When someone says “Entrepreneurship,” several iconic titans of industry and modernization may spring to mind–Industrialist Henry Ford, Apple Founder Steve Jobs, or Bumble Founder Whitney Wolfe-Herd, to name a few. But sitting down with Mentor Nicholas Pez has helped us rethink entrepreneurship’s 20th and 21st-century connotations of seemingly unattainable celebrity status.
When asked how she maintains balance between work, academics, and her social life, Harvard mentor Priya Gill recalls her “three rules”:
At 13, Lydia had one dream—become a sports medicine doctor—and knew exactly how to get there–attend the local science magnet school.
Harvard mentor Gaya Meswani always assumed she’d be a lawyer, doctor, or find a career related to psychology: She never could have guessed that by the end of her sophomore year, she’d be working at a two-star Michelin restaurant.
Coming from Harvard-Westlake, a competitive private school in Los Angeles, I was well aware of the pressure of getting good grades, a high SAT score, and building unique extracurriculars in order to get into an “elite” university. The summer going into 9th grade marked a key transition point for me. I felt like I needed to do something unique to stand out from my peers to get into a “top” university. I realized that summer would no longer only be synonymous with fun, travel, camp, and hanging out with friends.
Earlier this fall, I sent a get to know you form called “Curious Quirks” to our new teachers. Grace Pan responded that she was the keyboardist in a band called The Wrong Ones, inspired by 60's groups like The Doors and The Byrds. I stopped reading the other answers then and there. My first thought? Grace is so cool. My second? Who else is in a band...
Curious Cardinals is on a mission to empower middle and high school students to discover what it is in the world they care about, and then utilize the platform and its community to pursue that passion wholeheartedly.
Audrey, Stanford Student
Educational concepts, innovative ideas, and engaging discussions. These are just a few of the phrases I could use when describing my Curious Cardinals journalism experience. My name is Kate Eisenpresser-Davis, and I am a Student Ambassador for Curious Cardinals. I first got involved in the program when I, along with 4 other students at my school, created a custom journalism class. Those of us in the workshop were either founders or section editors of our Middle School newspaper, The Wildwood Press. I started the newspaper club six months before the onset of the pandemic and was just beginning to settle into my role as Editor-in-Chief. With just five issues published when Covid hit, the paper still felt very much in its infancy. We engaged in weekly typeface, logo experiments, and constant debates over who was in charge of what.
Eliana Stern started her nature art classes with sun salutations. “Hello Sun! Hello Earth,” chanted a chorus of elementary schoolers as they stretched their arms up and greeted the day. “It was so we didn't have a full hour of sitting down in front of the computer screen,” Eliana said.