Final Reflection

Sadly, this will be my last post as I have learned a lot from this class. It has been an amazing opportunity to learn from the assignments and the experiences that were presented in this class. I could definitely see how all of these assignments are related and how they can connect to carry out and transform a business idea into a business reality. I think that overall I have learned how to think of the big picture and how I can identify an opportunity in a market. I think that it is important to identify a specific market segment first of all because then you can concentrate on that and tailor your customers' needs. I think that it was also great to include my new connections to my network as I have a better perspective and insight into other things that are beneficial to the program that I was trying to develop. Interviewing people was so much fun because I got to know them better from a different perspective and to see how certain people think alike is very surprising. Sometimes I will get the same answers but presented in different words and I really liked to see how people share similar thoughts. If I would have to pick one the experiences that I enjoyed the most it would definitely be the interviews in general. It is so easy to go and talk to people and to receive feedback from your idea. As I mentioned before, I think that all of those assignments come together to give a little taste of what entrepreneurs must face when they are starting their own business. It has been an amazing experience and I think that now I have a better insight into an entrepreneur mindset, so I definitely believe that I have gotten closer to that perspective. My recommendation would be to do everything willingly and intentionally. Who knows? Maybe you will have the opportunity to actually run the idea that you started in this class. I would also mention that they should find something that they are passionate and to not limit themselves to a for-profit idea. It could be anything that they want this to be. It was a great class and I am happy that I learned a lot from it. Thank you to Dr. Pryor for his amazing lectures and to my peers who reviewed all of my posts. It's been real.

Reading Reflection No. 3

I decided to pick a book based on its title. This time, I read "Twenty-Seven Dollars and a Dream: How Muhammad Yunus Changed the World and What It Cost Him" by Katharine Esty. It was a very interesting book that really surprised me in different ways and that taught me a lot. I believe that social entrepreneurship is so important and that it is necessary to trust others when it comes to financing other people's business. Sometimes people hcaave great ideas, but due to several conditions and external factors, they might not have the capital to start their own business. I was surprised to see how $27 can change the world. I really appreciate Muhammad Yunus values and how he decided to help other people instead of making himself rich. One can argue that Yunus encountered failure when he was removed from the position of the bank that he founded himself, but it was a reason for him to go and do greater things.

In my opinion, Muhammad Yunus' competencies could potentially include: empathy, innovation, social service, solidarity, among other ones. One of the things that I found confusing was that why did he start the bank at first place and why did he not focus on this $27 project since the beginning. I would ask Yunus: "Did you ever imagine that you were going to globally impact the world in such a way?" and my other question would be: "Did you ever think of the risk of starting this project?".

I think that Yunus focuses a lot on the awards of dedication, motivation, and how these crops can be harvested!

Your Exit Strategy

I think that one of the most important things about my business or my program is that it has to be sustainable and it should be carried around through generations. To a certain extent I want to work on it until I have the time to do so. I would calculate that I want to spend approximately 5 years as the "CEO" or the main program manager. However, throughout these years I am expecting that we will have a lot of volunteers to keep helping other international students. I really want the participants to think that they were in an unfair position before and that wherever they are working now that they might realize that we helped them achieve the things that they have so far. It is important to set a culture of gratitude and to give back to it.

I have decided to select this particular exit strategy because I think that I want to help international students as much as I can because I understand the struggle of finding opportunities for reasons beyond our control. Nevertheless, it is so important for me to assign different emergent leaders that will be able to take over this program.

I think that it really influences a lot on my willingness to help people and how much I want others to succeed and to connect them with opportunities for growth. It will not benefit me, but it will benefit the future generations to portray them that they are not different than others, that if you come from a different country that does not mean that you are not allowed to apply the skills in a professional work environment.

Celebrating Failure

In this exercise, I am going to talk a little bit about a time when I failed.
I think this past semester I had to learn how to become a better public speaker in English because I have always considered myself a great public speaker in Spanish but when it comes to presenting in front of people whose mother tongue is English then I get nervous. I recall a specific moment when I realized that I failed and it was when I did all of my research for a group project but I only had 1 minute and a half to present everything that I had in my mind. I did not practice beforehand and when I was delivering my message I panicked because I had so many things in my head to say and I was trying to summarize it as much as possible that at the end it was an awful presentation. I apologized with my team and I talked to the professor about it because it was not fair for my team to get a lower grade based on my individual performance. I, then, decided to take a public speaking class to improve and now I have gotten so much better. I believe that it is so important to learn from failure because they can mark the impression of your personality and the way people perceive you.

Throughout this course, I have realized that it is okay to fail because we are not always going to have the victory. Sometimes we fail, sometimes these failures are beyond our control and sometimes they are our mistakes. However, it is important to realize that there is always room for improvement and that you can practice until you become the best! For instance, the elevator pitches that we had for this class. We can always make it better and better until you have a masterpiece.

