Catching Up With Aspirations Community Member Xyla Foxlin
AiC Community Member Xyla Foxlin, a mechanical engineering intern at iRobot, took some time to catch us up on some of the pretty amazing things she did this past fall.
Xyla was featured on Her Campus life:
In October, Xyla was a featured maker at Cleveland/CWRU Innovation Summit -- a unique Summit that explores the impact of various models of innovation, including how they contribute to regional economies, cultures, and education. There, Xyla presented her work with the NASA Robotics Team and BearHugs, a startup she founded with Harshita Gupta (another AiC Community Member).
In November, she competed in the Harvard Business School Dively Entrepreneurship Competition and took third place! (She was the only undergraduate who placed.) The Dively Entrepreneurship Award is granted annually to an individual or company in Northeast Ohio based on the demonstration of substantial success as an entrepreneur or entrepreneurial company. Success is demonstrated by rapid and solid growth in the size and profitability of the organization over the last five years, as well as by having achieved a position of significance in the marketplace addressed.
Xyla also took first place for BearHugs at #GirlPower Pitch Night. She was among the four female collegiate entrepreneurs representing the Northeast Ohio Blackstone LaunchPad programs to pitch and compete for the opportunity to win cash prizes.
Way to go Xyla and Harshita!
Xyla Foxlin joined her school's FIRST Robotics team four years ago, never having worked with NXT's, Tetrix, or even lego robotics. She fell in love and worked harder than she could have ever imagined, earning herself a place as the youngest captain her junior year. She is a 2015 NCWIT Award for Aspirations in Computing winner and a 2014 Massachusetts Affiliate Award winner.
To find out more about what Xyla is up to visit her website at http://www.xylafoxlin.com/.
You can also learn more about Xyla and Harshita's startup, BearHugs, in the video below.
