A Fresh Start in the Professional World

It is only the beginning few weeks of my ISM journey, but I already feel like I have accomplished so much with respect to the professional contacts I have built and my independent research. Within the first week, we were able to express our passions and previous knowledge in our field of study through our introductory speeches. It was such a beneficial opportunity to showcase my goals and interests while building on my public speaking and communication skills. Although I have given many presentations in the past and truly do enjoy public speaking, it is always slightly nerve-wracking to speak out in front of an audience of students you are not familiar with. Although this was the case, I was able to use my immense passion for the field to convey a larger message of what one will achieve when they take risks and are not limited to society's conformities. I hope to see my speaking skills improve and that nervous energy disappear throughout this year as we continue to build on our soft skills. Once my speech was complete, I continued on to create my LinkedIn profile and digital portfolio in order to start my connections with professionals in the field of social entrepreneurship. Throughout this week, I have more and more realized the challenges that come with reaching out to individuals in the professional space. It is oftentimes not easy for a professional to reach out to a young high school student without previously established experience in the field. However, as I started to connect with and email more people, I saw my success rate grow as I secured my very first interview with such a supportive and passionate entrepreneur. Through this process and my first research assessment, I have uncovered many new concepts about the field of entrepreneurship that I was previously unaware of. I learned the value of incentives and employee rewards and how this can look different between entrepreneurs and social entrepreneurs. I differentiated the profit motives of these two fields and started to understand the importance of constant innovation. This week, I hope to focus a lot more of my research on the process of developing an idea and creating a business. Even though I still have so many questions in the field, I know that I am just getting started and will continue to expand on my knowledge as the year progresses.