Venture Concept

Opportunity. As people search for better opportunities to study abroad, they come here to the United States of America to pursue their undergraduate or graduate degrees. It is arguable that people study or pursue their degrees in order to find a job after they graduate. We have fallen into a social concept where it is required to have a degree to perform a job, even if sometimes one must not utilize the skills learned in class in the actual job.

Students from different countries come to the States to obtain a degree and they are hopeful to gain work experience that will help them out in their careers. However, these possibilities are very limited due to companies not giving them a chance to apply to internships or full-time offers. It is very hard for international students to find this type of work experience. Hence, this is an opportunity to help out students that are willing to work with dedication and determination.

Innovation. The program that I want to start is a non-profit organization that helps to pair great international talent with top and prestigious companies in the United States from a pool of students that currently study in the United States of America. This program is a win-to-win situation for both the company and the student who is willing to commit to a work experience that could potentially define their professional career.

The program starts with an application process. There is going to be a deadline for applicants to apply. Freshmen, Sophomores and Juniors are welcome to apply but there is a preference for sophomores and juniors. The application process consists of an essay defining their professional career aspirations and why the applicant should be considered as part of the program. Additionally, as it is now, the applicants are only limited to business majors and people who are interested in opportunities within the business field. Additionally, the applicant must be enrolled in a university or college in the United States of America and they should be under a F-1 visa. After that, if selected, the applicant must have a pre-recorded interview to test if the applicant meets the requirements and their ability to perform in an interview. The interview consists of behavioral questions. After the team reviews the application of all of the applicants, we will extend the offer to be a part of this program. The program will consist of professional coaches to practice for interviews, review of resumes, and resources that will help them be prepared and informed of current business trends or news. Depending on the applicant's performance during this training we will refer them to exclusive opportunities with our partners. If the applicant is underperforming throughout the program we reserve the right to remove them from the program.

Venture concept. There is currently no competition and this is to help students that are committed to excellence. This is an opportunity in a lifetime for international students because some of them give up easily, but with this highly competitive program, they can have a bigger chance to obtain relevant work experience. In 5 years, we expect our participants that were benefitted from this program to volunteer and make it a sustainable project.

What's next?

Existing Market:

I think that it is very important and necessary to run this program so people will have the opportunity to gain more professional experiences. 

The three customers that I interviewed suggested me to get in contact with different recruiters so I can put in contact every applicant in my program. They said that it would be nice to open the opportunity to be volunteers after they land an internship so they can continue contributing to this program. 

In a brief summary, I would definitely say that my motto is to help international students based on my internship research experience. I want them to understand that it is a valuable opportunity and that they can benefit a lot out of it.  

New Market.

I think that the closest new market it can be in my scenario is to pair international students with specific colleges or universities in the United States or around the world. This would be a completely new target. The concept behind this is to pair people from all over the world with universities that are willing to accept diverse students from different countries. By doing this, these students provide more insight into different lifestyles from all over the world. 

I interviewed two people who currently study at the University of Vienna and Waseda University in Japan. They said it would have been interesting to have had the possibility to study in a different country. They would have been able to share their experiences. The only problem they mentioned was visas and things related to that. However, if there is a partnership with universities then it might be able to work out. 

I was reflecting on this assignment and I wonder how amazing it would be to have the possibility to study wherever you want without any restriction or limitation. It would feel amazing to learn from different cultures, perspectives, and even new languages! 

Your Venture’s Unfair Advantage

Resources in my venture: 

1. International student background

Valuable: Very important because I can identify with my applicants

Rare: not everyone is an international student

Inimitable: you have to come from a different country to understand this

Non-substitutable: 

2. A unique program, no competition

Valuable: it is a win-win situation for the company and the international student

Rare: this opportunity is hard to find

Inimitable: this might be imitable at some point but it will benefit others so I am not competing against anyone

Non-substitutable: 

3. Volunteering experience within the program

Valuable: understand that this is to make a change and not to make a profit out of it

Rare: not rare but it is fine by me

Inimitable: the more that we can imitate the better because then we make a social impact in the world

Non-substitutable: anyone could be able to participate

4.Empathy and interpersonal skills

Valuable: it will remind me why I am doing this

Rare: not that rare

Inimitable: not everybody cares about other people. Once they get a position, they forget where they came from

Non-substitutable: it is a part of how you develop yourself and what you think of people 

5. Emotional intelligence

Valuable: so important to be self-aware of your strengths and weaknesses

Rare: not so many people take time to analyze themselves

Inimitable: it takes time to fully know yourself. A lot of reflection

Non-substitutable: it is something that people cannot teach you

6. Public speaking

Valuable: to pitch the idea to students and partners

Rare: very common 

Inimitable: it comes with practice but it is imitable

Non-substitutable: it is substitutable but so important to have

7. International connections

Valuable: reach out to other people to understand better cultures and other opportunities abroad, maybe

Rare: not so many people know people from 95+ countries

Inimitable: it is hard to imitate as you have had to be exposed to such a network

