TKS Session 22: Escape Velocity 2 + Velocity Session 12

In our velocity session, we all shared a recap of how our weeks were and if we achieved the goals that we set. For me, my biggest goal was to publish my review paper on genetically engineering phages, which I’m happy to say I did (you can read here), and I’m so happy about it! It was something that was in the back of my mind for so long, and it’s great that I was able to get it done and also learn so much valuable technical knowledge along the way, which will be really good for me as I begin my idea phase is my focus. I also published my January newsletter, which is another goal I had for this week. Those were the two big things, but other than that this week was really good.

Something everyone needed to re-evaluate with themselves this week was our weekly meetings/reachouts. This is the time when we need to be doing it more than ever and make sure that we are speaking with experts in our focus area and building connections so that we can get the opportunities we are looking for as well as build the really good projects that will help advance our knowledge and understanding of our focus field. This week’s session is going to be all about trying to figure out those next steps and what we will need to do to get to our end goal.

My intention for this session was, now that I’m done with the review phase of my focus, to plan out my next steps for how I’m going to carry out my idea phase and create a high-standards project that I can use to apply for internships and opportunities.

To start the actual session, we did an activity that’s a classic in our cohort. Our director puts music on at full blast on the speakers, and kids go up one by one telling us about how their week went, while that music is blasting. The point of this exercise is to get everyone to speak loudly and confidently. The goal is to get comfortable speaking loudly so that when you are presenting, you can present with confidence and make sure that everyone can actually hear what you’re saying. It’s an actual presenting problem that many people have, so this is a really funny and effective way to overcome it.

Then, we talked about this week’s MotW, activator. An activator mindset is basically where you “activate” something, or you go out and actually do something that has an impact, whether it be large or small. An example of an activator mindset on a smaller scale is “activating” a hangout with your friends. On a larger scale, it could be “activating” a protest across your city for something you don’t agree with. But, the point is, you are going out and starting something that will impact people. People who are activators are the ones who make the biggest differences in our world and change the way we live our lives. If you want to have that big of an impact, you need to go out and start “activating”. You can’t wait for the opportunities to find you, you have to go “activate” them.

Into the bulk of today’s session, we did something similar to what we had done a few months ago early on, an escape velocity session. In the last one that we did, we had a workbook that had us answer questions about where we wanted to be at the end of December in our focus as well as to try to align on our ultimate goals for the end of this first year at TKS. That workbook helped us plan out our replicate 1/apply phase in our focus, including coming up with an idea for it and a plan/timeline of how and when we were going to finish it.

During this velocity session, everyone should be nearing or in the create/idea phase of their focus, as well as have a good idea of what they want to do at the end of TKS, whether it be working at a research lab, interning at a company, or even starting their own company. We got a workbook of three parts, and each part would target those questions that needed to be answered so that we could have a plan on how we are going to do our create/idea phase and what kind of opportunity we want to go for with it.

In the first part, we looked at the biggest companies/research labs in our focus area and chose one that we would want to get an internship/work at. We learned about the specific work the company is doing as well as some of the big challenges/problems they are trying to solve.

The company I chose to look at was Locus Biosciences, a company that is developing phage therapy treatments to target the most antibiotic-resistant bacteria, like E. Coli infections for example. They have multiple phase 2 and 3 clinical trials taking place currently, and they are using CRISPR-Cas3 techniques to genetically engineer the phages, which is what I am researching. They are working on how to implement CRISPR technologies for the enhancement of phages, and in order for them to have a product on the market, they need to go through the entire clinical trial procedure and ensure that everything is safe to use.

Then in the workbook, it asked us what skills we would need in order to work at that company. I found that after going through most of my focus process, the only skills I was lacking were knowledge of lab techniques, which I can develop through another apply phase.

Part 2 of the workbook was about breaking down the part of our focus that we currently need to get through and make progress on it. Right now, I still need to publish my review video, and I need to brainstorm my idea phase and what kind of project I’m going to create. So, I created a plan of actionable steps I can take and when I need to have them finished. We organized these tasks in what they call a Gantt chart, a timeline format of your tasks where you can see how long you have to complete them and see your expected progress timeline.

Lastly, part 3 was reviewing how to send out cold outreach messages. We practiced writing one by finding someone from our top company that you could email and practiced writing a specific message to them.

This session was really good to help me plan out the next month or so for working through my focus, and I feel much more aligned than before. I’m really excited to get into the nitty gritty of my focus and start building some cool stuff.