November 2014 - The Classic Magazine

VOL.1 NO. 2

THE CODE TO SUCCESSHow Harrisites helped develop an award-winning app that connectshigh school students to jobspage 12

Sponsored by Kweller Prep

2 Sponsored by Kweller Prep

Contents

Cover story: learn the story of the students be-hind OPUS, an award-winning app. See what the app is all about and what makes it something larger than a button you can tap on a phone.Pages 12-15

The school within a school: introducing P.S. 255, a school that occupies room 412 and strives to teach students who have been diagnosed with autism. Pages 4-7

Major anxiety, major pains: a look at student planning for future careers, and whether or not it’s wise to go into college knowing exactly what to major in.Pages 8-11

CREATED BY THE STUDENTS OF MULTIME-DIA JOURNALISM

EST.1984

Nicole Barros, Mahirah Billah, Asmaaul Chowdhury, Sarah Ebbrecht, Jamie Fung, Stephanie Geier, Durell Gill,

Stanley Harcharan, Abinash Kaur, Mehr Kaur, Rebecca Kwon, Jason Lalljee,

Nina Leeds, Alexa Luciano, Angelika Narewski, Catherine Ng, Fariha Nizam,

Emma Noblesara, Zachariah Ooi, Dimitri Perdik, Nijah Phills, Abygail

Rampersad, Ekta Rana, Erin Robinson, Rebecca Shi, Daniel Szewczyk, Kasey

Wagner, Jennifer Walsh, Stephanie Yeh, and Woo Jung Yi

Advisor: Brian Sweeney

The Classic is an open forum for the ex-pression of student views. The opinions expressed therein should not be taken to represent those of the administration or faculty, or of the student body as a whole.

We welcome letters to the editor.Townsend Harris High School

149-11 Melbourne Avenue Flushing, NY 11367

[email protected]

The Classic reserves the right to edit letters for clarity and concision.

The Classic

3The Classic Magazine · November 2014

The Classic

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Harrisites travel to and from the fourth floor on a daily basis, hurrying to make it to their His-tory or English class. If on their way to class, students spare a glance into the rooms on the

fourth floor, they notice that room 412 is very different from the others. It is home to an entirely independent school: P.S. 255.

Although most students associate the abbrevia-tion “P.S.” with the elementary schools located in New York City, P.S. 255 is a unique school that strives to educate students diag-nosed with autism.

Put simply, autism is a devel-opmental brain disorder charac-terized by difficulties in commu-nication, thinking abilities, social interaction, responses to sensory information, and/or poor motor skills.

Just as students at THHS are focused on finishing col-laterals and studying for several tests per week, the stu-dents of P.S. 255 work diligently to improve their com-munication, vocational, social, self-management, and community living skills.

P.S. 255 has been a part of the THHS community since 1996, right after the new building opened up. The first class from P.S. 255 started out as six students and one teacher, with the students between the ages of 17-21. Considering the more individualized system of learning that the students required, P.S. 255 only occupied one room.

Kathy Hardy, a teacher of P.S. 255 for almost 15 years, discussed class size, saying: “The class now should be twelve stu-dents, but as of now it is sixteen students, much too many for the two teachers that we have.”

The ratio of students to teach-ers at P.S. 255 has become 8:1:1, a ratio that makes it difficult for the teachers to give individual atten-

tion to each of the students. Despite this, P.S. 255 tries to grant each and every

student the best of opportunities, with its primary goal being for the students to “achieve their maximum inde-pendence.”

One specific aspect of this goal involves the nature of P.S. 255’s location. Room 412 in the THHS building is

P.S. 255 poses for a class picture. Photo by Jamie Fung.

The School within a School: P.S. 255 and THHS


“Part of the point of having

locations within regular pub-

lic schools is to allow integra-

tion with general education.”

By: Fariha Nizam


actually just one “site” of P.S. 255. The other classes are spread out across eight different sites in Queens. As the website for P.S. 255 explains, part of the point of having locations within regular public schools is to allow inte-gration with general education. With this in mind, the following looks into the history of how P.S. 255 has inte-grated with THHS, while also exploring current areas of integration and considering possible future areas.

