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Imagine Cup: How these entrepreneurs use tech for change


Written by:
Michelle Feder

Always exciting, this year’s Imagine Cup is even more so. Why? The 2014 World Finals are happening in Microsoft’s hometown. Microsoft’s new CEO, Satya Nadella, will be there to judge the best student projects.What’s more, one World Finalist team will have a private meeting with Bill Gates.

This minute, the top 35 teams from all over the planet are polishing their projects and getting them ready for our judges. In today’s JobsBlog post, we’re shining the spotlight on one of them: the creators of Grant Fellow.

This team, composed of three rising seniors from the University of Pennsylvania, are already winners. They participated in the Microsoft Imagine Fund. In addition to a $10,000 stipend, they engaged in a 10-week, skill-building boot-camp which culminated in a Demo Day. The top three Imagine Fund teams competed in the World Semi-Finals. Among those three, the first-place team earned participation in the Imagine Cup World Finals.

With its World Citizenship entry, Grant Fellow won a coveted spot in the World Finals. Let’s trace the team’s path to Imagine Cup.

Who are the members of team Grant Fellow and how do they work together? Although the three principals collaborate equally, there is a division of labor: John (Junyang) Lu is the CEO. Nicholas Liu is Chief Product Officer. Grace Truong is the Chief Financial Officer, who reaches out to funders, universities and other organizations.

Are they coders? No. John and Nicholas study materials science at Penn’s engineering school and, heading toward dual degrees, economics at Wharton. Grace is a biology major who plans to attend medical school. She says, “One of my dreams is to become a radiologist, which incorporates technology with the sciences.”

What was their path to Imagine Cup? The three friends originally met in a mentoring program on campus. During their sophomore year at Penn, they started working in a community service group called Penn Speaks for Autism. To launch an after-school program for elementary-school students, they searched for grants to raise money for a special education teacher and other resources. The application process proved challenging. As Grace says, “What better way to address the problem than create our own solution? Grant Fellow makes the grant-application process more straightforward and accessible.”

During their junior year, John found out about Imagine Fund. The friends decided to apply.

By way of advice from the Grant Fellow team, here are three reasons to pursue Imagine Fund/Imagine Cup: http://microsoftjobsblog.com/imagine-winni...
Posted By: Cheer Leader
Thursday, July 31st 2014 at 12:55PM
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