社会创新实习项目：怀抱理想，在现实中“冲浪”！

读万卷书，行万里路……对于成长中的少年人来说，人生路上还有一件是顶顶重要的——经万件事：

在“做”中学，体验真实世界的电光火石，少年人收获的是和读书、观察一样深刻、有厚度的生命经验，以及对自身认知的审视和重塑。

刚刚过去的这个暑期，启明星社会创新项目为有着奇思妙想的学生们继续提供在“做”中学的机会：创新冲刺和创新准备2个实习项目，扶持他们抱怀各自的理想，在现实中冲浪……

“冲浪”

还记得启明星刚刚升入12年级的学生在“力求改变的路演”上获得广泛支持的这3 个项目吗？

暑假里，学生们来到艾毅教育集团总部，在各个业务部门的支持下，通过“创新冲刺”继续孵化他们的项目。

每天早上8点，甚至更早，就有学生出现在办公室，有模有样的，真的像个上班族！

正式开工后，在项目导师引导下，他们脑力激荡，讨论各自的计划并努力执行。他们穿梭在办公区，也会跑出去，前往相关的商业或是政府部门，探索解决问题的方法。

而项目孵化地——艾毅教育集团的市场、IT、财务、人力资源部门，也倾力为学生们提供支持。社会创新项目与社区经理贺冉说：“他们遇到哪些方面的问题，可以直接向这些部门的专业人士‘取经’。”

难得的是，实习项目也为孩子们组织了面向总部专业人士的推介会。大家从各自的专业领域质询项目的可行性，提供了非常“接地气”的启发，比如：

“快速降解口罩是怎么降解的？放在那里3个月就会自己降解成碎片吗？这个不说清楚，购买的人会有疑虑的。”

UPC小组的APP为客户和提供宠物照顾服务的人牵线搭桥，是个平台。“但是平台在买卖双方交易之后是很容易在后续交易中被绕过的，那么这个APP的核心竞争力是什么，怎样保障自己的‘护城河’？”一位老师问。

真实环境的催化和推动下，学生们不断反思自己的计划，将它们越来越细化，也越来越具有可操作性。

“摩擦”

当然，理想越是靠近现实，也就越容易感受到来自现实的摩擦。这些既要实现良性运转，又要关注社会福祉、回馈社会的项目处于一条螺旋的上升曲线……

UPC小组的第一步目标是拿下20个宠物主人请他们照顾宠物的订单。小组成员印制了宣传单，在大街边、办公楼下、三里屯的商铺周边发放。几经努力大家发现，这样的努力并不能达到目标。为什么呢？

社会创新项目与社区经理贺冉请一家宠物店店长为UPC把脉——原来，在公共场所散乱地寻找客源，不能帮助他们确定目标客户在哪里。

HUE小组搭建网站的过程中也并不一帆风顺。“建立网站的过程是比较麻烦的，是在我们意料之外的，我们需要更多的时间去了解这个过程，然后才能做。”小组成员、11年级学生刘峥说。

好在，在导师引导和自身努力下，3个项目小组的工作都有了长足的进展：Xerces Blue小组丰富了自己的介绍，接到了第一笔5万元的订单，完成了“2个订单”目标的第一步；UPC小组在导师的引导下，反思和修订自己最初的想法，从身边社区开始推广项目；HUE小组也把宣传“负责任消费”的概念升级，注册了属于自己的网站。

“创新冲刺项目的重要意义就是让学生面对来自真实世界的挑战，也让他们有机会把从社会创新课程上学到的商业技能学以致用。此外，来自导师和专业人士的引导和质询，也让他们意识到，自己想当然的计划其实需要更多的知识和能力去加持。”贺冉说，“完成了这样全面的训练和学习，学生也就完成了IB的CAS项目。”

暑期里，和“创新冲刺”同时进行的另一个实习项目——“创新准备”也顺利完成。

在学校协调下，7名马上升入11年级的启明星学生从各自的兴趣和未来学习方向出发，参加了实习：和睦家基金会、隐泉餐厅、泛美麟设计公司、北京市西城区统计局、北京广播电视台、汇张思建筑设计公司、启明星幼儿园夏令营。

在学校安排的导师和实习单位的协调员的支持下，学生们锻炼了多种技能，比如市场开拓、数据分析、平面设计、视频编辑、建筑设计等！

"今年暑假我来到北京广播电视台实习。实习中，很多采访的经历对我来说是很大的挑战。比如，有一次为了完成采访任务，我需要在清晨六点爬上胡同平房的屋顶”实习学生庄子墨说。

“实习期间，我有机会见到了隐泉日式料理的总裁Alan先生。在一对一的会议上，我了解到他是如何创业，并成为企业家的。我也会提出一些问题，这样的交流让我学到了很多，也很受启发，我觉得现在自己对创业有了更深入的理解。” 在隐泉日式料理餐厅实习的11年级学生王浩宇说。

9月27日，参加创新准备项目的学生将在老师和同学面前，逐一进行反思自己实习收获的演讲，全面展示实习成果，完成学习闭环。

我们将在启明星视频号全程直播，欢迎扫码关注！届时，您也将通过直播观看创新冲刺项目学生代表的演示和讲解！

Knowledge is founded upon the accumulation of information through either experience or education…

For young people who are still growing, knowledge also comes from another significant source – experience.

