#tfastartupinternship

One of my first impressions when I walked into the LAB Miami space five weeks ago was that in Ghana and Nigeria, some people, contractors and civilians alike, might consider this an uncompleted building. Some of the interior walls are not painted, the lighting wires are visible and the air-conditioning tubing is exposed. Spaces like that are far and few between in Ghana. Not because air conditioning is a luxury, but because they would be considered incomplete, lacking the necessary finishing. Usually, if a building is left unfinished, we assume it is because the owner is yet to come up with the money to finish it.

 So why the cultural commentary? I think it highlights one of the things I've been learning about vision, strategy, team, and leadership throughout my internship experience. It’s simple, really. Almost none of these are fixed, rather they are always morphing in order to move the organization forward. Consider the example of the camp's team.

A quick glance at the Wynwood Maker Camp website reveals head-shots of the six core team members of the organization. However, students and recent graduates with an interest in technology and education are inherently attracted to the agenda of the camp. Up to four interns, myself included, are currently working on promotional videos, article writing, lesson planning, curriculum design, monitoring and evaluation, and general camp counseling. This arrangement has benefited the organization well, adding valuable human capital at little cost. This is a point that Blake Mycoskie emphasizes several times in his book Start Something That Matters.

In addition, two Maker Ed Americorps Vista members recently started working at the LAB. They are here to support the growth of MIAMADE, the parent organization of the Wynwood Maker Camp. Specifically, they will be focusing on community outreach and funding sources. The timing is perfect. This week, we were visited by the principal of Gibson Public Charter School in Overtown. Partnership with Gibson could be an opportunity to continue bringing maker education to the community beyond summer.

In my opinion, the best internships offer evolving responsibilities so that the intern has the opportunity to build different skills. That said, one of the things I appreciate most about my internship at Wynwood Maker Camp is the flexibility that Nelson and Willie have given me with my assignment. The core of my project is to codify learning experiences into actual lesson plans that culminate into a “curriculum” that is easy to implement (Read Curriculum is like Coke, if you haven’t already). However, after having several talks with Nelson about the vision for the camp, I thought it might be more useful to the young organization if I expanded this project somewhat.

In my internships, I have collaborated with other interns to submit more formal documents. When I worked with the Penn International Business Volunteer team we wrote a non-profit plan (a business plan for a non-profit organization) for the Abusua Foundations Civil Society Incubator. At ILC Africa, I worked with another Penn student to draft portions of a Monitoring and Evaluation report that was later submitted to USAID. Both of these internships were great learning experiences for me and stirred my interest in international development and non-profits, especially since they were in Ghana.

Well, this week I decided that I would challenge myself a little more. I think if I take the monitoring and evaluation report/business plan approach, the final document will be undeniably more comprehensive. Am I saying I’m going to produce the near 100 pages that made up the final USAID report? Far from it. Instead, my goal is to identify current best practices and identify areas for improvement in addition to writing lesson plans. I’m hoping I will be done by the end of next week so that some of the recommendations can be “piloted” in the next two-week session.  

In the last few days, we’ve had a few outside organizations bring their students to the LAB Miami to learn about the Maker Movement. On the first day, we hosted students from the BizNovator Camp. Then, eight graders from the Overtown Youth Center visited us. During both of these visits, the team asked me to lead a short session. The idea was to introduce the students to the Maker Movement by having them collaboratively construct something. I chose to run the Marshmallow Challenge as it is an activity I have done with my own 5th grade students in the past. The challenge is to build the tallest free-standing structure in 18 minutes using 20 sticks of spaghetti, a yard of masking tape, a yard of string, and a marshmallow. The catch is the marshmallow must be on top.

In both sessions, only one or two of all the teams ended up with a tower that actually stood. This can be frustrating for participants, but lends itself to several lessons. In the Marshmallow Challenge TED talk, Tom Wujec encourages people to be wary of the underlying assumptions of any project. In the activity, the false assumption is that marshmallows are light and fluffy. Instead, you’re advised to build prototypes to get to the final version. And so, the premise of the activity, I believe, is that the process is as important (if not, more) as the product.

I’ve been reflecting on this recently and can confidently say that this concept definitely applies to startups. Yes, it’s true, that ideally a startup will shed its “startup” skin blossom into a strong, solid company (product). However, a startup is intrinsically about starting something to get to that point (process). When you are looking at a start up from the outside in, you want to know “what” the big idea is, “what” makes it different. On the other hand, when you’re on the inside your focus is on “how” to make the idea reality. In my time with the Wynwood Maker Camp team, I have learnt a lot about the vision for the organization. However, underlying each of these conversations has been the growth trajectory. I am learning that startups only succeed when entrepreneurs are striving, strategizing, and literally sweating towards their goal. In other words, the startup struggle is real.