Non-substitutable: not a lot of people have had the opportunity

8. Extended network

Valuable: reach out to people to have a better insight into their recruiting process

Rare: it is a matter of time 

Inimitable: with time and meaningful interactions people can develop this

Non-substitutable: not everyone has the same network as others

9. Interpersonal skills

Valuable: it helps to connect people with great opportunities

Rare: not everybody wants to know everyone around them

Inimitable: it is part of someone's personality

Non-substitutable: it is more natural for some people 

10. Cheap to start, not a lot of resources needed, 

Valuable: because it could start as soon as people are willing to help out

Rare: not so common because a lot of ideas are expensive, but not this one

Inimitable: it is important to realize that it is hard to initiate this because of laws and external forces, but not impossible

Non-substitutable: there is no other program like this one. I wish there was one!

Elevator pitch 3

You can find my elevator pitch here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/16WlHHUHKdRXX7kE9mi6kXuUV6KT6hma7/view?usp=sharing

It was an amazing opportunity to re-do my elevator pitch. I took into consideration all the feedback that I had from the previous ones. For example, I named my program and I smiled more.

Reading Reflection No. 2

1) What was the general theme or argument of the book?

I had the opportunity to read The Art of Social Media: Power Tips for Power Users by Guy Kawasaki and it talks a lot about the use of social media and how you can persuade people through social media. It was a very interesting book, I would say, mainly because this book is a lot about how social media could be so beneficial for companies and how to reach a bigger audience.

2) How did the book, in your opinion, connect with and enhance what you are learning in ENT 3003?

I think it was very important to pay attention to the pieces of advice that were given throughout the book. For example, even though there is an important product or service that could be so successful, people have to portray and sell that idea to others and social media is a good tool to communicate this idea to a lot of people. Failure to do so might affect the company's revenue since they do not have many clients. 

3) If you had to design an exercise for this class, based on the book you read, what would that exercise involve?

I would definitely say that they should look themselves up on the internet and they have to submit a link from their LinkedIn as well as their facebook profiles without feeling scared that there are bad things in there. The purpose of this exercise would be to feel confident that their online image is clean and professional. 

4) What was your biggest surprise or 'aha' moment when reading the book? In other words, what did you learn that differed most from your expectations?

I think it was just how nice the book presents the idea of social media. It was very interesting to read the facts of how many people use social media and how it could be so powerful nowadays. 

Growing Your Social Capital

1) The first person I contacted was Michal O'Brien who works for USB in Chicago.

2) Domain expert

3) He is a UF Alumnus

4) He was my warrington peer leader

5) To understand better the skills that his company requires

1) Juan Valdez and he is a technology operations analyst for Bank of America

2) Market expert

3) LinkedIn

4) He provided me with an insight into the recruiting process and possibilities for international students

5) He could potentially give me some insight to see what his company is looking for in a prospective candidate

1) Maia Schulte and she is a campus recruiter from Patagonia

2) Supplier

3) LinkedIn

4) She was just very nice and she gave the opportunity to talk with her

5) It is beneficial to hear what she is searching for in candidates

I had the opportunity to reach to people on LinkedIn, even if I had to try to connect with so many people but it was definitely worth it. It is nice to see if people are willing to share their thoughts. It is very discouraging to hear what they say about international students because most companies are not hiring international students because of laws that have been enforced by the new administration. These are external political factors that could definitely harm my program. 

Idea Napkin 2

1) You. I am an international student who wants to help other international students to pursue their dream of working for multinational companies. I am an information systems major and I want to do anything that I possibly can to help my peers to acquire professional working experience and help companies to recruit talented people. 

2) What are you offering to customers? I am offering international students a chance to prove what they can bring to the table and offering companies to recruit highly talented people.

3) Who are you offering it to? To be very specific, I am offering this opportunity to international students who are pursuing a degree here in the United States of America and who are from business or STEM majors. 

4) Why do they care? Because it is important for their future. If they want to have the opportunity to get a full-time job, they require some work experience and I would love to be able to provide them with this chance.

5) What are your core competencies? Intercultural, interpersonal, communication, leadership, teamwork, problem-solving, analytical skills.

Based on the feedback that I received from my peers, I believe that I adjusted my strengths to my program. It has been an amazing opportunity to hear what others people think about this program (my entrepreneurial idea) and I feel very supported. I would like to appreciate all of my classmates that are reading this. 

Create a Customer Avatar

Meet Jose, this is my customer avatar. He is a hard-working international student who has tried to apply to many different firms but all of the companies don't give him a shot because he is an international student. He left his home in Costa Rica to study here in the United States because he knew that the education here in the States is better according to professionals. His ambition drives him to apply his skills in a business environment. He is ready to work and appreciate any internship opportunity that is presented to him.

I can relate with my avatar because I would love to have that experience, too.