*On the THHS-P.S. 255 relationship, Ms. Hardy said, “I

feel like there is a distance. But it seems like every cou-ple of years, a few students have tried reaching out to the class. THHS used to have peer tutoring but that just kinda died out. A couple of years back we had an arts and crafts program with the kids downstairs.”

P.S. 255 teacher Matt Curiale is pleased with the rela-tionship P.S. 255 has with THHS: “We feel really welcome here. I feel that THHS students are very accepting.”

Likewise, Principal Anthony Barbetta is happy to share the school with the P.S. 255 community: “We share space: the gym, the cafeteria, the auditorium. I love the program. They add something to the building. In all the hustling and bustling, I definitely consider them a part of school. Their staff is outstanding.”

Assistant Principal of Organization, Health, and Physical Education Ellen Fee explained the history of events and collaborations that have existed between the two schools in the past.

She said, “In the beginning [students from P.S. 255] just cohabitated and used a room in our school. Over the years we be-came friendly with the staff of the room and collaborated on a few projects.”

She said that several years ago, the school talent show included a student from P.S. 255 who liked to sing.

A few years ago, English teach-er Helen Rizzuto included the students in Project Spirit, a club she advises. Last winter, a talent show hosted by Free the Children also included a student from P.S. 255. In the spring of 2013, the students of P.S. 255 put on a talent show in the auditorium coordinated by P.S. 255 teacher Kenny Henderson, which was open for Harrities to watch.

“[Mr. Kenny] included our students to be stage-hands. Our students did tech, make-up, and costumes, and lighting, ” recalled Ms. Fee. However, Ms. Fee feels that “most of the time, our student body doesn’t

interact with theirs unless someone else initiates.” Although it seems that in the past some students

have put in effort on their own to cre-ate a relationship with P.S. 255, as o f now, no real program exists to connect the two student bodies.

Mr. Barbetta shares a similar opinion about the relationship between students, saying, “There is a mutual respect. There is definitely room for them to be more involved.”

*Aside from a few

minutes in the morn-ing, students of P.S. 255

currently get a chance to interact with THHS

during their gym class. The students of P.S. 255

partake in Physical Education teacher Maria Assante’s sev-enth band aerobics class every day, when there is the most inte-gration between the two schools.

Ms. Assante said, “I spoke with Mr. Eric Silver and we realized that trying to get them involved in a regular physical education class would be good not only for them, but also for THHS stu-dents. They do step aerobics, they stretch, and run half a mile just like we do. They do condi-tioning with my class also.”

Mr. Curiale, who also coaches THHS’s boys soccer and girls flag football teams, pointed out the benefits for both students, saying “Our students are included in the gym class because they get to see real peer relationships and positive modeling. THHS students become more accepting. It’s a great experience for everyone. We hope to continue to be incorporated during gym.”

Shivani Mahabir, a junior in Ms. Assante’s aerobics class, applauds the students of P.S. 255, but feels that

Juan Tuffino practic-es his singing skills.Photo by Jamie Fung.


there is still room for further interactions within the gym class. She said, “A lot of [Harrisites] don’t really talk to them. They sort of keep to themselves. We don’t talk to them unless they need help.”

Cory Campbell, a student of P.S. 255, shares his ex-periences in aerobics. He says, “Sometimes we are in Ms. Assante’s class. We do step aerobics Tuesday and Thurs-day. It’s a fun exercise. Ms. As-sante is nice. We do steps with them. When they do something wrong I help them. When I do something wrong they help me.”

Ms. Assante enjoys the in-tegration, saying, “They are very energetic, enthusiastic and sweet. And they are a lot of fun. They try so hard and it’s very admira-ble. I’m having a good time having them in the room and I hope they have a good time be-ing in my class. It can be a great learning experience for everyone. It benefits everyone. We call them the ‘fourth floor superstars’ in my class.”

*Despite being in the same building with the P.S. 255

community all day, much of the student body knows lit-tle about the students of P.S. 255.

