Kai Entrepreneurship Wesleyan organized a trip to New York City to connect University students with alumni who have turned their liberal arts degrees into careers in the tech industry.

On Saturday, April 4, 30 University students climbed on a bus to New York City as part of a field trip organized by Kai Wesleyan Entrepreneurship (Kai Wes). The group was headed to connect University students with NYC-based alumni who turned their liberal arts degrees into careers in the tech industry.

The selected 30 students, whose majors vary from studio art to government, gathered with a unified interest in entrepreneurship.

The group’s first schedule of the day was held at Grand Central Tech, a community of startups and strategic partners, and also where alumna Liza Conrad ’11 is based. Conrad is the Head of Community and Partnerships of Hopscotch, a programming interface. After a tour of the office, Chris Meade ’05, co-founder and CEO of SportsRecruits and Jason Rosado ’96, CEO and President of Givkwik, arrived for a discussion with the students.

During the informal discussion, the three alumni talked about their transition from the University to their current careers. Conrad shared her experience as a student worker at the Red and Black Calling Society and how the office skills she acquired there helped her land her current position. Rosado and Meade both engaged in their entrepreneurial activities as undergraduates, such as co-founding a cultural club or selling snacks during baseball games.

The attending students were taught about different forms of investments, learning the differences between venture capitalists, seed investors, angel investors, and crowd funding, and about taking risks in entrepreneurship.

Besides entrepreneurial skills, the alums spoke about the “transferable skills” that liberal arts students acquire and learn to apply in other fields. For Mia Deng ’17 and other students present, this advice was crucial in understanding the applications of liberal arts in the real world.

“We often hear about how having a liberal arts background prepares us for future jobs,” Deng wrote in an email to The Argus. “This trip was eye-opening because all of us got to hear different stories about how each Wes alum transferred their Wesleyan experiences into the work they do in the tech field. When it comes to talking about ‘transferable skills,’ each alum seemed to speak about the ability to write articulately, critical thinking skills, etc. This was really helpful for me.”

Rosado concluded his remarks by addressing the importance of “attacking the gray area.” He said that while the rest of the world thinks in black and white, students should use their critical thinking skills they gained at the University to direct their energy toward the gray area.

Afterwards, students went on office tours at Impact Hub, and then concluded the day with a Vietnamese dinner and culture show at New York University, where students had the opportunity to talk with more alumni. Present at this last event were Oladoyin Oladapo ’14, COO of JooMah and founder and creator of Idunnu Studios; David Jay ’04, co-founder of Nudge and Smart Watch Tech; and Jean-Pierre Adéchi ’10, founder and CEO of Wheeli.

Many students expressed their excitement in the fruitful conversations they had with the alumni. Paticha Areepipatkul ’18 shared her interaction with Rosado.

“The highlight was meeting Jason,” Areepipatkul said. “He gave me many ideas of how to approach online crowd funding and share some insights based on his 15-plus years of experience.”

Mika Reyes ’17, co-president of Kai Wes and one of the key organizers of the trip, believes strongly in the importance of creating these kinds of connections between alumni and current students.

“The main objective of the trip was to expose students to the tech industry by showing them around the different offices and workspaces and letting them hear the ins and outs of the industry from people in the field,” Reyes wrote in an email to The Argus. “The panel discussion gave a general view of tech entrepreneurship, while the rotations and dinner gave more opportunities to go in depth with alumni personally. We also hoped to give students a better understanding of how to harness their liberal arts education and put it into good use in the entrepreneurial field. Based on the feedback that we’ve received so far, the alumni have done a great job in inspiring the students and answering their questions!”

The NYC trip, Kai Wes members said, shows the University’s growing involvement in technology and entrepreneurship. Alex Garcia ’17, another co-founder of Kai Wesleyan, believes that the University tech scene is evolving rapidly now that students of different majors and interests are getting involved.

“The Digital Wes program that began last spring has been instrumental in this development,” Garcia wrote in an email to The Argus. “We’re in a sort of transition phase as there are still divisions between tech and liberal arts, but this gap has been getting much smaller over the past few years. Learning how to code and use software tools has never been easier.”

Other Kai Wes leaders and members, including Josh Su ’17, agreed on the significance that technology holds in the future of entrepreneurship.

“Technology is the ways and means of entrepreneurship and the direction that it can take to influence users and start-ups worldwide,” Su wrote in an email to The Argus. “I feel that at Wesleyan, even in the near future, tech will be integral in connecting groups, collecting data, and empowering ideas to come to life. Tech can provide ways for us to improve on what we do, innovating and becoming an even more integral part of our lives.”

Garcia hopes that Kai Wesleyan—which is looking to recruit people for its executive team and fellowship program—will help students realize that entrepreneurship is not just about technology.

“At Kai, we’re working hard to dispel the notion that entrepreneurship is only for so-called ‘tech’ people, or only for people with special skill sets,” Garcia wrote. “We really believe everybody should dip their toes in the entrepreneurial waters at least once.”