Blog Post #1

My first day attending the Net Impact conference in San Jose, California was absolutely eye opening. From the beginning we heard from incredible business professionals from all different industries. Over 2,500 people attended the conference from undergraduate/graduate students to current business professionals. The conference had a mission of creating a space to inspire everyone to create change, innovate and explore new concepts. One of the most interest concepts that I encountered was the idea of two winners of the 2013 Hult Prize. The two winners were two Canadian entrepreneurs who started the idea of a farming industry that involved the cultivation of insects for food. The insects would then be used as a way of combatting hunger in many countries that have already adopted the consumption of insects in their diets. An idea like this absolutely astounded me. Something so simple yet filled with potential of creating incredible impact on the lives of millions. My first day in San Jose was outstanding, as the energy of the Silicon Valley seemed to provide me with innovative energy. Another speaker that really stood out to me was the Founder of Kiva, Premal Shah. A young man with a brilliant idea has created so many drastic changes in the world. Currently I have invested a small $50 into a Kiva account. If only 1,000,000 other people in this country could make a small donation the impact would be incredible.

Blog Post #2

My second day at the conference left me with various thoughts of how I could act upon what I have learned at my time in Silicon Valley. After sitting through a speaker session with the CEO and Founder of AirBnB something came to me. This world is filled with so much opportunity how do we make sure every human being is capable of being successful. I have reservations about companies like Kiva who invest their funds into microenterprises, but do not educate in financial management or business principles. Upon deciding this was a fault in the system, I decided to take this idea and run with it. How do we educate others to be financially literate? Energized by Silicon Valley I decided to do something innovative, fresh, and technologically savy. A website dedicated to the education of families in how to manage their money. Having grown up in a lower middle class family and seeing my family struggle because of a lack of financial education inspired me to want to educate others on basis financial principles. At this point in the conference I had been sufficiently inspired by the speeches of great people like Blake Mycoskie of Toms, Caryl Stern of UNICEF and Nancy Lublin of Dosomething.org. I wanted to turn my education into action. I plan on pursuing my plan of developing a business model for an app or website committed to teaching financial literacy in an interactive way. Although financial literacy is not unique, I hope to find a way to inspire students and families to want to learn about taking care of their money, their families and being financial stable.