Junior Sarah DeFilippo says, “The only thing I know about the students in room 412 is that they are all di-agnosed with autism. From what I’ve heard they’re awe-some kids, but they and the Townsend student body don’t really seem to have much opportunity to get to

know each other. “It’s not common knowledge at all. I know this only because my good

friend spends a lot of time with them and, to my knowledge, is the only student in the school that does so.”

Karolina Grodzki, freshman at THHS, recalled, “In our [mid-dle] school there was an entire

floor dedicated to special edu-cation. We would share the gym.

They used to hug us whenever they saw us and we used to help out on their

floor. “All I know [about P.S. 255] is that they are in the

building, and I think they have a different bell schedule.”Although most students are unaware of P.S. 255,

there are some students who have been able to share a few experiences with the students of 255.

Shamilah Faria says, “I see them in the cafeteria zero or first band for breakfast. They walk laps around the ta-bles and they also sing and dance.

“When everyone leaves, they come in. I don’t know

“There is a mutual respect.

There is definitely room for them to

be more in-volved.”

Ms. Erica helps students with their schoolwork. Photo by Rebecca Shi.


what they’re working on, but I hope it’s a show that we can see. They’re very friendly. When I’m sitting in the caf-eteria, and they are walking laps around the cafeteria, they compliment me.”

Members of both the THHS and P.S. 255 communities feel that there is room for more integration and hope to explore more opportunities for it in the future.

Mr. Curiale added that during lunchtime it would be nice if the students could spend more time together.

Most students seem to agree that collaborative events would help to strengthen the bond between the student bodies.

Shamilah agrees with Mr. Curiale, saying, “We should integrate during breakfast and lunch because that’s when most of the socializing happens.”

Sarah proposed numerous courses of action: “First, by at least enlightening students about who the kids in 412 are, and in the long run maybe making after-school activities like SING, FON, and the school play open to everyone in the building.”

Chelsea Nicholas, junior, suggests, “We should have a band or a class designed to interact with them more.”

Diamond Moody, senior, proposed mixed sports teams as a chance for integration.

Shivani brought up the idea of perhaps including P.S.

255 not only during in-school activities, but also out of school gatherings. She said, “I think they shouldn’t be isolated. They should come on trips with us if we have them at school.”

Students of P.S. 255 also wish there were more chanc-es to integrate with the THHS community.

Anthony Logada, a graduate of P.S. 255, stresses that when he was at THHS he wanted to feel equal to the students attending the school.

He said, “It should be fair to all of us. We’re human beings, [and] that’s all [that] matters.”

Cory said, “I always wanted to have class with [THHS students]. I want to do activities and games with them. I wish I could talk to them.”

Vito agreed, saying, “[Harrisites] are nice to me. All of them. I wish they could play games with me. I wish I could be with Townsend Harris students.”

Although it is clear that there are some factors that make integration difficult, it is not impossible.

Sarah said, “I think they’re at a huge disadvantage in terms of numbers because they are a single class in a school of over a thousand students, but if anything could be done to strengthen the relationship it can be nothing but beneficial to all involved.”

Mr. Kenny works with students on practicing their singing and dancing. Photo by Rebecca Shi.


TO DECLARETO DECLARE:

or not

a major problem In the world of college applications, two groups

of students appear to dominate.There are those who, for instance, have aspired

to be doctors since their childhood days of using plastic stethoscopes and syringes to cure various illnesses brought upon their stuffed animals. Thus, when answering the “Career Interest” portion of the Common App, they hastily make a beeline for a career they have been set on for years, eager to take the first big step in making their longtime dreams a reality.

Yet, there are others who longingly watch from the sidelines, wishing they had the same sense of purpose stored for the future. These students, who have yet to discover where their passions lie, hesi-tantly select the dreaded “undecided” option.

While there are drawbacks to both choosing

a major in high school and remaining undecided when applying to certain colleges, according to various members of the Townsend Harris commu-nity, all students should turn out fine in the end provided that they maintain an open mind and a passion for learning.

