Led Amherst College Representation with a team of 5

I was honored to be selected and sponsored to attend the inaugural Y Combinator AI Startup School in San Francisco—a landmark gathering of 2,500 AI builders, researchers, and entrepreneurs from around the world. Representing Amherst College alongside four peers, I had the chance to learn from and connect with some of the most influential voices in AI today, including Sam Altman (OpenAI), Elon Musk (SpaceX), Satya Nadella (Microsoft), Fei-Fei Li (Stanford), and Jared Kaplan (Anthropic), among others. This opportunity was made possible in large part thanks to the continued support of Jared Friedman and Diana Hu from Y Combinator. After first meeting them during the HackMIT 2023 YC Startup Pitch Challenge, they extended a prioritized referral to me—encouraging and enabling our small but proud Amherst College team to attend as a group. Their advocacy played a direct role in amplifying access to this global platform for early-stage innovators from liberal arts backgrounds. Highlights from the week included: - An invite-only post-event gathering at Anthropic HQ, where we received additional insights and Claude 4 API credits. - $25,000 in AWS cloud credits awarded during the AWS afterparty at the Exploratorium. - Meeting founders and peers from over 50 countries, all working on bold, mission-driven AI initiatives. This was a full-circle moment of mentorship, opportunity, and continued belief in community-centered innovation.