Forty Tufts students interested in entrepreneurship spent this past weekend on an aircraft carrier with many prominent executives and representatives from the nation's biggest companies, as part of a conference on entrepreneurship.
The first annual Kairos Summit, which took place on Friday and Saturday, was hosted by the Kairos Society, a group dedicated to promoting entrepreneurship among college students. The event took place at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum on the former USS Intrepid aircraft carrier, which is permanently docked in New York City.
The conference offered college entrepreneurs the opportunity to connect with other students and professionals from all over the country and share stories, experiences and ideas about entrepreneurship.
Five hundred students attended the summit alongside many prominent former and current CEOs and executives, including Phil Condit, the former chairman and CEO of Boeing Co. and Ellen Kullman (E '78), CEO of DuPont and a Tufts trustee.
"We had some great speakers come, and it was great to hear what they had to say about entrepreneurship," said Kullman's daughter Maggie, a Tufts freshman, who attended the Saturday portion of the summit. "I met some people that may help me find an internship in New York this summer. Overall, it was a great experience."
For members of the Tufts chapter of Kairos, the conference provided an opportunity to establish connections and to solicit input from other like-minded students.
"It was great to see these top students helping each other with the problems they face with their ventures," said sophomore Artem Efremkin, the president of the Tufts chapter of Kairos.
Tufts was well-represented, with five alumni and two trustees in attendance, junior Greg Hering said in an e-mail before conference.
Heidi Collins, an anchor on the cable news show "CNN Newsroom," hosted the summit, which featured video keynote presentations from former President Bill Clinton and William Gates Sr., the father of Microsoft founder Bill Gates and co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
The Kairos Society was founded in 2007 by current president Ankur Jain, now a sophomore at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. The international organization encourages socially responsible collegiate entrepreneurship.
-- by Matt Repka