Choosing a major early shows a sense of pur-pose to colleges and allows you to begin your studies with classes relating to your major in order to get the most out of your four years.

Assistant Principal of Guidance Veronica York explained the reasoning behind having this choice in high school: “Certain majors take a longer period of time to complete and there are students who are absolutely positive of what they want and know what they’ve wanted since they were three...that person should declare a major.”

“Some majors have certain guidelines to fol-low once entering as a freshman,” added Guidance Counselor Justine Singer.

THE

by Kasey Wagner


or not

Studies have shown that three factors seem to influence students most when deciding a major: future financial stability, passion for a particular subject, and familial influence.

“[Students’] knowledge of how much money is a lot of money is something that they’re learning and there is some pressure from home and from themselves to really be able to pick a career where [they] can sustain a certain level of life-style,” explained Ms. York.

Senior Robert Davydov plans on majoring in business, saying, “At the end of the day, it’s about being able to support yourself and your family.”

Freshman Carolina Vargas has specifically wanted to pursue a law career in medical malpractice for two years.

“There’s always going to be a sit-uation where a doctor is accused of doing something wrong so there’s never going to be a chance where you won’t have a job,” she ex-plained.

On the other end of the spec-trum, Mr. Wood encour-ages students to choose a major based on their genu-ine interests rather than income prospects.

“There’s not going to be a specif-ic job that [Philosophy is] preparing you to do, and it’s not good or bad,” said Mr. Wood on his Philosophy

major. “Everybody should major in something that they’re interested in and enjoy, not something that’ll get you a job. If you hate the major you probably won’t like the job either.”

In line with this reasoning, Nicholas Castro ‘14, who attends Columbia University, decided to major in physics as a junior after taking the Regents.

“I was lucky that I realized how much I love it so early, and it has worked out well since then,” he said.

Others’ interest in their majors spurred from the possession of certain talents or traits.

Senior Lamiyah Kamal wants to major in Biochemistry and become a pediatrician. She recalled going through several phases over what career to pursue, but “finally real-ized [she] liked putting people’s needs before [her] own.”

Some students have also been influenced by their culture, sur-rounding expectations, or admira-tion towards a family member’s success.

Freshman Jamie Rosen plans to work in the wholesale gifts in-dustry, which would make her the

fourth generation in her family working in

this areas.“I’ve been

doing it since I

was little, so it’s some-thing I want to pur-sue,”

she said.

Senior Kirandeep

Kaur recently planned to be-

come a doctor mainly because her siblings are

doctors and constantly discuss their jobs around her.

Senior Evan Wang plans to major in engineering due to time spent with his father growing up. He explained, “Ever since I was a kid,

my dad always had these projects such as building a chicken coop, dog house, and an aquaponics system, and I would help him build them. I’ve enjoyed building things ever since I was a kid.”

Most colleges expect students to declare a major by the end of sophomore year, and some students are comfortable with admitting that they’re clueless as to what they wish to pursue.

On the positive side, taking advantage of the variety of classes that a college has to offer can be more beneficial than settling upon a major that you’re unsure about and paying the consequences later on.

Senior Yeju Jang, who is “defi-nitely undecided,” is intimidated by the pressure of choosing a career path in high school and the fact that many students around her are already set on a major.

“It’s intimidating because first of all we’re in high school and all of a sudden they want us to make a career choice,” she expressed. “It’s kind of a jump.”

However, Guidance Counselor Sara Skoda said it’s rare to find a student who is absolutely certain on what they want to major in.

“Often I have students who aren’t sure,” she said. “That’s OK. I like that because then you can explore. You don’t need to know the answer to the rest of your life at this point.”

Other students are undecided, but at least know what general fields they’d like to explore.

Senior Emily Cirulnick wanted to be a doctor since preschool, but this desire ceased when she came to THHS and realized the field was “too much work.” Thus, she is un-decided as well, but at least knows she wants to go into the math and science fields.

However, being undecided in

“You can ex-

plore. You don’t need to know the answer to the rest of your life at

this point.”