Elevator pitch # 2

You can watch my elevator pitch 2 here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JkYKyp06ou_iV5CZ3jwvjhGEPtjU9ADA/view?usp=sharing

Based on the feedback that I received, I made it shorter and more concise. My peers told me that I caused a good impression and that it was pretty clear. So this time I only focused on doing it more engaging with the audience, I decided to focus my audience on the firms this time, instead of the international students. My program needs to be sold to international students and also to the companies that are looking for an international workforce. I would like to thank my other virtual classmates for all the feedback that they provided me.

What’s Your Secret Sauce?

1) Describe five ways in which you think you have human capital that is truly unique. I think that my top strengths are achiever, focus, woo, positivity, and significance. I set high objectives and I am determined to do as much as I can to achieve those objectives.  

2) Interview the five people who know you the best. 

I asked my mom and she mentioned that I am a hard worker and perseverant on everything that I do. My best friend here at UF mentioned that I am good at building relationships and making sure that everyone is included. My other best friend here at UF mentioned that I am very good at networking. My best friend in Germany mentioned that I am great at taking initiative and even though I do not have prior experience on something, I am not afraid of taking that initiative. My other best friend in Germany told me that I am very passionate, she said that once I have an idea, I embrace it and make it mine! 

3) Reflect on the differences. I think that what I got from my interviews was very motivating. It definitely helps to know how people perceive me and most of the things made sense since they align perfectly with my strengths. I think that my strengths are pretty accurate! 

Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 2

1) Find three people who would fit that segment and arrange to interview them. I interviewed three international students. One from Poland, Thailand, and Nepal.

2) Begin with alternative evaluation. They all mentioned that if there would be an alternative solution then it would be to do an internship in their home country. However, all of their countries work differently when it comes to internships. For example, in Nepal most of these internships are unpaid. In Thailand, most of the internships are longer than 3 months and they are at a different time. In Poland, some of them are unpaid and if they are paid they are not well-paid making the cost of living hard. So their alternatives are pretty limited, they mentioned. 

3) How/where do they buy? They use different websites to search for jobs, but not of them actually helps them out because it is such a waste of time for them to see all the time if they are allowed to apply for the position or not. 

4) Post-purchase evaluation. None of them has managed to land an internship in the United States so they cannot say anything. 

5) Report the findings. Based on these interviews, I see how international students are frustrated when it comes to work experience. They are searching for places to apply their skills, but they cannot find them. 

6) Draw conclusions. I learned that I am not alone in this process and it encourages me to make a change. If I could be able to help these people, I would do so. 

Halfway Reflection

Tenaciousness is a competency. 

I feel that it is important to develop time management skills because you are required to do this every week. It is a matter of commitment. Additionally, creativity to come up with questions and innovative ideas. Moreover, interpersonal and analytical thinking skills are required, as you are interviewing people and analyzing the results.
Tenaciousness is also about attitude. 

I think it definitely is hard when it comes to keep up with other classes. Doing interviews is time-consuming because you have to find a time that works best for everyone and that is very hard, especially at UF because people are always busy. However, I think that it is important to remember that you are working with a goal and that you want to reach the goals that you have set up for yourself at the beginning of the class. 

3) Three tips. 

• Do not miss any assessment because it will affect your grade, even though it looks like it is one point or two points but they are all so important.
• Read the assignment at the beginning of the week so you can plan accordingly. 
• Even if the idea that you chose is not working as you were expecting, you can always re-shape it!

Reading Reflection No. 1

I enjoyed reading about the Wright Brothers. Here are a couple of questions to reflect on:

• What surprised you the most?
• I think that it was very interesting to see how the Wright Brother had to do a lot of research before they created a prototype and based on a lot of readings they realizing that they were doing something wrong. 
• What about the entrepreneur did you most admire?
• I feel that even though they had so many failed attempts, they still managed to succeed. Even though people might have thought they were completely crazy, but they never stopped! 
• What about the entrepreneur did you least admire?
• It is hard to think about of something that I do not admire because they were living in a period of time that technology was not so well advanced and they still managed to succeed and create everything from scratch! 
• Did the entrepreneur encounter adversity and failure? If so, what did they do about it?
• They were risking their lives when they tried to fly their prototypes. I think that no one believed in them and they definitely were confronted because the idea that they were working on was almost impossible. Think about it, who would have thought that flying is possible if only birds could fly at that point. 2) What competencies did you notice that the entrepreneur exhibited? 
• 2) What competencies did you notice that the entrepreneur exhibited?   Perseverance, determination, focus
• 3) Identify at least one part of the reading that was confusing to you. I think that the book was well-written and honestly, I was able to understand a lot. 
• 4) If you were able to ask two questions to the entrepreneur, what would you ask? Why? I think it would be: what was your initial thought when you managed to see your first prototype failed? Just because I am curious to see how much faith he had on his first shot.
• If you were to sell this product right now, would you do it? for how much? Because I would like to see how much value he has for that prototype! 
• 5) For fun: what do you think the entrepreneur's opinion was of hard work? Do you share that opinion? 
• I feel that for the Wright Brothers it was about vision and perseverance. I believe that hard work is always important and nothing comes out of it if you are crossing your hands and doing nothing! You have to move to make something happen. 

