Students from both campuses participated in the HW Venture kick-off rally event, where they listened to speeches from keynote speakers and Venture students Sept. 27.

To begin the event, alumni Sameer Gupta ’99 offered advice to students about how to utilize HW Venture and the school community.

“The important thing is that we acknowledge how special the people around us are, we see and understand what they have done and that we feel comfortable asking for help in what we’re going to do next,” Gupta said.

Nick Abouzeid ’15 also spoke about the challenges he faced when he was a student, as well as about what he had accomplished professionally.

Following the alumni speakers, the new Venture students presented their projects, which they will continue to develop over the course of the year including Artelli, co-founded by Caroline Choi ’19 and ICC Records, started by Cassius Bythewood ’19.

After a short break, returning Venture students summarized their companies.

Jonathan Damico ’19 and Cameron Schiller ’19 introduced their journey in developing Prova. Alec Katz ’19 spoke of his project Soles4Good. Lastly, Ari Sokolov ’18 presented TheTrill Project.

Kaleel said she hoped the event helped students for the upcoming year.

“I’m most excited for Venture to help launch more companies and help more students participate in unconventional and entrepreneurial opportunities,” Kaleel said.