What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20 by Tina Seelig
Over a decade ago, the Stanford University School of Engineering, one of the most highly acclaimed and prestigious university programs in America, recognized that students needed an advantage in the business place. So they created the Stanford Technology Ventures Program (STVP). It is the entrepreneurship center of the Engineering program. It strives to develop and instill the entrepreneurship skills needed to use innovation in order to solve real world problems. STVP's words more or less. I think it helps students get real with what it takes to thrive beyond the books.
In addition to teaching a class on creativity and innovation, Tina Seelig has been the executive director of STVP for over ten years. An amalgamation of life as a teacher, entrepreneur, author, scientist and kid-on-her-own trying to make it, placed Tina in the cross-hairs of writing What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20, which was based on a series of talks she began giving in 2006.
Professor Seelig states the book's goal is to provide a new lens to view obstacles encountered everyday while charting a course to the future. She goes on to use a bevy of anecdotes to support each chapter's lessons.*
Here's the thing that absolutely screams at me about this book, Stanford University and folks like Tina and those who endorsed this book, understand that in the fields of at the very least; health, technology, engineering and the environment, the typical four-year degree isn't getting it done. Students need an edge. And that's what Tina begins to address in What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20.
Here's the second thing that screams at me, students should not wait until they're in college to begin using these ideas. For instance, let's take a quick look at Tina's definition of entrepreneurship:
An entrepreneur is someone who is always on the lookout for problems that can be turned into opportunities and finds creative ways to leverage limited resources to reach their goals.
Couldn't this mindset be used by students and their parents to help identify tentative educational and career pathways...while still in middle school?
The third thing that I noticed, be it more subtle, is this book screams of design thinking without ever mentioning the ever popular buzz word - I really thought that was cool!
My last observation about Tina's work here didn't necessarily scream at me as much as it caused me to wince and double over in pain. Tina recounts a family friend whom she very much admired, totally dissing her when, as a fourteen year old, she went to him for advice. One of the most precious moments in life is when a youngster approaches an adult for advice. While I would like to see more kids take the initiative like Tina did, we as adults, need to seize and take advantage of these priceless teaching moments when they occur.
What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20 should be required reading for every high schooler in the country. And also for every parent who thinks their kids might need an edge in both post-secondary education and their careers.
*for a deeper look into Tina's lessons, check out Ewan McIntosh's most excellent review.
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