Through our Social Innovation program, young people gain deep and profound life experience from the real world, reading books, and making observations. They also learn to examine and reshape themselves.

Over the summer holiday, Daystar’s Social Innovation (SI) Program continued to give students an opportunity to have new experiences. We prepared two internship programs, the Inno-Sprint and Inno-Ready, to help them “surf” in the real world as they embrace their dreams.

"Surfing"

Do you remember these projects? They were initiated by Daystar new Grade 12 students and received extensive support through the Pitching for Change Challenge!

During the summer holiday, with the support of many business departments, students continued to work on their social ventures at the Ivy Education Group HQ via the Inno-Sprint incubator program.

Every day at 8 a.m., they gathered at the office, just like real office workers.

Once they started working, under the guidance of instructors, they brainstormed, discussed, and tried to find ways to implement. Sometimes, they walked back and forth in the office, and sometimes, they ran out to have discussions with the staff of various business departments or governmental offices to find solutions.

IT, finance, and human resources departments provided support for the students. “Whenever they run into problems, they can turn to professionals in each department,” said Summer He, SI Program & Community Manager.

The internship program also organized a meeting for the young interns to present to professionals working at the Ivy Education Headquarters. At the meeting, the professionals used their expertise to evaluate the feasibility of the students’ projects and gave them practical insights. For example:

“How do these masks degrade? Do they automatically degrade into pieces if we leave them for three months? If we don’t clarify that, the buyers will have doubts.”

“The UPC team’s app is a platform that connects customers with pet care service providers. But it’s not easy for the platform to engage in follow-up services and transactions. So, what’s the core competitiveness of this app, and how does it protect its service and retain customers?”

Thanks to the professionals’ practical suggestions, the students refined their plans and made them more feasible.

"Friction"

Of course, the closer a dream comes to being a reality, the easier it is to experience friction. For projects that want to run smoothly, while also paying attention to social welfare and giving back to society, they may face an endless upward spiral…

The UPC team’s first step was to attract 20 pet owners to pay for their service. Team members printed out brochures and handed them out along the streets, at the entrances of office buildings, and around shops in Sanlitun. After some time, they sadly discovered that their efforts weren’t working. Why? 

To understand this, Summer He invited a pet shop owner to offer advice and insight—it turned out that randomly searching for customers wouldn’t help the students reach their target demographic.

The HUE team also experienced ups and downs in creating a website. “Creating a website is unexpectedly difficult and troublesome. We spent a lot of time getting familiar with the process before actually doing it,” said David Liu, a Grade 11 member of the HUE team.

The Xerces Blue team enriched their project introduction, received their first order worth 50,000 yuan, and completed 50 percent of their objective: to receive two orders. The UPC team, guided by instructors, reviewed and revised their original ideas. The HUE team, on the other hand, upgraded the original concept of “responsible consumption” and registered their own website.

“The Inno-Sprint program gives students a chance to face real challenges and apply the business skills and knowledge they learned from SI Program. The guidance and suggestions from instructors and professionals also made them realize that implementing ideas requires much more knowledge and ability than they imagine,” said Summer He. “When they finish this social venture capstone project, they also finish the IB CAS program.”

During the summer holiday, students also completed the Inno-Ready internship program.

Seven rising Grade 11 Daystar students participated in internships based on their own interests and future career paths at the following organizations: the United Foundation for China’s Health, Hatsune restaurant, Finmer, Bureau of Statistics of Xicheng District of Beijing, Beijing Radio & Television Station (BRTV), HZS architecture firm, and Daystar ELC summer camp.

Supported by mentors and host organization coordinators, students developed a variety of skills including marketing, data analysis, graphic design, video editing, architectural design, and many more!

"This summer I participated in an internship in BRTV. There are many different interviews and experiences that are really challenging for me. So for example, I need to arrive at a hutong roof top, climbing up a roof top at 6am in the morning." said Zimo Zhuang, G11 student.

"I’ve actually gotten to meet the CEO, Alan, and we had this one-on-one meeting where basically he was able to give me some specific details of how he was started as an entrepreneur. And then I would ask him some questions on how I could basically learn from him. That has really enlightened me, as I feel like now I know a little more about doing business." G11 student Alvin Wang, who was intern at the restaurant Hatsune.

After completing such an exciting 2 to 4 week internship program, what did students learn and master? On September 27, the interns will share some of their experiences and product designs.

We will livestream the internship celebration via the Daystar WeChat Video Channel. Please follow our official account!

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