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.