• 
  

Figuring Out Buyer Behavior No. 1

For this assignment, I decided to use the demographic segmentation and so I decided to focus on international students at the University of Florida.

In this exercise, we were supposed to conduct interviews and summarize our discoveries. I had the opportunity to interview four people (Maria from Chile;  Maya from Israel, Juan from Mexico, and Mauricio from Costa Rica). Most of these interviews lasted approximately 30 minutes, except for Juan from Mexico that lasted 20 minutes because I found out that he did not have the unmet need because Mexico is part of the NAFTA and according to him he does not have a restriction to work in the United States in the future which I was not aware of that before.

What I learned in these interviews is that international students have it very rough when it comes to internships. It is very hard because the companies that give the opportunity for international students do not come to recruit here at UF. Thus, it gets more complicated for everyone which reinforces my hypothesis and the need of the program that I am suggesting.

Idea Napkin No. 1

1) You. I am an international student who has been able to adapt to different systems in 5 countries. I really like building relationships with the people around me and I like to take the initiative on projects. I have been able to lead international projects, the soccer team, and I have held different leadership positions around campus. I have been trying so hard to find an internship and I have done everything that I possibly can. I really want this platform to exist, not to benefit me but to help other students who are giving their best. I really aspire to make important connections between prestigious companies and bright candidates. This program ("business", will be a not-for-profit organization) and it will be so meaningful to assist people to pursue their professional dreams. 

2) What are you offering to customers? I am offering my customers the opportunity to be exposed to be recruited by prestigious companies that give them a chance to apply for internships. Additionally, the opportunity to enhance their career development through career coaches. By being recruited, I mean to have a higher chance of getting an internship by proving our partners that they deserve a chance for an interview.

3) Who are you offering it to? This is for international students that are currently pursuing a bachelor's in business administration, accounting, and diverse engineering majors and are enrolled as full-time students in a college or university in the United States of America. Individuals that currently have an F1 student visa.

4) Why do they care? It is important to gain work experience in order to apply for full-time offers and to have the opportunity to apply the skills that students acquired in classes and student organizations.

5) What are your core competencies? I have had the nice opportunity to expand my international experience by studying/volunteering/working in different countries. I like to build relationships with people that have different backgrounds. I enjoy collaborating with people and helping them to achieve their goals. 

Elevator Pitch

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1i4yqrXBvdBXlY3CwSltrI21ROA21uej5/view?usp=sharing

Testing the Hypothesis, Part 2

In part 1 we conducted interviews to test our hypothesis. In this post, we are going to do the same thing but we will analyze more the answers. I believed that the questions I utilized during my part 1 will be beneficial for these new interviews. 

So I will use the same general questions:
Are you looking to gain work experience in your field during the summer? Have you gotten any summer internship in the US? If yes, was it hard for you to search for that opportunity? Do you know of other international students that go through the same situation?

Hana from Bosnia and Herzegovina. Major: Biomedical engineering 

    We talked about how hard her major is and how she wants to go into medical school and therefore she is not focusing on an internship experience but obtaining good grades. After college, she wants to go into a masters program and then apply to medical school. Therefore, she is not focusing on work experience. She mentioned that before she might have tried to look into some internships but for her field, it was almost impossible to get an internship. 

Mateo from Colombia. Major: Industrial engineering

   He told me that even though he was an international student he is in the process of transitioning to a different status because his parents just moved to the United States and that he can apply for a working permit which is a more complicated topic. However, the question arises: to what extent is he considered an international student? Since he is soon to become a permanent resident. However, he has lived his whole life in Colombia. He said that he wants to search for summer internship opportunities but it gets complicated due to paperwork and more complicated limitations that did not want to share in detail because he did not have too much free time to explain. 

Washington from Ecuador. Major: Mechanical engineering

   "I am always searching, opportunities but most of the companies that I look into are related to American technology and I cannot apply for those positions. I cannot even apply for the bike repair shop to gain work experience because it has a federal wage salary so you need to be a US citizen." It is a very frustrating experience for him, he said. He just wants to have work experience to enhance his applications for full-time offers. In Ecuador, he cannot work because internships are at least 5 months so he cannot stop studying for the internship but he mentioned that he does not have the chance to increase his work experience at all and he is afraid because that affects also his opportunities to get a job back home. 

Ghalib from Pakistan. Major: Management

   He is just a freshman and he is already trying to search his major because he thinks that he might not be able to have a chance to apply for any program when he is trying to search for work experience during the summer. He heard that his other international friends are struggling with this major and they suggested him to change his major to computer science if he likes that because then he would actually have a higher chance with other companies. He mentioned that it is not as easy because if he goes back home, this major will not benefit him. However,  business is international he said. 

