My first day was short, just three hours, due to Mr. Sharma’s morning schedule. I got a quick tour of the building and was introduced to everyone there. We went to lunch (which was awesome) and after we came back, I shadowed his assistant, Kayla. She spent a fair amount of time checking emails from people who send in their resumes instead of filling out the application form, which is apparently a fairly common occurrence because of the way that their job ads are set up. Doing this with her taught me a lot more about what the company does and also how they cull out potential new hires from large amounts of applicants. Kayla also showed me her calendar, which she keeps for Ray and her since they work so closely and a lot of what they need to do overlaps with and affects the other. She showed me her various spreadsheets where she keeps the most pertinent information on the applicants and explained her organization process for emails, applications, and resumes. She has quite a complex but very effective and efficient system.
The second day I started out shadowing Kayla. In the afternoon, she showed me a collection of their old job description forms and then one of the job descriptions in their new format. Then one of the other members of the company set up a desk with two desktops for me and I copied the information from the old forms onto the new forms and put it into the correct format. I got back together with Kayla after this and we went through them, correcting a few things.
All together, everything has been awesome. Everyone is super friendly, but not overly so and you can still tell that it’s a professional and respectful environment. Also, they’ve been super helpful and real, which is wonderful. And there’s coffee which makes everything even better.
Marshall’s Senior Project – 2 Days in
After two days at SLEPD I’ve learned a lot, seen a lot and done a lot. My first day I toured the Innovation and Entrepreneurship offices at the partnership in Clayton and met everyone who I’ll be working with over the next six weeks. After meeting with everyone I was given the weekly updates from this year and selected the ongoing projects that I would like to work on these include, STLVentureWorks, Helix Fund and initiatives for Inclusion and diversity. After this, I began doing research for STLVW. Like many incubators STLVW relies on many small startups to rent out their co-working spaces for typically up to 4 years. Some incubators however, rely on one much larger company to serve as an anchor tenant to ensure a steady flow of income. This allows them to better serve the smaller ones. The partnership is looking to do this in some of the STLVW locations. I researched how similar incubators use anchor tenants and potential anchors for STLVW.
Then I spent time reading the Master Plan for 39 North, a planned business district that will be dedicated to the AgTech(Agricultural Technology) industry for which
St. Louis is one of the largest markets. Yes were still on day one. In the afternoon I went to Cortex Innovation Community where my project sponsor was a featured panelist for the Mastercard Diversity and Inclusion series that was focused on developing strategies to provide access to historically underrepresented groups in the start-up community and providing financial services to those groups
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left to right(Dennis Lower, CEO Cortex, Ray Boshara, Federal Reserve Bank, Atul Kamra SIXThirty Accelerator, Radha Gopalan, Washington University , Virginia Imster, SLEDP)
Today was spent mostly in meetings. It started with an I&E meeting which was mostly dedicated to preparing for the upcoming board meeting but we also talked about what other members of the team can have me do during my time here. Later I sat in on a partnership board meeting which was really interesting as much of the discussion was about the future of the partnership with a new mayor and new president. 
I typically only read about politics for fun but it was cool to see it being discussed and how it affects the partnership in a meaningful way. I spent the rest of my day doing more research this time it was about finding commercial kitchens for startup caterers or food service companies. I’ve been compiling a list of potential churches, community centers and schools who might be willing to rent out their kitchen. I will be formally presenting my findings regarding anchor tenants to the I&E team and I have a meeting to discuss the restaurants tomorrow.
Second day with Global Sage
Today’s my second day of intern at Global Sage. Every week I work from Monday to Friday, from 9am to 6pm. Nico Ortiz is the director. She’s also in charge of me.
Melissa’s first day of senior project
I plan to make 4 thank you cards, 2 wools frogs and a picture for the 3D mushroom house. Unhappily I only finished the 4 thank you cards. wools frogs failed to make even with Mrs. Hassan’s help… Hope tomorrow I can finish my plan for the day!
Marshall’s Senior Project – One Week Away
As I am just one week away from the start of my project, I thought I would give a detailed description of what my first week will look like at SLEDP(St.Louis Economic Development Partnership). My first week will be mostly introductory, after all, it is my first week. I’ll be starting the week touring their office and meeting the people who work on my sponsor’s team. I will also be touring some of the other locations where SLEDP does business these include: Venture works, CIC, Cortex, and T-Rex. These are co-working and innovation centers that house a lot of the St. Louis start-up community. I will also be sitting in on meetings as allowed. Many of these meetings will be about developing marketing strategies to promote Venture Works a co-working facility for local entrepreneurs recently launched by SLEDP. I will be checking in throughout the week with pictures from my tours and updates from meetings i.e things I’ve learned from them and people I’ve met. I’ve provided links to the places mentioned including SLEDP, the websites highlight projects taking place in the St.Louis area some of which I will be a part of. Have an awesome rest of your spring break.
Cortex St.Louis
St Louis Economic Development Partnership
https://www.stlpartnership.com/
Venture works
Cambridge Innovation Center @ St. Louis
T-Rex
Marshall’s Senior Project Summary
I will be spending the entirety of my senior project at the St. Louis Economic Development Partnership in Clayton. The SLEDP is responsible for over a billion dollars worth of economic development in the St. Louis Metropolitan area including projects like IKEA St. Louis and the National Geo-spacial Agency. I will be working closely with Ginger Imster the Vice President of Entrepreneurship and Innovation. I will be working in the Economic Development offices and their startup division that seeks new, or growing startups around the world and works to bring them to St. Louis. My project will involve a lot of meeting with community partners and researching development opportunities.
March 7th, 2017. Summary
During my project, I will be spending the entirety of the 6 weeks at Shaw Nature Reserve as a student volunteer and assistant. I will be working mainly with school groups and learning how to teach several classes, including wetlands, prairie and some night classes, including astronomy and nighthikes. I will also be working with people who work on trail maintenance. Along with the trails, I will also be working on upkeep of the buildings and facilities. With this time I will hopefully learn about ecology and more about teaching large groups of people, as I intend to hopefully work with people as a future career.
Melissa’s plan for senior project
My senior project is separate to 3 parts with art, soap make and something else.
I’m planning to use 2 weeks at school doing art works with Mrs. Hassan’s help which include making wool frogs, paper flowers, design cap and folded animals for pictures.
And the second 2 weeks to make soap with Elizabeth at Mrs. Hardcastle’s house also probrobly learning about marketing.
The last 3 weeks is planning to voluntter for set at weddings. If I do not make that I will probrobly work in the soybean association. We will see.
I’m looking forward to my senior project.
Summary of my Project
I will be working with Mr. Elder and Jake Del mostly to learn and understand music recording, mixing, and production. I will be working with musicians to compose music in which we will record with Mr. Elder, and by myself from what I have learned to create a “demo” or album. Jake Del will be showing me the hip-hop side of music, along with recording live instruments such as guitar and vocals due to his experience in the music industry, and his knowledge in mixing music. Hopefully, at the end of my project I will have a tight grasp on music production and recording music to be able to create my own masterpieces.
Summary Senior Project
I will be working with five different people and organizations. The first two weeks I’m spending with Mr. Sharma at ADB. The next two weeks, Melissa and I’ll be working with Mrs. Hardcastle making soaps and learning about running a business. The fifth week, I’ll work on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday with my church’s preschool and Tuesday and Thursday shadowing various people at Monsanto. The last two weeks, I will spend working with Coach Frye (basketball) at his company, Initial Independence.