Launching youth entrepreneurship

开启青年创业之路

Even as a teenager, Laurie Stach ’06 says, she had a “crazy ambition to take on the world and solve problems.” At MIT, she realized she wasn’t the only one. Laurie Stach（2006届校友）说，即使在青少年时期，她就有一种“想要征服世界并解决问题的疯狂抱负”。在麻省理工学院（MIT），她意识到自己并不孤单。

“Adults always see these youth who are good at math and science and say, ‘You’re going to do great things—someday,’” says Stach. “Meanwhile, traditional education isn’t preparing them.” “大人们总是看到那些擅长数学和科学的年轻人，然后说：‘你将来一定会成就一番大事业，’”Stach说。“然而，传统的教育并没有为他们做好准备。”

That’s why in 2012 Stach founded LaunchX, a for-profit entrepreneurship program that helps high school students build practical skills through an intensive summer program in which they start real companies. 正因如此，Stach于2012年创立了LaunchX。这是一个营利性的创业项目，通过高强度的暑期课程帮助高中生培养实践技能，让他们在项目中创办真正的公司。

Stach says that students form teams, identify a problem, and build an actual product or service that they then take to market—often generating preorders or even revenue before the four-week program ends. Stach表示，学生们会组成团队，确定一个问题，并构建出实际的产品或服务，然后将其推向市场——通常在为期四周的项目结束前，他们就能获得预订单甚至实现营收。

Raised in Texas and the Carolinas, Stach majored in mechanical engineering at MIT and earned her MBA from Harvard Business School in 2011. Stach在德克萨斯州和卡罗莱纳州长大，她在麻省理工学院主修机械工程，并于2011年获得了哈佛商学院的MBA学位。

She ran her first summer program on MIT’s campus with 30 students in 2013 and says “it kind of snowballed.” LaunchX now serves about 500 students per year across both in-person and online programs. 2013年，她在麻省理工学院校园里举办了首个暑期项目，当时有30名学生参加。她说，这个项目“像滚雪球一样发展起来了”。如今，LaunchX每年通过线下和线上项目为约500名学生提供服务。

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