Gaute from Norway. Major: aeronautical and mechanical engineering 

    He said that in Norway there are good opportunities for his major to work on what he wants. Even if he would like to intern here, he mentioned that it is very difficult to intern for an aeronautical company here. Thus, he said that he will not waste his time applying for positions here. 

Conclusions:

Who: I assumed that every single international student wants to gain work experience. However, I can see that not everybody wants to work right after college. Some people might want to do a masters program or a PhD. However, I believe that at some point they might have to work at some point. 

What: some people depending on their country may or may not have the chance to have an internship back home, it depends on their country's system. 

Why: this need really might vary depending on the major, too. For example, people who want to get into law school might consider doing types of internships as well as people who want to get into medical school. It really varies a lot on the major and their field. However, there is still a huge field when it comes to business and STEM majors. 

Inside the boundary:

International students - Business and some STEM majors

Internships in the United States/ Work experience 

The need exists because it is hard to find internship opportunities for international students and people who want to find their ideal job might have to try out the industry first to see if they actually like it because it might be what they are going to do for the rest of their lives.

Outside the boundary: 

International students who might not want to have a job right after college

These students might not be proactive or they have different priorities

These students might have the chance to apply theirs skills in internships back home.

Solving the Problem

Due to the fact that international students have it tough to search for internships, I would like to create a program that selects top talented international students that are doing their absolute best to increase their work experience. What I would like to create is a non-profit organization that helps to pair up international students with great opportunities in diverse fields. These students should go through an application process and if they make it then there will not be a guarantee that they will get an internship but the organization could refer them to partnered companies for specific job applications. In this way, those international students are exposed to job openings and they will be rewarded with the opportunity.

Testing the Hypothesis

1. Opportunity: I have realized that the hardest task for me is to find an internship in the United States as an international student. Thus, I would like to help other international students to land those job opportunities.

2. Who: International students who are currently enrolled in college/university in the US
         Testing it: this only affects international students and it affects the ones that would like to gain work experience in here. Additionally, this is for international students holding an F1 visa.
What: the problem is that international students are not allowed to apply to internships due to the company's policies
         Testing it: the boundaries might be that companies will not consider opening opportunities for international students.
Why: it is expensive for companies to hire them in the future. Even if international students are allowed to work during the summer, they are not willing to invest in them because they cannot offer a full-time offer afterward because they will have to sponsor their work visa and it is expensive.
        Testing it: it is hard because not all international students are looking for work experience, but the ones that would like to have the experience do not have many resources.

3. Hypothesis:  I would like international students by creating a platform with career advice, career coaches, job opportunities open for international students, and hopefully partner with companies that are willing to hire the top international students that are doing their maximum effort to get work experience and that are selected through an application process to become a part of this program. Furthermore, after being accepted into the program they will have access to a database that contains that contact of other international students that are already working in companies that gave them a chance.

4. Interviews:
General questions used:
Are you looking to gain work experience in your field during the summer? Have you gotten any summer internship in the US? If yes, was it hard for you to search for that opportunity? Do you know of other international students that go through the same situation?

Person 1. Jose from Guatemala, current junior.
We talked for 30 minutes about this situation and how he wished he knew that it was so hard to gain experience because he said that if he knew how hard it was he could have just stayed back home. His major is chemical engineering and because of his field, he cannot apply to so many places. He said that it is definitely a struggle.

Person 2. Marja from Bosnia, current sophomore.
We talked for 45 minutes about the topic and how she wishes that UF could provide more resources more tailored towards international students. However, she says that she does not have. "We pay thousands of dollars to study here but we cannot apply those skills anywhere". She felt very frustrated about this situation and she wishes she can find something during the summer.

Person 3. Uche from Nigeria, current junior.
It was a 20-minute conversation with him. He mentioned that he managed to land an internship in summer 2018 due to some connections that he made during winter break. He felt lucky about it and it was an amazing experience for him. However, he mentioned that he used to spend hours searching for places to apply to because career showcase was not useful to him.

Person 4. Gupta from Mozambique, current freshman.
We talked for 30 minutes and he told me that he does not too much about this situation since he is only a freshman. However, he mentioned that he has other friends that are going through the struggle and that he is very concerned to start looking up for companies that might give him a chance to apply for internships.

Identifying Opportunities in Economic & Regulatory Trends

Opportunity 1

I read in the news that Cartier is not doing that well and this is an opportunity for customers to rise and compete against the brand. Cartier is a watch and jewelry firm which is very prestigious. I read about this opportunity in Finimize news. This could be beneficial to other competitors and customers might have to be aware of this situation because they will prefer to buy other brands. If I talk about it with a prospective customer, this person will tell me that they would rather switch to a different brand because Cartier is going down and less prestigious.

