Student Spotlights

On their home university campuses, KGSP students take advantage of many fun and educational activities to explore the intersection of their academic and personal interests. Engagement with activities outside the classroom is highly encouraged by the KGSP, as such opportunities allow students to expand their knowledge, broaden their social network, and develop their professional business acumen; qualities that will benefit and enrich their development both as students and as future leaders. 

Student Spotlight: Nadeem Wali

                Nadeem Wali, a junior majoring in Civil Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, recently participated in the Berkeley Method of Entrepreneurship Bootcamp (BMoE).  Hosted by UC Berkeley Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology (SCET), the BMoE offers students the chance to develop entrepreneurial skills through intensive workshops, collaborative teambuilding brainstorming sessions, and mentorship meetings with SCET faculty and Silicon Valley industry experts. 

This summer, BMoE also included a student competition for most innovative idea related to entrepreneurship and product creation. Nadeem and his team developed an idea to create a technology-integrated climbing helmet: researching its market value, potential for growth, cost of production, and distribution, and even formulating a physical prototype.  Impressively, judges comprised of SCET faculty and representatives from Apple, Twitter, and Visa, awarded Nadeem’s team first place out of 13 teams.  

“The Berkeley Method of Entrepreneurship Bootcamp pushed me to grow both academically and personally, and helped me get to know and develop my entrepreneurial self," said Nadeem. He noted that working under the supervision of many skilled mentors provided him with an experience of what it is to work in the competitive environment of new venture creation.

Nadeem begins this fall semester with acquired skills that will undoubtedly contribute to his undergraduate studies, bringing forth the innovation and adaptability innate with the entrepreneurial spirit encouraged by the KGSP.  He looks forward to further collaboration with his teammates on their project design, and one day having their prototype become a reality.