December 2024. A few of us sitting around with a blank Google Doc and one question: what if student ideas actually got implemented instead of forgotten?
Most programs we'd seen had the same pattern — students show up, compete, win a prize, disappear. The ideas never went anywhere. We wanted to build something different.
So we started. Just 3–4 of us. No template, no playbook. Four months of late nights, endless drafts, arguing over every detail — the vision, the structure, the problem statement, who the judges should be, what "impact" actually means.
I worked for free. I even spent my own money on transport. That's not a humble brag — it's just what it cost to care about something enough to see it through.
The scariest moment? Recruitment.
We put out the application and just... waited. The deadline was coming and we genuinely didn't know if anyone would join. Me and the team were terrified that nobody would show up.
"The deadline was coming and we genuinely didn't know if anyone would join."
Then on the last day, students started applying. A lot of them. That fear turned into something else entirely.
On pitch day, ~55 students showed up. They tackled one real problem: children in rural Cambodia with limited access to technology.
And then the winning teams actually implemented their ideas. Not one. Not two. Three teams. Three rural schools.
"I can't believe my first project actually made an impact."
— What I was thinking when implementation finished.
I met so many incredible people through this. People I never would have crossed paths with otherwise.
It started with a Google Doc and a fear that nobody would care. Turns out, people just needed someone to build the room first.