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HackCville prepares to take almost 150 students on annual New York City startup trip

In its seventh year of the startup trips, Charlottesville non-profit introduces a Female Founders trip

<p>One of HackCville’s most popular and rapidly-growing programs is called <a href="https://hackcville.com/trips/"><ins>Startup Trips</ins></a>, in which students travel to cities such as Austin, D.C. and New York to explore a variety of companies.</p>

One of HackCville’s most popular and rapidly-growing programs is called Startup Trips, in which students travel to cities such as Austin, D.C. and New York to explore a variety of companies.

HackCville’s seventh annual trip to visit startup companies in New York City is this week, going from Thursday to Sunday. In total, 147 students will have the opportunity to personally meet and interact with the founders and employees behind a variety of companies both large and small.

The non-profit located on Elliewood Avenue has a mission of developing entrepreneurial skills in University students through a variety of programs. These include Skills Courses, where students delve into one of six digital skills over the course of 10 weeks, completing projects to solidify what they learn, as well as Launch, a summer program where students are paid a stipend for being similarly trained in a skill and then interning at a local company.

One of HackCville’s most popular and rapidly-growing programs is called Startup Trips, in which students travel to cities such as Austin, D.C. and New York to explore a variety of companies.

Students travelled to Austin over the University’s Fall Break to explore the startup scene there, and more will be heading to New York this week to do the same.

The New York trip consists of 11 different tracks, or focuses, for companies visited. These include marketing, social entrepreneurship, tech and general entrepreneurship. Each track will visit four to five companies, resulting in a total of 55 visits. Companies include Bloomberg, UNiDAYS, Zola, Acumen Fund, Bulletin, ADIFF, Golden Seeds, Parse.ly, Twitter, Dataminr and RapidSOS.

Kayva Ravikanti, a third-year College student and Startups Director for HackCville, discussed the process of reaching out to companies.

“A lot of it is student outreach, so one avenue that we go through is looking up alumni who are working at potential companies that we're interested in visiting,” Ravikanti said.  

Partnership coordinators select companies and, on the trip itself, show students around each company. 

One new addition to this year’s program is the Female Founders track. 

“One thing I noticed, and I know Kavya noticed, when she went as well was that we visit a lot of male-dominated companies,” said Caky Winsett, a third-year in the College and trip lead for the NYC Female Founders trip. “And we wanted to emphasize the power of women in the startup industry .... We're bringing 36 women to New York, and we're visiting entirely female-founded companies. We're meeting up with U.Va. female alumni afterwards. It's gonna be a very female-empowering experience.” 

Ravikanti added that more startup companies are founded by men than women. In light of this, she said, the Female Founders trip acts as an avenue both to showcase women in powerful positions as well as create an atmosphere of mentorship and solidarity. 

Ravikanti also shared her thoughts on the mission of the program, noting that it bridges students between the theoretical concepts they learn at the University and real-world opportunities and introduces students to alumni who provide advice and mentorship.  

Students who have attended past trips agreed that it was a valuable experience that gave them new connections, skills and interests.

“See[ing] what it’s like from the inside in addition to the people who actually work there, it sort of humanizes the entire — the overwhelming company thing, ” fourth-year Commerce student Thomas Rogers said. “Now I have the emails of some of these people who are founders of startups and who just decided to work in startups out of college. Being able to talk to them whenever I want to is a huge asset.”

Second-year College student Sasha Duckworth said that the trip made her more interested in the technology field and in possibly taking computer science or statistics courses at the University. 

“I really learned how to facilitate a discussion and ask questions, which I wasn’t super comfortable with before,” Duckworth added.

New York Trip Manager and fourth-year College student Melissa Wu, who herself went on a startup trip to San Francisco during her first year, said in an email that she was pre-med when she went on her first startup trip as a first-year, and switched to studying Commerce and Statistics because of experiences she had on her trip.

“I was blown away by the innovation and creativity these startups had, and by the pure passion their founders and workers had for their company’s mission,” Wu said. “I came back from Spring Break with a new perspective, a new idea for my career path ... and new friendships.”

Asked what changes HackCville would like to implement to the trip in the future, Winsett said that the organization is always looking to expand. The cost of a ticket to the trip is $350 and covers transportation, lodging, some meals and an unlimited metrocard to use. Ravikanti said they are always trying to increase the amount of financial aid and scholarships they give out.

HackCville partners with the Galant Center, Data Science Institute, Social Entrepreneurship @UVA, General Assembly and many alumni to make the trips possible.  

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