Opportunity 2 

An economic breakout, what happened is that the European Central Bank made a cut to its economic growth whcih affter the eurozone over the next years. This means that Europe will still do well, the problem is that it might be affected for the next couple of years. This is an opportunity for other small countries to present their statistics and contribute to Europe's economy. I found this opportunity online in the Wall Street Journal. Small companies are willing to push more and contribute more to the European economy.

Opportunity 3

Now I am going to talk about the SEC, the problem is that the SEC made an experiment for investors to care more about smaller companies and that has costed approximately 300 millions which means that they are all affected by this. This is an opportunity for other companies to rise up and become public to get more shareholders. Nowadays, new investors look to invest on small companies because theirs stocks are less volatile. I found this opportuniy through Finimize,

Opportunity 4

In the news, they talked about Aston Martin going public at 6 billion. This is an opportunity for Ferrari to compare themselves when it comes to the stock market of both brands. I found out about this opportunity through Finimize. This will also be a great opportunity for other brands to step up in the market, such as Tesla. 

Identifying Local Opportunities

Police looking for pizza robbery suspects

https://infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/news/document-view?p=WORLDNEWS&t=pubname%3AGSGB%21Gainesville%2BSun%252C%2BThe%2B%2528FL%2529/year%3A2018%212018/mody%3A0910%21September%2B10&f=advanced&action=browse&format=text&docref=news/16E63670354E4550

the problem is that the police is looking for the suspects that robbed a pizza place. The whole story is about that! 

The police have the problem because they cannot find the robbers. 

Gators emphasize improving physicality

https://infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/news/document-view?p=WORLDNEWS&t=pubname%3AGSGB%21Gainesville%2BSun%252C%2BThe%2B%2528FL%2529/year%3A2018%212018/mody%3A0910%21September%2B10&f=advanced&action=browse&format=text&docref=news/16E636702D893618

The article summarizes the fact that the American football team is facing physicall difficulties and that is why we are losing.

The problem is that a lot of people are paying season tickets to see the Gators been destroyed by other teams, that is a lot of revenue. 

Reggae Shack, Southern Charm owner facing $1M in lawsuits, foreclosures

https://infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/news/document-view?p=WORLDNEWS&t=pubname%3AGSGB%21Gainesville%2BSun%252C%2BThe%2B%2528FL%2529/year%3A2018%212018/mody%3A0911%21September%2B11&f=advanced&action=browse&format=text&docref=news/16E689641EA4ECC8

The atcile talks about reggae schack facing difficulties to pay the 1 million lawsuits because they are accused of fraud.

Reggae Shack has the problem because they are the ones being accused of fraud. 

Can Mora Pizza really convert meat-eaters to veganism?

https://infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/news/document-view?p=WORLDNEWS&t=pubname%3AGSGB%21Gainesville%2BSun%252C%2BThe%2B%2528FL%2529/year%3A2018%212018/mody%3A0912%21September%2B12&f=advanced&action=browse&format=text&docref=news/16E6DD37E7D10610

the article talks that Mora Pizza wants to deliver services to people who are meat-eaters and they only provide vegan pizzas.

The meat-eaters customers will have a problem to consume meat pizzas at Mora Pizza.

Hunger in Alachua County is real, but groups work to help

https://infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/news/document-view?p=WORLDNEWS&t=pubname%3AGSGB%21Gainesville%2BSun%252C%2BThe%2B%2528FL%2529/year%3A2018%212018/mody%3A0912%21September%2B12&f=advanced&action=browse&format=text&docref=news/16E6DD37CC0122A8

the article talks about how there is a lack of supply of food and a lot of people who are homeless do not have the ability to afford food. 

The problem is that the government does not spend on the people who are facing hunger issues. 

Forming an Opportunity Belief: A Twist on Opportunity Identification

Based on the bugs that I came up with, I believe that there is an opportunity to meet that need and it could benefit a lot of people, especially travelers.

First of all, I think that it is very difficult to compete with a monopoly of airlines that set their prices so high. However, there should be a way to break into that industry by coming up with a way to promote cheap flights, bus tickets, car rides... There should be special partnerships with companies, too, so more costumers will be attracted to this platform. This opportunity will offer different perks to all travelers who have the desire to travel around the United States and even outside of it, but cannot afford the transportation. People are not doing too much about it, they have just accepted the fact that they need to pay high prices to transport and visit different places. It has always happened, it used to be more expensive but still, the prices are quite high for college students. Perhaps there could be special discounts for students.

I will now talk about the results that I had with my prototypical customers.

Person 1:
I asked her if she has ever studied abroad and she said she has not, but she really wants to do it. However, flight tickets are very expensive in addition to the program fee. These prices discourage her to do her study abroad. She said she would love to do an exchange program in Australia, but flight tickets are particularly expensive to go there! She said that if there would be a way for college students she would totally hop on that plane!

