👋 Hello! My name is Amanda Sherman!
(#tbt to when I was rocking those bangs 🥰) >> download dat insta pic
I'm a 16 year old trailblazer who is experienced in UI/UX, graphic design, website building, and public speaking. Currently, I'm an innovator at The Knowledge Society, where I'm learning about emerging technology, mindsets, and more.
TL;DR: I learned the importance of stubborn optimism, spoke at a panel about internships and summer programs, and won an award at a hackathon!
👉 Public Speaking
On January 23, I received the chance to speak at the Superposition MSJHS x Faye Fremont panel on Internships and Summer Programs about my experience being taking part in two awesome programs, LaunchX and TKS! The panel received a grand total of 41 audience members. This was my 3rd time speaking on a Zoom conference and it was certainly a memory to remember! One of my friends even showed up to cheer me on - you rock, Trisha! ✨
🚀 Launching a Blog
I’ve always wanted to have a space to express my thoughts and takeaways on what really matters. And for the first time, I am taking my first step to make that dream a reality.
YAY! My blog is officially launched! This has been a long time in the making. Check it out to see my perspective on emerging technology, philosophy, and ethics. Also, leaving a comment or two wouldn’t hurt ;))
Pst….do leave a comment. I thrive on feedback!
👑 Recognized at a Hackathon
Recently, my friends and I competed at Sigmoid Hacks from January 15-18 with our project, Finessify. Long story short, Finessify is a web application that integrates AI to curate the most efficient schedule possible based on the user’s input. So far, we have a Figma mockup, a landing page, and a web app. Although the hackathon had 390 participants, we managed to place Most Visual Award! As a reward, each of us will receive a Jetson Nano computer. Kudos to Raghav and Praneeth for crushing it with me!
🌱 Gratitude
A sudden shift in my mindset has accompanied the latter half of January. Starting off the year felt very stressful, being knee deep in AP assignments and standardized test requirements. However, a tranquil moment sitting in class with rays of light shining through the windows cast a sense of steady optimism into my heart. It was unexpected, but I’m truly thankful for it. Oftentimes, it is the small occasions in life that make the biggest statement. Case in point: miracles do exist!
💜 Coding My Personal Website.
For a long while, I’ve wanted to upgrade from my noob Weebly website to a custom personal one hard coded. Currently am following this amazing tutorial on creating a portfolio through HTML, CSS, and JS. Some front end frameworks that are used include Bootstrap and React.js. The site is halfway done as of now. Super awesome stuff! Sure to be featured in my February newsletter.
🤯 #biastoaction
Updates >> To all of the students who are viewing this, I founded a startup called FuseBloom, a free online platform for high schoolers that will custom curate internship and summer opportunities. If you'd be interested in subscribing to our biweekly newsletter, you can do so here. Our beta version’s release data has been moved to early 2021 and you can pre-register here to get notified when it's ready. Get hyped!
This month, I met with Fatimah, the co-founder of Lumaki Labs. It’s a platform that’s much like FuseBloom, except they cater to university students in Canada and beyond. Highly recommend checking them out! I really enjoyed the dope opportunity to meet with someone who’s marketing for a startup and got some really good insights into strategical growth that otherwise wouldn’t have known of.
It has been really tough balancing FuseBloom’s growth and my existing commitments, so I’m going to take it slow these next couple of months. Software will become the #1 priority to finish the beta and market it by summer of 2021 (my best guesstimate?). Thank you so much for sticking with us so far, my friends!
🔑 Goals
In February, I want to
Build my 1st React Native app
Wake up at 7 a.m. every morning
Publish 3 articles on Medium
Try trading stocks and figure out why growth goes up or down
Hustle to get internships in software development or blockchain
🔥 Thank You
Hope you enjoyed reading my January newsletter! Feel free to drop feedback by emailing me or through my LinkedIn. Don't be a stranger :)
That’s it, folks! Hope to see you in the next issue 🥰