The workshop focused on Engineering, Computer Science, Econ, and business to inspire students

Lauren Yang | Staff Reporter
Photo by Lauren Yang

The M-BEST Business, Entrepreneurship, STEM and Economics workshop that occurred on Saturday, Feb. 28, called to the innovator within all of us. The workshop was held in the Middle School Commons and in Whitaker Lab from 9 am to 12 pm. The event featured inspirational guest speakers such as Professor Rob Chandra from the University of California, Berkeley’s Haas School of Business and Shannon Clark, a Human Factors Engineer at Intuitive Surgical.

Upper School Director of M-BEST Joanie Banks-Hunt decided this particular fusion of topics as the theme for the workshop to expose students towards entrepreneurship as a career choice. “It’s great to think about working at Google, LinkedIn, Facebook, and other hot businesses. But it is also great to think about being the originator of a hot idea that could really take off with time, persistence, determination, and testing one’s ideas,” Banks said.

Chandra’s case study of the popular designer dress-renting service Rent the Runway kicked off the workshop; this particular case study was commonly taught to Harvard MBA students. His discussion covered numerous topics such as where the idea for a Netflix-like model for designer dresses originated, how the founders convinced influential designers like Diane Von Furstenberg to support their business, and how the team managed merchandising and operations issues.
In addition to an engaging discussion about Rent the Runway, Chandra also offered insightful advice to success. He recommended that students should take at least one computer science course during their high school career in order to understand how the innovations of the modern world work. He also encouraged the audience to ask for help even when it might seem intimidating to do so.

Many students thought Chandra’s discussion was thoughtful and insightful. “I […] got a lot from his lectures and I know that I will use some of the advice he gave at some point in my future. I wish more students would attend his lectures, because they are missing out,” junior Erin Broderick said.

After Chandra’s presentation, M-BEST awarded senior Simran Arora and the Knights Robotics team for their outstanding achievement in STEM. Arora was given this award because she was a Siemens Competition semifinalist while the Knights Robotics team was presented with this award because they advanced to NorCals in the robotics competition First Tech Challenge.

A hands on activity followed the award presentation. Participants chose between a robotics activity, a puzzles activity, and a LilyPad Arduino programming activity.

The event concluded with a talk led by Clark, a human factors engineer who works at Intuitive Surgical. Clark discussed her role at Surgical Intuitive and how she takes part in designing robotic medical devices that are efficient, usable, safe and dependable.

This M-BEST workshop was well received and successful, as students walked away with valuable new ideas in hand.

The conclusion of this M-BEST workshop marks the end of the second to last M-BEST sponsored event of the year. The last M-BEST sponsored event of the year is approaching quickly and will be on March 28 from 9 am – 1 pm. The workshop will feature a dissection and a doctor panel discussion. Banks urges members of the community to check the workshop out. “Everyone at Menlo, students, faculty, and staff, should attend one M-BEST sponsored event during the school year,” Banks said. Whether you are new to M-BEST or have been a regular, the Medical workshop is one not to miss!