Person 2:
My second prototypical customer has never gone out of Florida and I asked them why not? She said that it is too expensive and that it might not even be worth to pay so much money to visit somewhere in the States. So that basically means that she is dealing with this bug for her whole life. She said that until flight tickets become cheaper then she might try to travel because she does not have a driver's license and for sure she would not like to be in a bus for 15 hours+ to reach a completely new state.

Person 3:
I was sharing my idea with this person and he immediately reacted positively. He has lived in Europe before and that is why he feels that here in the States it is so much more expensive to travel. "It really is upsetting and disappointing" is what he said. He said that he would even invest in some sort of app or website for this to happen!

Reflecting upon these interviews, I believe that it is important to have feedback from people who are interested in traveling. However, I have to recognize that the results were affected because all of them were interesting in traveling and that is why they liked the idea. I think it is important to adapt to the idea of your customers because it will improve the opportunity for you to succeed.

My Entrepreneurship Story

I was a part of a program called United World Colleges which brings people from different parts of the world to interact with each other. It is a movement that through education people can promote a better and more sustainable future. There are 17 different campuses around the world and I had the opportunity to be the first generation of the one located in Germany. 

Since it was brand new, we were the ones in charge of creating new traditions, clubs, organizations, and so on. I was the leader of two project weeks. A project week is designed to be focused on one or two elements of the CAS requirements that we have to fulfill as part of the IB diploma. I decided to make one focused on service and I reached out to more than 30 different non-governmental organizations in Amsterdam located in the Netherlands. It was a challenge because our project week was set to happen during the Easter holidays and most of the organizations will not be working. However, I was able to find a couple of organizations that let us work with them. I was in charge of a group of 10 people and I needed to allocate a limited budget for accommodation, food, transportation from Germany to Amsterdam and for public transport within Amsterdam. This was the first time that we ever did a project week and I was able to take the initiative. I am fond of challenges and it was an experience that changed my life. We ended up working with a homeless shelter and an organization that supports refugees. 

The BUG List

In this post, I will share more about certain things that bother me and others. Those little things that annoy you and you wish you can change. Feel free to share with me what some of your 'bugs' are!

My Bug List:

1. It is so expensive to travel within the United States, for the same amount of money to take a bus from Gainesville to Orlando (a two-hour bus ride) you can take a plane from one country to another one in Europe. It makes it harder for travelers to discover different parts of the States.
1. This probably is because there is an airline monopoly and they keep their prices up.
2. It is so annoying that iPhone batteries die very fast.
1. Depending on how much a person uses their phone, but also because Apple wants to push to get the most recent iPhone versions. 
3. It is so hard to get summer internships for international students.
1. Probably because it is expensive for millionaire companies to afford their work visa to extend them a full-time offer.
4. Waiting 3 hours for a walk-in session when it takes 5 minutes to ask a question and get an answer. 
1. probably because everybody has a different question/situation and it was drop/add week. 
5. Waiting in line for 30 minutes when you only have a 45-minute lunch break. 
1. Everyone wants to order something to eat and they forgot to pack their lunch.
6. Not being able to drink tap water like in Europe.
1. The water pipe systems are not clean enough to drink it directly from the sink.
7. Traffic jam during rush hours and waiting for long periods of time.
1. because everybody goes out of work at the same time. 
8. When you have to wait for a week when you order something online just because you don't have "premium".
1. because it is an opportunity for a company to charge more for sending it faster.
9. Not being able to read non-latin languages (for example, arabic, hebrew, mandarin, etc)
1. because I was raised in a Latin American country. 
10. Not being able to find soccer cleats or indoor soccer boots around Gainesville.
1. maybe soccer is not a big sport around here
11. not being able to find cooking ingredients from back home around Gainesville
1. probably because it is harder to ship those materials here and there is not enough demand for it.
12. When people steal bikes from someone else
1. probably because bikes are too expensive and they really need one 
13. When it is too hot in Gainesville and you need to walk with business clothes and you end up all sweaty by the time you get to the event.
1. It is a natural thing, but it could be solved by using different strategies
14. Applying to different jobs and tailoring every specific cover letter to the company you want to work for, there should be a common app! 
1. Probably because each company is different and they want to see how much you want that job.
15. That everything else closes during game day, student rec, broward courts... 
1. probably because they want to promote a lot to attend the game and pay for tickets and earn money since they spend a lot on the team 
16. Loose outlets (phone chargers or anything else).
1. probably because the outlet was meant to be for different purposes 
17. People not doing enough research before they vote
1. Because they are so busy and cannot share that
18. Chick fil a is closed on Sunday 
1. Because they have their company values
19. When people have ambiguous language and make everything so confusing
1. Maybe they don't have a personal idea
20. When people throw their trash in the middle of the streets and litter. 
1. Because there are not enough trash cans around. 

I had difficulties coming up with the problems because I believe that I am an optimistic person and it is hard to complain about so many different things. It is definitely a different perspective.

This is a trial post!

Hi there!

I am excited to work on these posts throughout this semester and I am happy to share my first post with you.