you.”

Questions

What is Google’s RAMP program?

What are SMBs and how did they relate to Carlos Rodriguez Flores’ internship at Google?

Based on Flores’ advice, why do you think he was hired at Google after college? Did his internship play a role?