It’s time to celebrate our first anniversary. A tiny occasion but a very important one. This time last year, we tested SCRUM Educational Experience for the first time! It was facilitated by Aga Gajownik, who undertook months of research and shared her work with super bright students from various academic backgrounds during the Hatch4good Hackathon at St. Andrew’s University in Scotland. It was a great weekend full of inspirational projects ranging from data-driven solutions for researchers, social campaigns tackling hunger, rant bots supporting students’ mental health, to community-driven solar panels networks in developing countries.
The event was organised by students from Kickstart Incubator Society and supported by visiting entrepreneurs like Kim Arazi, who kicked the whole thing off with an inspirational talk and helped with the pitch preparation. In addition, local businesses donated food and swag. Vegetarian society fed us on Saturday, and corporate sponsors, including Amazon, JP Morgan and Virgin Startups, provided prizes and visited us during the hack to talk about potential careers in tech.
One year post the event, we reached out to the organisers and asked them a few questions. Here’s what they said:
Ellina Knudsen (lead organiser): For me, hatch4good was far more than a one-off event. It offered a unique opportunity to meet and work alongside some truly exceptional individuals ranging from the organising team members to the participants, judges, guest speakers, and facilitators, particularly Kim and Aga. Hatch4good was a fantastic learning experience that helped me grow enormously and brought me skills that I could never have learnt in the classroom. I made friendships for life and am even planning my very own start-up with Niko! Doing something from scratch is possible and very rewarding. You can dream big when reaching out to your role models, successful companies and entrepreneurs. You don’t always have to have the experience to bring a project to life – you just need to work hard and surround yourself with like-minded people.
What did you learn?
Ellina: The importance of teamwork and realising how things can fall apart due to poor leadership and team mentality. Things can run to perfection when everyone is in it for the same reason and sharing the same goals.
Niko: We learnt a vast array of new skills, including reaching out to sponsors, organising logistics, working with a team, organising and branding an entirely new event, as well as convincing people it was both legitimate and worth their weekend!
Christa: Experiencing interdisciplinary collaboration and the organisation required to ensure everyone is challenged, learning new skills and having an opportunity to contribute input into the discussions.
The winning team impressed us with Biolumee-Bioluminescent hats that children can wear to study after dark. Have a look at their pitch presentation:
Incredible weekend with so many inspiring people. Special thanks to the Kickstart Incubator team, the sponsors, @AgaGajownik & our mentors! https://t.co/julHVKjYCo— Janis Wong (@janiswong_) 15 October 2017
Thank you all for being so proactive! We are always open to supporting students in their entrepreneurial quests – reach out if you want to organise a hackathon at your university and receive the organiser’s pack for FREE.
