My Entrepreneurial Odyssey
by Grace Taylor, Year 10, Fairholme College Toowoomba
Grace Taylor was a was a finalist in the Future Anything National Grand Final in 2023. In July 2024, she spent a week with the joined the Future Anything team for work experience. In this blog, she shares her experience of helping our team to bend the future!
My name is Grace Taylor, and I was a finalist in the Future Anything National Grand Final in 2023.
I am lucky enough to attend Fairholme College in Toowoomba and currently am in Year 10. It is through studying Year 9 Business that I was first introduced to Future Anything, and more specifically, the renowned Activate program. Throughout my entrepreneurial odyssey I have been exposed to various concepts, ideas, and ways of thinking that I had never even fathomed. I discovered a new way of learning, and a structured way of thinking that was able to bring out the best ideas in anyone, no matter their background or learning style. Last year I completed the program for my Year 9 Business assessment, however I did not realise the opportunities that would come along with it.
Over Terms 2 and 3 of 2023, my partner Eva and I worked through the program toward finding a sustainable solution for plastic pollution, specifically in oceans and waterways. After being exposed to the harsh reality of plastic pollution in our oceans and waterways, we were highly motivated to find a solution that not only created awareness around the widespread issue but also to aim to reduce the severity of the issue.
During one lesson, we were required to ideate 100 potential ideas for our problem. It was during this process that many wild ideas were created, but so was our final idea. I remember thinking, how could this possibly work? There is no way that something such as plastic from the ocean could even be turned into other plastic, let alone swimwear! This is when I first discovered that sometimes you just need to block out the background noise, put your head down and get on with your idea.
After refining our pitch and working through all the stages of creating our enterprise, we pitched it to our class.
We did not have very high hopes, particularly because our pitch was 13 minutes long! Ever since I watched the pitches (shoutout to Evie, Julia and Macca) in 2022 I had made it my goal to make it to the Lion’s Den stage. Luckily, we had managed to refine our pitch down to 3 minutes and were questioned by a panel of judges before being announced as the winner! It was a surreal moment, but nothing compared to what was about to come.
I must admit, I was not sure whether we should apply for the National Semi Finals as a voice in my head kept telling me that there was “no way we would ever make it”. However, a few weeks later we received an email that we had been selected to present in the National Semi Finals! We were ecstatic and took the opportunity over the following weeks to refine our pitch with Future Anything’s Kate and Nicole (thanks to their amazing mentoring sessions).
One exhilarating Semi-Finals pitch later we had not only earned ourselves a spot in the National Grand Final but also won the People’s Choice Award. We were beyond excited! About a month later we headed down to Brisbane to The Triffid to pitch at the National Grand Final.
We were so nervous but were instantly calmed due to the welcoming nature of the team and the large amount of time we were given to practice and connect with the other teams. It was so amazing to meet all the young aspiring entrepreneurs from around Australia and to hear their inspiring stories and ideas. Our pitch went well (check it out below!), and we were so happy to have been judged by such incredible people, some of which were entrepreneurs themselves.
Although we did not win, it was such a great opportunity to present to such a large amount of people, connect with other young entrepreneurs and learn so much about other people. It was after this experience that I knew that Future Anything would be the perfect place to do work experience as it would provide me with knowledge and connections that would last a lifetime.
WORK EXPERIENCE – DAY ONE
I started the day with a 50-minute bus ride (catching two buses) from my accommodation to the Future Anything offices in Teneriffe. I got to the office and was welcomed by Marian and Breanna who helped me set up at my desk and get ready for the coming days. After setting up, I had a brainstorming session with Marian in the boardroom and was able to provide her with a student’s perspective on the Activate Program.
I then was introduced to the platforms that Future Anything utilises for communication, project management and scheduling by Breanna. These programs included Trello, Humanitix, Calendly and Slack. I then helped Marian organise the whiteboard that monitored enrolled schools. After a lunch break, I helped stick on the packing labels on boxes before interviewing Dan, Marian, and Breanna for the website.
In the afternoon, I was so excited to be able to join in on their ‘Team Huddle’ in the boardroom. I loved getting to see how action items are assigned, how each team member bounced off each other and how meetings run as I am currently learning about this in the process of studying a Diploma of Business. It was eye-opening to see the amount of planning and work that goes into the workshops and programs including travel, materials and contact with schools. A highlight of the day was working with the wonderful team and snacks that I was able to have throughout the day. So much better than school! I then braved the hustle and bustle of the city and caught two buses back to my accommodation.
WORK EXPERIENCE – DAY TWO
It was an early start for the second day of work experience as I joined Nicole on a workshop day at Brisbane Grammar School. We got to experience the thrills of their new STEAM precinct, filled with amazing facilities I could never even imagine even being possible in a school or classroom. There were multiple science labs, an entrepreneurial studio, prototyping rooms, and other rooms that support the theme of science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics. We were in two learning spaces (classrooms) and I helped set up for the 2.5 day workshop. I introduced myself and explained my previous involvement with Future Anything and the work that I had done regarding ReSeas.
It was incredible to see how the workshops were run by Nicole and Josh and how the students interacted and were engaged. As a part of the workshop, I got to judge the innovative dog bed competition and there were some funny responses! I particularly loved the automatic dog belly rubber. During the time that the boys were working on their ideas I interviewed Josh, edited, and refined the interviews and talked to some of the teachers from BGS who were supervising the workshop.
WORK EXPERIENCE – DAY THREE
On the third day it was another early morning start for the second day at Brisbane Boy’s Grammar to continue the workshop with the Year 7 boys.
On the third day it was another early morning start for the second day at Brisbane Boy’s Grammar to continue the workshop with the Year 7 boys.
I helped set up with Nicole and Josh and then presented to the boys about my ReSeas prototype as well as the thinking and design process that we went through to achieve it to demonstrate to the boys what they would be going through to achieve a similar result. I also worked with the students and assisted them with their ideas, challenged their thinking, expanded their ideas with them and also helped them to create and refine their prototype.
After the second session of the day Nicole and I went out to lunch before I spent the afternoon at the office. I was able to finish interviewing all of the staff and I also worked on my blog that will be going on their website. The weather was so warm! I was so sad to be finishing my work experience placement because of the amazing time that I had, the connections I made and the experiences I got to have. I am so incredibly grateful for all of my experiences with Future Anything and would highly encourage schools, students and even parents to reach out to them.
I am excited to see where my entrepreneurial odyssey will take me in the future. Go big, go wild, go together.
About the author: Grace Taylor
Grace Taylor was a was a finalist in the Future Anything National Grand Final in 2023. In July 2024, she spent a week with the joined the Future Anything team for work experience. In this blog, she shares her experience of a week helping our team to bend the future!
Future Anything’s Activate in-curriculum program and student workshops build confident communicators of all ages, by empowering young people to develop, and then persuasively pitch, innovative social enterprise solutions to the problems they care about.
Find out more about our programs here.
