Hey guys!
With Spring Break just around the corner (has it already been half the semester already?!!), a bunch of friends and I have been discussing just what we’re up to over break. A lot of college students like to take that week and hang out with friends, whether that be through a road trip, a group vacation, or even just meeting up and hanging out at home. A couple of my friends are all meeting up in Seattle, a crew is rolling out to Cabo, and a ton of my Bay Area homies are spending a weekend skiing in Tahoe. But what am I doing?!
I’ve dreamed of visiting this spot for years, mostly because of Gossip Girl??
I’M TRAVELING!!! For anyone that knows me, I absolutely love exploring new places and visiting new spots, from new neighborhoods in LA to new cities, states and countries. This spring break, I’m lucky enough to be traveling to Washington D.C for the NAE Grand Challenges competition, representing USC for the semi-finals (I’ll explain more about the competition in a second). After a couple days in DC, I’ll be rolling up to New York City to visit some friends and shoot around the city, I’m so excited!!
Fun fact, USC Dean Yannis Yortsos helped found this program through the NAE!
Back to business– what are the NAE Grand Challenges, and what is this competition? Three other engineers and I have been involved in this entrepreneurship competition since November called the Maseeh Entrepreneurship Prize Competition (read more about it in my post here), and along the way, Viterbi nominated us to represent USC in another, national competition. The National Academy of Engineering, or NAE, put forth a set of fourteen challenges a few years back- these “challenges” represent the key issues that engineers are trying to solve today, from transportation and healthcare crises to clean water and mapping the brain. The competition we’re involved with has basically enrolled us in a set of workshops and lectures that have taught us the basics of building a business plan and structuring a pitch. These have been going on since December, we’ve really learned so much in the last few months. In two weeks, we’ll be pitching our product to judges representing NAE in their Washington D.C headquarters; I’m still pinching myself as to how all of this is even real. I literally cannot wait for Spring Break this year, I know it’ll be absolutely unforgettable.
That’s all I got for now, fight on!!
Rhea
[author title=”Author” author_id=””] href="#" data-color-override="false" data-hover-color-override="false" data-hover-text-color-override="#fff">Button Text
