In fall, 2014, four students at High School South saw a growing interest among students in engineering and entrepreneurship, and shortage of course offerings to meet that demand. The result: the Central Jersey Student Innovators Society, or CJSIA. The organization holds events and seminars to provide students with resources on how to pursue a career in engineering or business. CJSIA’s next event, on Saturday, February 20, at Princeton University’s Friend Center, features entrepreneur Vaidhy Murti, the co-founder and CEO of the social media app Friendsy.
The organization was founded and is run by Rishiraj Tripathy, Jaidev Phadke, Zaibo Wang, and Eric Li. All four are currently seniors at High School South and live in Plainsboro.
The four have diverse interests and had different inspirations for starting the CJSIA. Tripathy, the son of a software salesman and a homemaker, also participates in basketball and Model UN and is passionate about scientific research. He helped start the CJSIA to pursue his passions at the intersections of engineering and entrepreneurship.
Li, whose parents work at Bristol-Myers Squibb, helped start the CJSIA to help award and nurture the ability for young students to be innovative and creative. He also plays frisbee and oboe and loves math for its ability to model real world phenomena.
Phadke, a participant in Model UN and orchestra, saw CJSIA as a continuation of his work with another nonprofit organization he helped found called Interactive Public Speaking, which provides free public speaking classes to kids in the community. His mother works in the healthcare industry and his father is a software salesman.
Wang, the son of two chemists, approached CJSIA almost as a business venture, as he “realized there existed a niche of entrepreneurial and engineering education not filled in our community, so we attempted to create an organization that could support individuals interested in those topics.” Wang also does cross country, Science Olympiad, Model UN, and orchestra.
The students founded the organization after taking classes and meeting at the Princeton Education Network. “It started with (as all great things do in WW-P) an SAT course. The four of us had taken classes together through the Princeton Education Network, and out of that grew an understanding for a need in our community; as we were preparing for the college process, we realized that there are many kids interested in engineering/business,” Tripathy said.
“However, the coursework that we have at our high school does not adequately prepare kids for those majors in college. By teaching interpersonal presentation skills and connecting students with mentor figures, we hoped to give both ourselves and our peers a jumpstart and an insight into what might lie ahead in college and beyond,” he continued.
Li also credits the connections from the school and community in founding and running the CJSIA. “As a sophomore in high school, I distinctly remember staying after school in the winter to walk around and drop in on all the clubs that were going on. Though I never joined any of them, I have a pretty strong understanding of the majority of clubs in our school, ranging from Red Cross and Chinese Club, to Academic Decathalon and Waksman.
“Subsequently, this wide range of connections and influence was very helpful in publicity. This combined with the other three founders’ connections in Model UN and the orchestra helped a lot in our initial expansion of the organization. In addition to that, we all have wide ranging connections through our past teachers and family members,” Li said.
“My sister has contributed quite a bit to helping us find speakers and venues as a graduate of Princeton University while our connections with Mrs. Debra Cohen from Thomas R. Grover Middle School and various Model UN members from High School North helped to expand our reach,” he continued.
The founders use the CJSIA to give back to the community by keeping all events free. “The focus of the CJSIA is to improve the community and give students the opportunity to learn and improve themselves, not for our own personal gain,” Li said.
Since its inception, the CJSIA has held various events about public speaking, entrepreneurship, and the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) field. “We’ve held multiple Presentational Skills Development (PSD) sessions, which are public speaking courses through the lenses of business and engineering, teaching students to give engaging pitches about research and entrepreneurial ventures from which they can take lessons both into the classroom and out into the real world.
“Further, we’ve brought in such speakers as Rutgers BME (Biomedical Engineering) Chair Noshir Langrana, cosmonaut Greg Olsen, and venture capitalist Chris Kuenne, among others, to talk to students about their own careers and journeys in their respective professions. This has helped students form their own opinions on these fields and learn about what it means to be an engineer or a businessman,” Tripathy said.
“We’ve also held our first annual Innovation Contest (in June, 2015), which is a Shark Tank-esque contest where students present business ideas to professionals, vying for a small cash prize,” he continued.
Since the inception of the CJSIA, both the founders and the organization have grown through experience. “We have gone a long way since four guys at Rishi’s dining table with an idea,” Wang noted.
Along with an expanded board and increased number of student members from around the region, the founders have also learned how to host an event. “From an organizational standpoint, we have definitely learned the nuances of hosting an event in publicizing, venue planning, and communicating with the speakers. At our first seminar with Dr. Mung Chiang, I just remember thinking, ‘Wow I can’t believe this is actually working, we are actually doing it,’” Wang said.
“We have also furthered our seminars from just entrepreneurial to now including the STEM fields. Professors have interesting things to say, and students are interested in what those professors have to say. We just connected the two. Public speaking classes and seminars are largely self-directed. The students have to take initiative and time out of their busy lives to attend. Our biggest hope is that we can ignite that spark of interest that gives students the passion to further their studies,” he continued.
The February 20 seminar will feature Vaidhy Murti of Friendsy, a match-making app for college students. “Mr. Murti, a recent Princeton graduate, was heavily involved with the coding and computer science aspects of development as well as the business portion of the startup. Mr. Murti has a strong understanding of how to make it through the trials of the entrepreneurship process, and has a lot of insights to offer people interested in entrepreneurship or the complexities of social media apps,” Phadke said.
“We hope not only students, but also anyone interested in learning about startup culture joins us at our upcoming talk,” Phadke said.
Vaidhy Murti, Central Jersey Student Innovators Society, Friend Center, Princeton University. Saturday, February 20, 2 to 4 p.m. Free. www.cjsia.org or www.facebook.com/CJStudentInnovators.
Siddharth Muchhal is a junior at High School South.
