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“Prequel gave me confidence as an entrepreneur. As long as you make it viable, you can start a business.”
Hear about Prequel Alumna Caitlyn Obrero's take on the Prequel experience and what it’s like being a teen in Business and Tech!
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Caitlyn Obrero is one of Prequel's talented summer alumni. As a 12th-grade student, she holds a variety of interests including engineering, the arts, and business.
Caitlyn spent a lot of her life confined to the idea that she had to become a nurse, that there were no options for her. By taking the bold step of applying for Prequel's Summer Program, she quickly realized there was a world of opportunities waiting for her discovery.
Caitlyn plans on studying engineering this September and hopes to travel once COVID dies down.
She’s very active in her extracurriculars. Aside from Prequel, she was on an FRC robotics team as a CAD designer and has experience as an intern with the TikTok managing agency, Many Creators.
Q&A with Caitlyn
Q: What have you been up to since your summer with Prequel?
A: Since Prequel's Summer Program, I’ve buckled down and focused a lot on school. I imagine many teens relate to this, but the transition between online and in-person school has been rough. Going months without seeing peers made it difficult to maintain connections. Outside of that, I’ve focused on my internship with ManyCreators and gaining scholarships, both assisted by Prequel!
Q: We heard you landed an internship! What was your work with ManyCreators?
A: ManyCreators is an influencer agency that manages TikTokers from across the world. I initially found them through Prequel Director Ivy Xu. She was able to connect me with the ManyCreators founder. Given that I’m an artist, marketing and social media are big interests of mine. I loved that I could express my creativity while working in branding and design.
The majority of my work was collaborating with TikTok creators for marketing and design. I would create merchandise using Photoshop and Studio Paint to launch publicly. I also designed thumbnails for YouTube and Discord servers. Looking back, I wish I could have dedicated more time. Granted, school and life in general were moving pretty quickly. I left ManyCreators in November 2020. Nonetheless, my time as their intern enhanced my skills in business and art. I’m extremely thankful to Ivy for connecting me with them.
Q: Congrats on enrolling at NCSU! In what ways did Prequel help during the University Application process?
A: Prequel's Summer Program was a turning point in my life. I mentioned this a lot in my essays. Before Prequel, I was stuck in a bubble. I was talking to the same people for my whole life. I was too comfortable and too bored. Prequel exposed me to the real world, I met so many great people doing amazing things, including high school students involved in anything from coding to business founding. Interacting with a variety of people helped my self-development. Above all, I loved learning more about Engineering. Meeting people within the field was encouraging. This helped me decide to study Engineering, and I’ll be attending North Carolina State University for Engineering in the fall!
Q: What were the key takeaways from your Prequel startup,TeachAdapt?
A: Through Prequel's Summer Program, I became the founder of TeachAdapt. Our audience was teachers adjusting to online learning. My team noticed a problem with teachers finding resources to maximize online class engagement. We sought to solve this. TeachAdapt provided teachers with resources, such as Miro (an online white-boarding tool) sessions, to guide them into online learning.
Being a founder educated me on the importance of empathy. You must study your target market inside out and find the best solutions to their problems. This filters into my school and personal life as well.
TeachAdapt enhanced my appreciation of teamwork and engagement. I’m proud of my team for having great communication, which allowed us to run smoothly with team members across North Carolina, Florida, Vancouver, and Los Angeles. Though I wish TeachAdapt continued, I’m grateful for what I learned, preparing me to revisit entrepreneurship in the future.
Q: How has your perspective on entrepreneurship changed?
A: I grew up surrounded by one profession: nurses. It was all I knew, my only option. Entrepreneurship and tech always seemed like a far shot. Prequel's Summer Program exposed me to new opportunities - opportunities I would have never imagined. I remember feeling overwhelmed. Hearing from the Camp Counselors who came in and their success sparked a new interest in marketing and social media. As the program weeks went on, I realized more and more that business was something I had a passion for. If it wasn’t for Camp, I don’t know when I would have discovered this, if ever!
Prequel gave me confidence as an entrepreneur. As long as you make it viable, you can start a business. I hope to revisit entrepreneurship in the future, create a startup, and watch it grow.
Q: What advice would you give to a freshman interested in business/tech?
A: Start your research now. Look for resources, open your horizons. I’m still in high school, yet I still feel like a late bloomer in business and tech. It's inspiring to see an entire generation learning about business and tech before graduating from high school. There’s value in having a young mind; it’s full of creativity, ideas, and big, broad dreams. Starting early and having the motivation to continue will benefit your career. I wish I had known about these opportunities earlier, when my schedule wasn’t so hectic. There are no age restrictions to business and tech; the sky’s the limit.
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