tks activate 2022
10 month human accelerator helping increase the ambition of the most ambitious by training how to solve the world’s biggest problems with weekly sessions and global community.
tl'dr
why this program?
- this is the program i wish i had before my entire journey in school. there is no place for ambitious young people to better understand themselves. this helps them figure out the change they want to see and start to build.
in my role as a director
- i designed and run 30+ session on exploring the world’s biggest problems, including early cancer detection and ending human trafficking
- i built community and coached 85 students on 100+ projects, from technology focuses, to challenge with shell, and an earth shot sprint
- i designed and ran analysis on 4x quarterly surveys and helped manage 2x virtual showcases to demo all of the work. we ended the year with 4.5/5 nps program score, and personally i had 4.7/5 director coaching score.
unconventional highlights
- 25+ presentations on stages, including web summit, sxsw, global citizens forum, eth amsterdam, ibm evoke, and collision. listen to feature talks →
- 8 students selected for global fellowship at villars institute (think wef davos summit for gen z with a focus on climate). update coming soon →
- 7 international masason foundation scholars. read announcement →
- 3 finalists for patrick collier not impossible $1M award. read announcement →
- 2 week long sprint with twelve activates on google x's moonshot campus. update coming soon →
- research collaborations with mit labs, cornell, new harvest, and others. listen to ashley's mit project pitch →
personal peak moments
- sofi is a finalist in global earthshot competition representing top sustainable innovations in mexico for her work in lab grown cotton. check out winning grant application →
- valkyrie wins first 776 fellowship (think thiel but sustainability) for project firefly, and one of the youngest for an internship at space x. update coming soon →
- bj, aleem, jake and team raise $400k for padawanDAO sending 100+ students to conferences and research opportunities. check out twitter →
- naila nominated for top 100 women in canada for her research in flexible solar cells as well as 3d printing bio plastics. read feature →
- aryan recognized by Schmidt futures and forbes as top global innovator for rise program for his builds across digital healthcare and web3. read forbes feature →
i got more tools to analyze problems and the chance to train on them every session. i was also able to commit to a project to make it as real as possible, something that i hadn't been able to do in innovate. activate was challenging, interesting and different.
sofia sanchez
mexico city, mexico
trusting the process
raina exploring what non invasive optogenetics could look like for treatments of neurological disorders, like parkinson's disease. she received mentorship from an mit lab
sri building end to end learning system to increase efficiency in self driving cars. he got feedback from a team at cruise.
activate has been a catalyst for more exponential growth than I ever imagined I could achieve in just ten months. it has been one of the most incredible and life-changing experiences of my life, and has been incredibly mece in the opportunities it gave me and lessons it taught me.
raina bornstein
boston, us
mikael and aahaan have a hypothesis to capture the ~20k MWh of wasted heat in refineries and researched to see if it could be used to produce green hydrogen.
check out deck →
naila and team look to repurpose oil platforms into electrical substations for wind energy systems, potentially saving $4.65M in decomissioning costs.
check out deck →
eye-opening. i've learned so much more about myself and the world.
sri anumakonda
toronto, ca
zayn and team are building literacy teaching tools for kids in augmented reality with an ambition of making a fully mobile 21st education system.
check out their pitch →
ashley and team are researching a way to make a low cost microfluidic device to identify micronutrient deficiencies, starting with vitamin b12.
check out their pitch →
a 10xed growth experience.
zayn patel
seattle, us
the program journey
world's biggest problems
skills: root cause analysis, gap analysis, hypothesis driven ideas, memo writing
topics: reducing medical errors, ending human trafficking, increasing the livlihood of rural indian farmers
world's largest technical challenges
skills: reading patents, vision setting, identify gaps
topics: decreasing cost per kwh in batteries, identify economic opportunities in the metaverse, and early detection in cancer
life in wisdom sessions
skills: story telling, building life principles, philosophical discussions
topics: what makes a fulfilling life? what is death?
check out reflection →
the most unparalleled growth curve I have ever experienced so far. full of kindness, good memories, and many lessons in every dimension on life.
manasi gajjalapurna
san francisco, us
1-1s
open office hours for personal blockers, life updates, goals, and interesting ideas
skillset training
extra sessions on time management, project managing, applying mental models and more
squads
helped set up and manage a squad based culture with peer to peer master mind groups
mindset training
extra sessions on extreme ownership, anti-comparison, activator and more
accelerate
weekly sessions for the most engaged activates with growth, philosophy, and okr training
weekly team calls
host challenge check ins for accountability, feedback, and team mamangement
activate has helped me find a project i want to make real, the directors give life-changing personalized and group support, my thinking and understanding of the world have transformed through the weekly problem-solving sessions and i have 4 weekly/ biweekly squad syncs with some of my favourite people ever. life is great.
amy li
toronto, ca
meeting eric schmidt @ built with bio.
spontaneous global hangout.
i met an incredible community of friends, gained very valuable mentorship, and worked on building out my projects!
naila moloo
ottawa, ca
- sriya is working to get 100,000 Ukrainian refugees employed through automated credentialing.
- simran is focusing on drug repurposing mechanisms for developing a non hormonal male birth control pill.
- aryan is testing no code smart contract investment infrastructure in web3 space.
post mortem
what i would keep doing
- allow students to work on multiple open ended projects in different teams. this allows them to explore throughout the year what they are personally interested in while encouraging a mix up of who to work with and what to work on.
- focus on squad culture. one of the most meaningful parts of being part of the tks community is the shared value for growth. being intentional on helping seed a squad based culture, enabled people to find their tribe to meet with weekly.
- sessions are built for exposure. coming into the year, everyone shares one purpose: learn how to solve the world's biggest problems. with exposure as the main intention, everyone gets on the same page at across different problem spaces.
what i would do differently
- start with stronger focus on community. with all return students, we assumed that people would already have tools needed for meeting the community (1-1s, hangouts, etc). but in a virtual community, and one with high standards it's important to take the first 3-4 weeks helping everyone get to know each other to build trust. we did this 1-1 as coaches and now see the value in helping everyone start this way.
- more team coaching and weekly team check ins earlier on. we experimented with varying levels of automony, and by the end of the year in earthshots, we got the perfect balance of independent progress with weekly team check ins. i would use this earlier on in the first of the program as well.
- more support for independent projects. we always encouraged an opt out culture. so if someone did not want to work exactly on what we were working on, they could choose their own focus. one thing i would change up is how milestones and progress is reported. when people do their own thing, they vear off track easily and lose track of intentional results along the way.
so a huge thank you and s/o to
- @brandon for being a rock star partner in everything program related
- @navid + @nadeem for third eye perspective and on the ground support
- @tk-team for collaboration in partnerships, marketing, and operations
- @steve for the donated custom self awareness 2 month workshop
- @seth and the synbiobeta team for sponsorships to attend the whole built with bio
- every. single. awesome human who played a role in mentoring, support, feedback, or unlocking opportunities. especially parents for the continuous support for all the activates.
- and thank you vijay for the 3d icons used above.
resources to explore more
21 lessons for the 21st century by harari
as a founder and investor, naveen reveals a creative take on questioning fundamental industries that have seen little change in the last 30 years, including space tech and education.
crossing the unknown sea by david whyte
as a philosopher and poet, whyte captures exactly what it means to be on a journey in life figuring out one's purpose and agency for accomplishing something meaningful.
axios daily newsletter
learning about the world takes active daily exploration. axios offers a great newsletter in executive memo format to learn about politics, current events, and tech updates.