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Imagine Cup - My Experience as a Mentor for #TeamGrantFellow

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This year I have had the pleasure of mentoring the "Team Grant Fellow" Imagine Cup team. When us Evangelists were being matched with teams, this group of three students from the University of Pennsylvania stood out to me in particular because they had a real solution to a very real problem. These students have proven to be forward thinking self-starters, and they did a wonderful job this week as they delivered a very well-prepared and professional presentation.

What is Grant Fellow?

In their own words, "Grant Fellow is a grant aggregator, search catalog, and administrative management system for researcher institutions and non-profit organizations." The team's goal is to simplify the grant application process for both professors and non-profits to find funding. Their "grant aggregator collects information about both public and private grants and posts them onto our database" and then the "proprietary search and filtering system allows individuals to directly find relevant public and private grants in a far more efficient way." (https://grantfellow.com/)

Mentoring the team...

I very much enjoy working with students, especially when they are as creative and determined as I found this team to be. Nick, John, and Grace, all brought a unique perspective to the team - with Nick and John having a strong business focus, and Grace taking the lead on the grant side. When I first spoke with the team earlier this year, their original plan was to create a common application for grant funding. After doing extensive research they changed their business model after doing extensive research, which demonstrated their ability to recognize and dedicate to a customer-focused product. I connected these students to the Evangelist local to their area so that they could have some in-person support, and worked with them particularly on the presentation side when they were preparing for their final presentations. I was so impressed by how independent and driven these students were, and I have no doubt that they will go on to do great things in the future. Congratulations to the three of you, for all of your hard work throughout the year and through the pressure of the World Finals.  

 Advice for future candidates...

These are my pieces of advice for students wanting to compete in Imagine Cup next year: *note these are observations that I have made, I am not associated with the judging process*

  • Diverse team: having students with different specialties, as well as personalities can prove beneficial. For example having 2 developers, and 1 business student can ensure that your project covers all facets that the judges are looking for, in terms of concept and feasibility. You also don't necessarily need 3 extroverts, but having someone that can take the lead on presentations would definitely be helpful
  • Feasibility: While having an innovative and unique idea is necessary, it needs to be feasible. Teams that make it through to the end most always have an idea that can be turned into a reality.

 

 

 

Me with the Grant Fellow team! 

 

  

 

Final preparation before the presentation! (at UW campus)

  

According to Marion, raising your arms like this reduces stress.

 

 

 

 

The Grant Fellow booth on Microsoft Redmond campus. Nick from Grant Fellow, with some USA Microsoft Student Partners.