Guest Speaker: Lauren Villaverde

Hey guys! Our guest speaker today was really awesome—very interesting, versatile, and relatable. Some highlights include our mini industrial engineering exercise and hearing about Ms. Villaverde’s transformation from high school to the present day, as well as her experience forming and advancing her product Stackablz (http://www.getstempowered.com/stackablz-22.html), a toy that combines neuroscience research (spatial abilities of children), industrial engineering, and some serious entrepreneurship skills. Below is a more detailed description of Ms. Villaverde’s presentation. Stay tuned for information about the next guest speaker presentation, coming up on November 4th!

Ms. Villaverde began by describing her junior and senior years in high school, and how she chose schools based on a major which sounded interesting to her. When she was accepted into Lehigh for biomedical engineering, she explored different disciplines of engineering and settled on Industrial engineering for its versatility, business-orientation, and community-focused goals. She described IE as using science and technology to make our lives better—this could mean streamlining patient lines in hospitals or improving the efficiency of assembly lines in factories. She stressed the importance of clear communication in both industrial engineering and entrepreneurship, since many people IEs work with are much more experienced in their careers and may not be very open to advice from an IE fresh out of college. That’s why it is important for IEs to explain their ideas and visions thoroughly so workers can embrace the new goals.

We also heard about Ms. Villaverde’s experience in college, specifically her motivation and determination to succeed in her Calculus classes. As a student coming from MHS, she was used to receiving high marks and was “scared and horrified” when she fell short of her expectations in Calculus 2. She’d taken AP Calc in high school and attributed her success in Calculus 1 to her previous exposure at MHS (“You guys should take as many AP classes as you can. It doesn’t matter how well you do, but the exposure you gain from learning the material ahead of time helps a lot”). However, her failure in Calc 2 made her question her earlier decision to become an engineer. That’s when she realized that there would be difficult classes in any major, and if she wanted to see her original goals to fruition, she needed to put in the extra effort to succeed in Calculus at Lehigh. So, she not only attended all of the tutoring sessions and office hour sessions while retaking Calculus 2, but also sat in on two different professors’ classes when taking Calculus 3 to observe different methods of teaching. Ms. Villaverde ended up receiving the grades she wanted, and shared what she learned. She noted that sometimes, getting a tutor or going to office hours isn’t enough, but that there is always a way to achieve your goals and you should never feel discouraged.

Ms. Villaverde referenced this theme again when discussing her new product, Stackablz, a toy that helps children practice their spatial skills, which research has shown is important to success in STEM. She came up with the idea while trying to “fill the gap” in the market for kids’ toys, an important trick for success in business. She told us about how she participated in a Shark Tank-like competition to gain sponsorship, and attended renowned entrepreneurship conferences to expand her network and connections. Ms. Villaverde highlighted “learning your industry” thoroughly since, as an entrepreneur, you have to defend your ideas against harsh critics and very detailed questions from potential sponsors.

Overall, learning about Ms. Villaverde’s experiences was super interesting, as was hearing about the convergence of business and science. We wish Ms. Villaverde the best of luck in her future endeavors, and hope to learn in similar depth about different disciplines of engineering in future guest speaker presentations!

Here are some more pictures: