STARTup SOMETHING to get ‘littles’ going on tech careers in a big way

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Pittsburgh (BBBS) has long connected “littles,” many of whom come from low-income, single-parent families missing a strong guardian for the child, with “bigs” who are willing to act as that older mentor. The organization’s motto is “Start Something,” which is why “STARTup SOMETHING” seemed like a great title for a new BBBS program that aims to introduce littles to entrepreneurship, technology careers and more.

“Both a startup and our littles are at the same place in the life cycle,” says Stephanie Adamczyk, executive operations manager for BBBS. “Both are budding and both rely on mentorship to thrive and succeed.”

The new program “exposes our littles to a workforce they may never have been exposed to,” Adamczyk notes. And, like BBBS as a whole, it also teaches resiliency, “going on and finding something new,” she says — the idea that in this economy people are more often creating their own jobs.

Local tech incubators IdeaFoundry and ThrillMill are already on board as partners for the program, which will launch at the end of this summer. BBBS envisions six littles and their bigs joining for each STARTup session. First, an entrepreneur will meet with the group to describe his or her background and ideas, inspiring the kids. Next, the kids will be able to engage in a hands-on activity based on the entrepreneur’s field — creating a design for a graphic designer, for instance, or building a robot for a local tech entrepreneur.

Finally, they’ll be able to pitch their ideas to the group, as if they were pitching to investors. BBBS is also partnering with TechShop in East Liberty’s Bakery Square development to let the littles and bigs work on projects there. “We don’t want their interest to fall flat after this is over,” Adamczyk says.

BBBS is piloting the program in early August and looking for an advisory board.

“We like that this gives the startups the chance to give back to the community,” she says.

“They don’t have to wait until they have the financing. We hope our littles inspire them to keep going.”

Writer: Marty Levine

Source: Stephanie Adamczyk, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Pittsburgh