THEDECIDED

THEUNDECIDED


high school isn’t necessarily problematic, as many students end up finding their passions in college.

Mr. Wood, for instance, did not realize that a Philosophy major was the right fit for him until his sophomore year at Princeton University after taking some courses in the subject.

Based on his high school experience, this was an unex-pected path for him to take.

“Chemistry was actually my favorite subject in high school,” he said. “I got a five on the AP.”

He concluded, “It’s not like your life’s fate is going to be totally set on what you major in. [A major will] put you in a direction.”

*Regardless of whether they’re decided

on a major or not, many Harrisites already have a plan for how they will pursue, or in some cases dis-cover, their field of interest.

Those who have already decided on a major will thus head into college on surer footing, with many already applying to specialized programs or colleges.

“Knowing what I wanted to major in made it much easier to choose schools I wanted to apply to, be-

cause I knew whether or not they were strong in what I wanted to study,” said Nicholas.

That’s not to say that students set on a major haven’t considered the possibility that their interests

might change in college. Many Harrisites interested in the medical field, for example, are apply-

ing to the Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education at the City

College of New York, which is a highly selective seven-year medical program.

Lamiyah will be one of these applicants. The precise specialization of

this program and the number of years students spend in it

makes it seem as if they have no choice but to follow through with a

decision made years ago.Lamiyah, however, isn’t concerned

about losing interest and backing out of her ma-jor, saying that while she has “fleeting moments” of wanting to pursue different careers, “it always comes back to helping little kids.”

Ms. Singer advises decided students to choose a school that focuses on more than just their selected majors: “You want to select a school that has more than one major that you show interest in. It’s okay if your plan changes in college. ...However, you want

“Knowing what I wanted to major in

made it much easier to choose schools I wanted

to apply to.”

With increasing pressure to decide upon college majors before officially enrolling in a college, students spend a great deal of time considering their options during high school.


to leave your options open to prevent a transfer of schools or a delay in graduation down the line be-cause the school you attend does not offer your new major.”

Other seniors have more flexible plans going into college.

Though Kirandeep is certain that she wants to be a doctor, she does have a backup plan in case this doesn’t work out—she plans to get a Master of Busi-ness Administration (MBA) in addition to a Doctor of Medicine (MD).

Senior Shamilah Faria decided to major in envi-ronmental engineering when she watched the “eye-opening” documentary Earth 2100 in 2009, which showed the worst case scenarios that would occur if humans stopped caring about the Earth. She acknowl-edged that there could be changes along the way as she pursues this major and has a backup plan in case.

Since she doesn’t know for sure whether she is “good with engineering,” if she turns out to be bad at it, she will instead major in environmental science. If this doesn’t turn out well, she plans to study environ-mental law.

Those who are undecided will inevitably have a less definite route going into college and must wan-der around a bit before halting at a final decision.

“A plan is always good but to have a flexible plan and keeping an open mind is even better,” said Ms. Singer.

Yeju said she doesn’t have a plan regarding what classes to take in college, saying, “I know my strengths and weaknesses. I’m probably gonna pick a major in a subject I excel at.”

For these students, the Guidance Department of-fers words of wisdom.

“If you are not sure what major you are interested in...then it is imperative to look into colleges with a variety of majors,” said Ms. Singer. “Very often col-lege students switch majors at least once throughout their undergraduate experience.”

For undecided majors, Ms. Skoda also advises taking advantage of a college’s core curriculum to explore what fields students are interested in.

“[A] core curriculum tackles different areas,” she explained.

In the end, a combination of diligence and open-mindedness should put students in a position where they feel confident in declaring a major.

In a video posted online by the College Board, Mary Nucciarone, the Associate Director of Financial Aid at the University of Notre Dame, reassuringly stated, “Honestly, I think majors find students. I think students think they find a major, but I really think that the major finds the student if they leave themselves open to it.”

Over 300 seniors responded to our poll on major decisions (nearly 100% of the class). The above chart shows the major prefer-ences of students who have settled upon a major already.

Class of 2015: Are you certain of what you want to major in?

