“WE CHANGE LIVES, ONE FAMILY AT A TIME”
PROJECT STARFISH AMERICA
The model of gamification, simulation, working on hands-on projects and finally associating with MIT Startup Exchange as a collaborating startup provided us a refreshing view of how much it was aligned with what the Top Schools/Ivy Leagues want! We helped over 22 students get to colleges such as Columbia, UC Berkley, UCLA, Univ of Austin, TX etc. We knew we were up to something.
We launched a new company called Altus Education, post the Founders graduation from Harvard Business School PLD/ Exec MBA alternative program in April 2020 to cater to thousands of students.
Project Starfish remains as the non-profit that disseminates leadership and wisdom to communities bringing Alumni from Harvard Business School and Ivy Leagues to share knowledge, life experience and workforce of the future.
Project Starfish brings the Alumni of Top Schools and Ivy Leagues to share education, knowledge, and wisdom. Sharing knowledge creates change in society with perspective. Project Starfish helps marginal communities become better and the projects from Altus Education directed at these communities help impact the people in these communities further.
Altus Education creates Student Leaders through coaching and mentorship. Altus from Latin meaning to “rise higher” helps students develop impactful projects through experiential learning that impacts marginal communities, and finally with proven recommendations pivot to top schools. Thats how students become leaders.
For those interested, please go through the 10-minute introductory video on the goals and outcomes at Altus Education. How we bring Harvard Business School / Ivy League alumni including top executives from the industry and what we do about it is below this video.
If you are a student, click on the below button to go directly to the assessment page.
What we do to support student/teacher communities
(Post COVID MISSION)
We solve and bridge the gap that exists today with students/educators on Industry & Technology change and how that changes the way Top Schools are viewing their students and the admission process. We also cater to students in underserved communities to provide them a fair chance to get back on track.
Post COVID we also create advisory groups for the mental and emotional well-being of students and advise them how to inspire themselves and find meaning in life by listening to “life experiences” of successful people from Top Schools/ Ivy Leagues. This includes building their dreams, ambition and also their goals in life to create stronger communities.
HOW we do IT
We solve these challenges creatively, and without the need for a huge amount of money or donations. We do so by harnessing the power of people, their knowledge, and their efforts. Everyone contributes a little bit, but the impact multiplies.
We crowdsource knowledge and that includes Financial, Industry, and Technology to create an impact on the students, families, and marginalized communities. In addition, we do the following below.
Financial Education
We bring financial concepts to strengthen the student generation, student debt preparedness and we promote unconventional concepts and hacks very early in the students learning cycle.
Future of Work
There is a massive “skills gap.” The barriers to getting employment are rising after COVID with millions filed for joblessness, and the jobs are not coming back. We make aware of the changes in the industry and the new job/entrepreneurship models of the future.
Live Knowledge Share
We bring “top notch” executives from Harvard Business School and Ivy Leagues to share “Life Experience”, “Technology of the Future”, “Jobs of the Future” to inspire students in High Schools. This transfers life experience to build dreams. It also creates coaches and mentors and professional connections early.
Creative Planning
We build unconventional solutions. It can range from financial, to career building, to professional networking and coaching. We serve under served communities. The outcome is to make the students and families create a better generation and have a better life.
Remote Skill Development
Building skills is key. We help build entrepreneurship models for underserved communities. We help the marginalized youth adopt them to be at par with others to level the opportunity gap. Some of the skills we develop are focused on short 3 to 6 months high end contemporary skill development based on the needs of the industry.
Activism through Films
Activism is key. Sometimes one needs to voice their opinion creatively and elegantly. We help with building films and videos and build marketing strategies to propagate the information to ensure it creates the desited impact.
HOW WE BUILD IMPACTFUL PROJECTS
At Project Starfish, we take pride in building impactful projects that help communities. We help students understand problems of communities and he harness their passion and openness to impact the communities by building newer technology and proof-of-concepts.
This is a 3D design of the wearable device that connects with the pacemakers Bluetooth to monitor someone’s health. This project is patent pending. This was built by Abhi Barat of Shrewsbury High School in MA.
Imagine, when the world was going crazy about COVID, a high school student developed the passion to help millions with heart-problems!
That is how Project Starfish mission creates impact. However, it only creates an impact for those who are willing to change. As a result, we believe although the Project Starfish mission can help everyone, few are willing to walk the extra mile.
This is an entirely new concept of designing a cancer hospital for kids. The entire project was built in 6 months by a high school senior in India.
Cancer is a big problem and there is a need for major rehabilitation for children without disrupting their education.
Nanhe Farishtey a project conceived took 6 months from start to finish and it was showcased to the Chief Minister in India. This is no ordinary feat as Project Starfish is the only non-profit that represented an Industry event. Project Starfish was represented by two blind people and 3 students at the summit.
Millions of people with cerebral palsy suffer from the basic challenge of just eating food. They have to be fed every day for example.
To create independence, there is a need for technology to enable independence.
This project was conceived by Shramaan Chakraborty to build a plan to assist the community using robotics and problem-solving and design-thinking. Here is the initial idea.
Using the concept of developing in 3D, the student is developing a CAD model via Onshape to conceptualize the working model.
The video explains how the model will look like, and then make changes along the way.
The below video shows the student using Raspberry Pi to control movements in real life. Shramaan also has an SAT score of 1550.
Generating New Ideas. Solving Big Problems
We keep our mission going. We build leaders of today and tomorrow. Problems can be solved using a different thought process.