For my summer fellowship, I have had the privilege of working with a small team of incredibly passionate and talented individuals at Puberry. While my primary role was app development, I feel as though I have been fully immersed in a meaningful project that has fundamentally shaped how I will approach my future endeavors.

Our focus is driving social change in the areas of sexual education and mental health for young students. Given that the US has yet to mandate a comprehensive sexual health education program for students, our new curriculum, verified by medical professionals, is absolutely essential for the growth of the next generation. By making this learning process fully accessible through a gamified, Duolingo-like application, we've achieved a 61 percent increase in health test scores and information retention, as well as a 90 percent increase in students’ confidence and comfort in discussing health and puberty topics with their peers.

I wouldn't describe my experience merely as an “internship,” but rather as an immersive project in which I felt fully integrated and genuinely interested. By contributing to various aspects of developing such an impressive vision, I truly believe I am making a tangible impact toward a safer and more informed future for young people regarding these critical topics. I am most excited to continue being a part of the growth of this software. From the numerous mentors, investors, and developers I’ve interacted with during this period, I've received overwhelmingly positive feedback and impressed reactions, further strengthening my belief in the potential of our vision to benefit future generations.

Throughout my project, I utilized many skills I previously developed while also tackling new software and languages. Most importantly, the skills of debugging and problem-solving, which I developed over my first two years as a computer science major, played a crucial role in this experience. I made significant progress in building the front end and user interface of our web app, which required a comprehensive understanding of my tasks, and an in-depth consideration of potential issues related to component placement, layout, and styling. I overcame these challenges with thorough planning before developing each page or feature. The project development aspect of my major was immensely helpful in designing and building the entire teacher portal. My ability to plan and implement such a system was only possible due to the experience of failing and rebuilding software in previous projects and coursework.

Moving forward, the skills I have gained in learning and exploring new software and technologies have greatly aided me in integrating our backend CMS with our web app. This skillset was developed at Columbia, where the expectation and responsibility to acquire new skills have been constant in my classes. I tackled numerous new technologies, such as setting up Drupal linked with a PostgreSQL database and AWS, using tools like Docker. This was a project my co-worker and I worked on from scratch, learning and implementing the entire process successfully. This accomplishment is one of the main personal highlights I will carry forward.

Some of the challenges I faced at Puberry turned out to be positive experiences that personalized and enhanced my own project path. Working in a small team, we were bound to encounter tasks that were new to us, the most notable being the integration of a CMS. However, this challenge became one of the key highlights of my experience. By tackling this problem alongside my coworkers, I developed crucial problem-solving and team-working skills that will serve me well in my future professional career. I also learned a great deal about team dynamics and best practices when working in a small team with limited resources but ambitious goals. These skills will undoubtedly help me in my personal business ventures. While developing and building this brand with my team, we encountered communication challenges, navigated differences in skillsets, and dealt with scheduling conflicts.

The most important lesson I learned was the usefulness of a clear leader who possesses a calculated, transparent, and task-oriented approach. Demi, our founder, is a master at building interpersonal relationships within the team. She has a unique and powerful ability to build a confident, fast-adapting group. I have learned a lot from her ability to react quickly and precisely to a rapidly changing environment and her skill of listening to her team’s opinions, ideas, and visions. For me, she is a role model for approaching challenges and difficulties in such projects.

My goal was to build an app, but I accomplished and learned so much more. I became integrated into an entire brand, a vision, and a team. When considering an internship, I typically approach it with an open-ended mindset, aiming to learn about the processes, skills, and techniques required for the role. However, at Puberry, I was pushed to achieve new goals, enhance my skills, build new attributes for my professional skill set, and take responsibility by applying my abilities to create something real and effective. This experience is more than just an internship; it is an entire project that I don’t plan on leaving soon.

To start and develop a project like Puberry, we must be extremely adaptable to a rapidly changing landscape as we constantly encounter challenges and obstacles. My experience has opened my eyes to the world of building a startup in this way. I have gained far more insight than I could have ever imagined, with a significant takeaway being the development of my passion, drive, and ambition to make real social change in the future, both with Puberry and in my own ventures.

I am incredibly happy and satisfied with my choice to tackle such a challenge at Puberry this summer. The lessons learned and challenges overcome will certainly take me far in my future professional, social, and entrepreneurial endeavors.