Those who are “not yet committed” have a strong idea of what they want to major in, but have not

made a final decision.


Smart phones have become so common that it is nearly impossible to find a teenager with-out one in hand, tapping away at apps. Though many teens use apps to their benefit, not many

are aware of the extensive coding and entrepreneur-ship that go into producing these apps.

Seniors Ibnat Iqbal and Junwoo Shin, however, are exceptions. Along with three other students from differ-ent schools, Adrian Gonzalez, Samson

Leung, and Amal Tashmatov, they created an app called “OPUS” as part of the New York City Generation Tech program and won the organization’s in-house competi-tion. But the team didn’t stop there--along with $5000 they were also awarded a meeting with a venture capi-talist to discuss potential future funding for their app.

Here’s a look at the process that went into creating the app and where the OPUS team is at now.

THE IDEA“The biggest challenge was getting our idea solidi-

fied,” said Ibnat. Latin for work, ‘OPUS’ is an app that aims to con-

nect high school students with local businesses that offer professional career opportunities in the form of short-term employment. The app’s goal is to provide job opportunities to students to allow them to build a professional foundation for future careers while simul-taneously offering businesses an untapped source of employment.

One reason this step was challenging was with the millions of apps already out there, it was difficult to come up with an original idea.

Junwoo added, “We learned that if you think it’s a good idea, it’s probably already out there.”

So for several days the team brainstormed and argued over ideas until they finally arrived at a con-sensus.

The result? OPUS.Junwoo explained his reasoning behind choos-

ing to create OPUS.“As a high school student, I lack experience

and knowledge of the many careers out there,” he said. “Due to the lack of those things, I am not able to make an informed job choice, or even start gearing my college major towards a future career. The lack of exposure is absolutely ri-diculous. The majority of high school students work a summer job that they probably will not be doing when they grow up. We wanted to change that, because after all we had been

Users of the app can create profiles. Image by

Woo Jung Yi

TECH IT OUTHOW THHS STUDENTS CREATED AN AWARD-WINNING APP

BY MEHR KAUR


[email protected]


there ourselves before coming to Gen-Tech.”

MAKING THE APP“Coding may seem like just press-

ing a couple buttons and making stuff work like magic, but it’s not,” said Ib-nat. “Coding is incredibly tedious and it was difficult creating an app be-cause none of us have ever made one before.”

For two weeks during the summer, Ibnat and Junwoo attended a boot camp session where they learned the basics of coding and entrepreneur-ship. After that, the team went to Long Island University once a week, where they conducted meetings and worked on creating their app. It was during these meetings that the OPUS team went through the various steps to bring the app to life.

OPUS is a “hybrid” app, meaning it is a cross between a “web app” and “pure app.” The two types of apps re-quire different codes, with web apps having fewer func-tions than pure apps.

To make their app, the OPUS team started by writing out the website code, which was a mixture of HTML, CSS and JavaScript. The three are responsible for the struc-ture, information display, and function. After finishing the initial website code, the developers plugged the website code into a translator that would convert it into native app code.

After the native app code is generated, a copy of the app is loaded onto a phone for testing. This is generally when the developers look for any errors with the actual app.

“If it doesn’t work out, you keep experimenting,” said Junwoo. “The minor obstacles will often set you back a couple of hours as you try to fix it.”

Upon reviewing the app, the de-velopers input their digital signa-ture, which confirms their owner-ship of the app.

After weeks of coding, tweaking, and reviewing, the OPUS team was ready for the final competition.

Of course, they weren’t alone in their endeavors, and received help from adult mentors who currently work in the technology industry. One of the team’s mentors was

Sam Bauch, who used to work with the public relations firm VaynerMedia and currently owns his own company. Mr. Bauch explained that his role was not only to motivate and guide students, but to help them “learn problem solving approaches for when they got stuck with a tricky piece of code.”

Mr. Bauch had nothing but praise for the two seniors when discussing the work they put into making the app.

“Junwoo blew us all away when he came to one of our session with push notifications working,” he said. “That’s not the easiest thing to build into a mobile app.”

