Applications Invited for Virtual Watson Semester Accelerator – Spring 2021

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About the Organization:

Watson Institute is a place where next generation entrepreneurial leaders can find their community, discover their calling, and accelerate their careers. They provide the tools, network, mindset, and courage for the next generation to solve the toughest challenges facing the world, launch successful careers, and lead impactful lives.

Virtual Watson Semester Accelerator – Spring 2021

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the virtual Watson Semester Accelerator was launched to accelerate the ventures and careers of college students, recent graduates, and gap-year students with an early-stage social venture.

During the 4-month program, a cohort of next-generation innovators, leaders, and entrepreneurs from across the globe convene virtually to tackle complex problems and forge lives and careers of impact. From climate change to social justice and from poverty to access to quality education, students selected to the Watson Semester Accelerator leverage training, mentorship, and community to accelerate their ventures and unleash lives of impact.

• Training - Intensive courses and workshops focused on the hard and soft skills of entrepreneurship and transformative leadership.
• Mentorship - Every student is paired with mentors in their field to challenge their assumptions, enhance their perspective, and expand their impact.
• Community - Students join a diverse cohort with members from every corner of the globe, a variety of experiences, and a common goal to impact the world.

The time commitment for participating in this program is an average of 42 hours per week for 16 weeks.

You have two tracks to choose from:

• Venture Founder Track: The Venture Founder track is for students who are founders or co-founders of a venture or project. The Venture Founder may collaborate with a Free Agent track student attending the same cohort.
• Free Agent Track: The Free Agent track is for students looking to join a venture or project and are prepared to contribute in significant ways to the team. Free Agents join a Venture Founder’s team at the beginning of the cohort.

Benefits

The courses, mentorship, master courses, and community will be delivered in three distinct ways:

• Synchronous - Entire cohort experiences events together at the same time. There will be approximately 9 hours of synchronous programming per week.
• Localized Synchronous - Small student pods grouped by geography convene at convenient times according to time-zone for various small-group events. There will be approximately 6 hours of localized synchronous programming per week.
• Asynchronous - Students complete work/experience individually at their own pace, given specific due-dates and clarity of outcome and quality expected.

Eligibility

• This program is for early stage entrepreneurs, innovators, and leaders with a bias towards action and the gritty idealism required to solve complex problems.
• Founders in the early-prototyping stage are the most well-suited for the Watson Semester Accelerator in the Fall and Spring.
• Early prototyping means that you have completed initial research on the project and have designed and put to test aspects of your business model.
• In addition, at this stage you have developed early versions of the service or product that you are planning to launch. You may have revenue or funding streams at this stage, but the project/venture is not yet self-sustained or scalable.
• Application may be from any part of the world

Deadline: November 1, 2020

For more information please check the Link