this past semester: IdeaTree Design

So, this summer I spent 10 weeks working full time for IdeaTree Design, which you may not know much about if you didn't read this post.

In any case, we came back only to realize that running a non-profit organization as a full time student = not reasonable. Not only that, at 500 dollars of incorporation costs each year, you better be making enough to stay afloat, even as a non-profit. In any case, the five/six of us who are still active on IdeaTree (many of our members are taking time away from school or studying away) have decided to scale back, for our sake's.

The goal of IdeaTree now is simple. Connect people to projects, involve students in social entrepreneurship and "Awesome" opportunities, and maybe even give them the chance to do a project for credit that will ACTUALLY get implemented in the real world. For a definition of Awesome (with a capital A), you should know that IdeaTree came out of an Olin club called "Olin Students for Awesome." Their definition for Awesome is below.

awe·some (ô's?m)
adj.

1.Inspiring awe: an awesome thunderstorm.

2.Expressing awe: stood in awesome silence before the ancient ruins.

3.Slang. Remarkable; outstanding: “a totally awesome arcade game” (Los Angeles Times).

4.Of or relating to human rights, social entrepreneurship, sustainability, or the general saving of the world.

The fourth usage of Awesome, which is always capitalized, is not actually in any dictionaries anywhere. Yet. But a group of students from Olin College of Engineering decided saving the world was just that— Awesome— and worth some time and a club.

OSA has a general mission of bringing together students and others who want to make a difference, do something to help, and save the world. Dealing primarily with issues such as human rights, social entrepreneurship, and sustainability, we thrive on all things dedicated to making the world livable, green, and, of course, Awesome.

So, anther thing we look to keep active is an event called the Flash Conference which was originally started as an OSA activity. We'll see how it goes.

In other news, I'm now a part of two more student businesses, officially now :)

I'll write more about Olin Services and Olin Tutoring Squad (tutoring service for local high school students with Olin students hired as independent tutors) later, but for now, I'm back to working :)