As for Ibnat, Mr. Bauch felt she was essential to the ex-

The OPUS team presents the app in the final round of the competition.


All Photos courtesy of Camille Chan, Ian Ho,

Junwoo Shin, Tahsin Akanda, and Zacha-

riah Ooi


ecution of the process as a whole: “Ibnat’s leadership was truly impressive - wrangling those four boys and pushing them to get their work done and practice their parts of the presentation to the point that it was nearly perfect.”

THE COMPETITIONThe GenTech program is a tech-entrepreneurship pro-

gram that gives first-hand learning and mentorship oppor-tunities to high school students in NYC who meet certain financial requirements. It was piloted in 2012 and was cre-ated through a partnership with Network for Teaching En-trepreneurship and New York City Economic Development Corporation, and received financial support from various other foundations. Junwoo and Ibnat were paid the stand-ard eight dollars per hour, since the summer internship program was under the “Ladders for Leaders” component of the Summer Youth Employment Program.

As part of the GenTech program, students are automati-cally enrolled in the program’s in-house competition: a two-round contest that pits nine teams of students and their ideas against each other.

The team’s efforts allowed them to win the final round of the competition, which was held at the App Nexus build-

ing in Manhattan on September 29. There, they presented their app and showed it in action, which is also called “de-mo-ing the app.”

To determine who makes it to the second and final round, each team must present their app in front of a pan-el of judges from big name companies such as Samsung, Google, and Microsoft.

“We really thought we were going to make it to the finals because my team was extremely passionate about our app and idea. We worked extremely hard all summer and it was extremely difficult to convey two months worth of hard work and pack it into six minutes to the judges,” remarked Ibnat. Unlike the first round, there were three times the amount of judges with winners getting $5,000 and a meeting with a venture capitalist to discuss further funding of their app.

“So at the end of the day I think OPUS is a business sup-ported by an app, not an app in search of business, and that’s what impressed the judges so much,” said Mr. Bauch.

Junwoo noted the exhilaration the team felt after win-ning: “It felt like I could do anything. That night, everything was possible.”

But creating an app and winning the GenTech competi-tion was not the end for OPUS.

A display explains the functions of OPUS.

Junwoo goes over how the OPUS app functions.



NEXT STEPSDespite the conclusion of the competition, the OPUS

team has plenty more to do. The team recently met with a lawyer to help organize

certain legal issues that may arise before officially put-ting the app on the app store. The team hopes to eventu-ally register OPUS as a corporation and establish legal rights to their business.

“Technically yes, I can choose to launch the app right now, but it’d be pointless since our business isn’t fully developed, nor is our website,” said Junwoo. “It takes a tremendous amount of time, but we hope to push the ap-plication out to Google Play by next year.”

The team has also arranged to meet with Union Square Ven-tures partner Andy Weisman. Lo-cated in NYC, Union Square Ventures, a firm that provides money to start-up businesses, manages one billion dollars across six funds

On the technological side of matters, the OPUS team is working on taking the app to a whole other level.

“We’re scrapping the original model and remaking it from scratch,” said Junwoo. This time, the team plans to

use native app code, which affords more features in the app than website code does.

Although the creation of OPUS was inspired by a com-petition, it has proved to have a bright future as its own business.

“The students had already done a lot of work in terms of developing customer relationships and had vali-

dated the idea that businesses would pay for this service,” said Mr. Bauch.

Both Ibnat and Junwoo agree that this approximately two-month long

journey was a life-altering experi-ence that solidified their passion for coding.

Ibnat said that as a result of the experience, she plans to major in computer science

and possibly minor in business “because this program has made

[her] fall in love with both.”“This program gave me a sense of

confidence that I did not have prior,” she added. “Before this program started I knew I

wanted to go in the field of technology but I had no idea where to start. Gen Tech provided a perfect founda-tion by giving all the students the resources to learn how to code and start a business.”

“It felt like I could do anything.

That night, everything was possible.”

The OPUS team poses after winning Demo Night.



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Produced by the Photography Staff of The Classic

Documents

November 2014 - The Classic Magazine