"I didn't know anyone at Prequel's Program, so it allowed me to reinvent myself. At school, I was quiet and reluctant to speak up in class. Prequel gave me the freedom to voice my ideas and speak out."
Madison Huang is a current sophomore at Stanford University and a Prequel alum. Her journey highlights the transformative power of immersive fall experiences.
Throughout high school in her home state of Florida, she was involved in a number of business-related activities at school. She is now studying biotechnology at Stanford, where she is exploring the intersection of deep learning, AI, and health. She currently holds internships as a CREST Research Intern, Deep Learning Intern, and Marketing and Outreach Intern. She loves the idea of using business as a tool to help those around her and shares how Prequel's Fall Program (formerly BETA Camp) helped her develop the confidence to pursue her dreams. Madison's story is an inspiration for students interested in STEM and entrepreneurship.
Tell us a bit about life at your high school before Prequel:
As a senior in high school, I was quite involved in a lot of business-related activities. I was a part of a social entrepreneurship program where we learned how we can use entrepreneurship to help the world and solve social issues. Every year, we would compete in what is called the Diamond Challenge competition. In my first year, we focused on social innovation and worked on a project about human trafficking. The next year, we concentrated on business innovation and investigated biodegradable contact lenses. I was also the Vice-President of DECA at my school.
How did you first hear about Prequel?
My sister had found information about Prequel's Fall Program on a Facebook group chat and forwarded it to me, encouraging me to look into it. I then applied and got accepted into the program that was run during the fall of 2020, the inaugural Prequel Fall Cohort.
It must have been exciting being part of the first cohort! What was it like?
I had a great time at Prequel. The fact that the program was completely virtual made it a lot less intimidating. I didn't know anyone at, so it gave me an opportunity to reinvent myself. At school, I used to be quiet and reluctant to speak up in class. Prequel gave me the freedom to voice my ideas and speak out because there is this distance over Zoom.
Tell me a bit more about the freedom that Prequel's Fall Program gave you.
At the very beginning, we were told Prequel is what you make of it. I tried to make the most of it. During the workshops and panel discussions, I'd ask questions or add my on commentary. I wasn't afraid to speak up. And that's how my team kind of came together.
One of my team members commented that he felt I was great at speaking and had a lot of great ideas, and that he wanted to work with me. That got me thinking that if I have these good ideas, I should share them instead of being afraid of embarrassing myself.
What did you do for your start-up?
For our start-up, we created TeachAdapt. At the time, all the teachers were being trained to transition to virtual school. We wanted to help them make their classrooms more engaging and help their students learn better by implementing different types of software. For example, Prequel uses Miro a lot, so we hosted around 10 sessions with teachers about how to use that platform and the different ways they could integrate it into their curriculum.
What happened at the end of the program?
I joined Prequel as an intern! I put my name forward, and I, plus three other students, were selected to become community leaders. We planned socials and helped to host and facilitate the workshops. It was a really fun experience, and I still keep in touch with the three students that I worked with. At the very end, we had a Zoom session where we shared gratitudes. I remember having people say things like, “Thank you, Madison, you made Prequel's Fall Program feel like such a welcoming environment.” It was such a full-circle moment: the ability to recreate the environment that meant so much to me for other students.
What comes next?
I was accepted to Stanford University and am currently pursuing biology and computer science! After Prequel, I had interned with a biotech company that manufactures gene therapy products for the treatment of cancer and other diseases. When I start my career after college, something in that field would be very interesting. I would love to work at one of these companies, and maybe build my own start-up further down the line.
