Be Your Own Boss was one of the more recent additions to this Portsmouth, VA ninth grader’s jam-packed schedule, but Isaiah Sarrazola didn’t stop there. He’s already using the experience and skills he learned in Future Founders’ first-ever national high school internship this winter to plan his next move.
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Isaiah Sarrazola likes to stay busy.
Between a slew of honors classes, hours of homework, competitive robotics, and JROTC, he’s gotten used to thinking ahead, managing his time, and staying on the lookout for the next opportunity to challenge himself. He sees each new endeavor and skill as necessary preparation for his ultimate goal of becoming a world-renowned biomechanical engineer and making cutting-edge prosthetic devices more affordable for marginalized populations who may not have access to high-quality medical care and technology.
Also: he’s in ninth grade.
“I’m someone who likes to take on a lot at once,” he says, smiling broadly. “For some people, it might feel really overwhelming, but for me it’s just normal.”
When Isaiah’s guidance counselor forwarded him the application for Future Founders’ national Be Your Own Boss internship, he jumped at the chance to add another set of skills to his ever-expanding toolkit.
He’d participated in programs with structures like Future Founders’ in the past—group project-based camps exploring STEM topics, marine biology, chemistry, computer science—but when it came to entrepreneurship, he felt he had much more to learn.
“I’d always wanted to own my own business, but I never knew where to start,” reflects Isaiah. He credits Be Your Own Boss with showing him that, in addition to the suite of technical skills he’d developed through his years of school, robotics, and extracurricular activities, he also needed to understand business. He needed to think like an entrepreneur in order to make the future he’d always envisioned a reality.
“This program helped me realize that I needed to find a target customer, I need to make sure I’m solving a problem that people actually need solved, that I’m creating a product that people actually want before spending all the money to make it, advertise it, and all that.”
According to Isaiah, the Future Founders staff and his entrepreneurial colleagues from around the country made Be Your Own Boss an unforgettable learning experience that started serving him well even before it was over.
“Be Your Own Boss has definitely helped me become a lot more confident in myself and my ability to talk with, and in front of, other people,” he notes. During the last week of the program, “I did a presentation for Black History Month for my JROTC company, and I definitely felt more comfortable and confident speaking in front of them than if I hadn’t done this internship.”
Between his newfound sense of confidence and business acumen, Isaiah left Be Your Own Boss feeling more ready than ever to take control of his future. And so he did.
“After joining Future Founders, I definitely see myself as an entrepreneur. In just 4 weeks I came out having learned a LOT of entrepreneurial skills and applying what I learned to my real life. That confidence I keep talking about? That led me to apply for a job. And guess what? I got it!”
Again—ninth grade.
Now, Isaiah can proudly add ‘working part-time at a frozen custard shop to save money for college’ to his ever-growing list of scholastic and extracurricular pursuits.
All in all, Isaiah says, the busy schedule is worth it. The way he sees it, each hour he spends programming a robot, reading a textbook, conducting customer discovery, speaking in public, and, yes, scooping frozen custard, is an hour he spends working to create the life he wants for himself. Albeit only one step along his meticulously scheduled path, Isaiah’s time with Future Founders has felt uniquely valuable.
“I was so glad to be a part of the first-ever national cohort of Be Your Own Boss. I can’t wait to see the people who eventually become the first-ever GLOBAL cohort!”
Future Founders is currently accepting applications for our Chicago-based Spring and Summer 2023 cohorts of Be Your Own Boss. Click here to learn more or apply.
If you’re interested in applying for our next national cohort of Be Your Own Boss, click here to fill out our interest form.
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