Students are hungry to learn how to put a dent in the universe. Not all the students, but the curious and self starting. With Kreative Horizon, I am working on giving students a platform of hackathons, pitch competitions, design jams, workshops, and more to empower them to build the future of tomorrow today.
I started Kreative, LLC in 2018, and ran my first hackathon in high school in 2019 called BuildChicago. Over 75 students from the area came together to solve problems and have fun doing it. After that event ended, I built a team, secured a few more sponsors, and was working to run BuildNewYork, BuildTheValley (in San Francisco), SheBuildsSF (the largest all female hackathon in SF at the time), and BuildChicago 2020.
But, after securing a venue in SF, COVID-19 struck and my dreams were put on hold. After a while of going to school, trying a few more ventures, and getting a “real” job, I ran a new hackathon at Iowa State (HackIowaState). I was aiming for 15 students…. We had 54 check in. This was the first major hackathon at ISU since 2019 and students loved it.
Now, we are organizing 6 new events to start the Kreative Builders League, the second “hackathon league” in the country:
HackIowaState v2 (100+ students)
DataISU v1 (first datathon at ISU ever for 40+ students)
HackIowaState v3 (130+ students)
BuildDSM (new student hackathon in Des Moines for 100+ students)
DesignJamISU v1 (first design jam at ISU for 25+ students)
PitchAmes v1 (50+ pitch competition)
Plus, we launched the first student organization, Horizon Builders Club, at Iowa State which will be organizing students to go to other events as a community, learn out-of-the-classroom skills through student-led workshops, and help them launch and organize new Builder events. We plan on expanding the club to schools in Iowa, then the nation.
Last semester we earned about $650 in sponsorships, and now we have over $15,000 in secured sponsorships, and we’re working on more accounts as we speak.
Our goal is to build and expand “the league”, which is essentially a partnership between Kreative Horizon and student events. We would provide funding, coaching, support, and resources in exchange for, what I like to call, “sponsor real estate”. This way, we can give our sponsors even more opportunities to recruit students and gain awareness without “owning” the tiring process of running each event. It’s hard for a single sponsor to go to 50 or a 100 events across the county, contact them, negotiate, and then manage that process until the event is over. Instead, they will come to Kreative Horizon and with one single contract, have goals executed across the country (and then the world!).