Start-Up Kids: Westlake Elementary

Start-Up Kids: Encouraging Entrepreneurship From A Young Age

Published on Feb 17th, 2015

RKS led a workshop at Westlake Elementary School as a part of the Start-Up Kids enrichment program encouraging students to develop entrepreneurial mindsets. Cal Lutheran University Dean and long time RKS friend, Dr. Gerhard Apfelthaler, initiated this program fulfilling its mission that it is never too early to inspire. Stimulating independent thinking, creativity, and problem-solving skills is vital at an elementary level as minds are best formed at a young age.

It is important for children to be exposed to all career possibilities, including those that are less conventional. Scott Clear, RKS Chief Design and Innovation Officer, introduced the kids to some of the awe-inspiring creations of industrial design. The group gained knowledge of the differences between the right and left brain and the amazing things that can happen when both creatively inclined and logically inclined people work together to achieve a mutual goal.

Volunteers from the class were given the opportunity to redesign a travel coffee mug with the features they thought were most important for usability. Their bright and uninhibited minds came to incredible, original solutions including a contracting and expanding base that fits snugly into any size cup holder, heating mechanisms, and even password protected lid locking.

After proudly and passionately presenting their ideas to the class, the young designers got to take home prizes of RKS designed GameVice gaming controller and Kor Water bottles, both of which are flourishing start-up companies. Both Kor Water and GameVice started out with just an idea and since have built strong businesses through design and innovation. The program emphasizes the importance of showing kids that they can turn any vision that they have into reality.

The local Start-Up Kids program has been highly successful and it is growing rapidly. If, starting from this young age, kids were made aware of all of the opportunities they have, including taking their unique ideas, bringing them to reality, and starting their own businesses, we can only imagine how much fuller their lives would be. Children have a great way of pointing out problems and outlandish solutions that our inhibited minds could never have conceived. Those crazy ideas kids come up with could often turn into the most refreshing and revolutionary innovations we see.

“It is never too early to inspire.”

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About RKS

RKS is a design and innovation firm that creates solutions for clients that are relevant to the market, build the brand and create emotional connection. RKS services the full range of companies from funded startups to multinational corporations. Founder Ravi K. Sawhney cultivated a people-centric approach modeled from his work at Xerox PARC in the 1970’s, where innovative methods using psychology as an essential factor in design resulted in the first-generation touch screen graphic interface as well as many other breakthroughs. RKS came to national attention shortly after its founding by developing the production design of the animated Teddy Ruxpin, one of the greatest disruptive success stories in the history of the toy industry. Success followed success, with RKS being in on the ground floor of tablets with Alan Kay, Pocket Arcades with Sega and the game-changing dental whitening system for Discus Dental. Another milestone was the turnaround of MiniMed, developing a discreet personal insulin pump that allowed millions of diabetics to shed the stigma of being seen as “sick.” This inspired design took MiniMed from a declining $40M in revenue to $270M in three years, leading to its acquisition by Medtronic for $3.6B. The 1990’s brought a confluence of deep introspection and humanity, along with insights into how the work of Joseph Campbell and Abraham Maslow could inform design. This direction led to RKS Design’s highly acclaimed Psycho-Aesthetics methodology.
Students using RKS design thinking methodology

About RKS

RKS is a design and innovation firm that creates solutions for clients that are relevant to the market, build the brand and create emotional connection.

RKS services the full range of companies from funded startups to multinational corporations. Founder Ravi K. Sawhney cultivated a people-centric approach modeled from his work at Xerox PARC in the 1970’s, where innovative methods using psychology as an essential factor in design resulted in the first-generation touch screen graphic interface as well as many other breakthroughs.
RKS came to national attention shortly after its founding by developing the production design of the animated Teddy Ruxpin, one of the greatest disruptive success stories in the history of the toy industry. Success followed success, with RKS being in on the ground floor of tablets with Alan Kay, Pocket Arcades with Sega and the game-changing dental whitening system for Discus Dental. Another milestone was the turnaround of MiniMed, developing a discreet personal insulin pump that allowed millions of diabetics to shed the stigma of being seen as “sick.” This inspired design took MiniMed from a declining $40M in revenue to $270M in three years, leading to its acquisition by Medtronic for $3.6B.

The 1990’s brought a confluence of deep introspection and humanity, along with insights into how the work of Joseph Campbell and Abraham Maslow could inform design. This direction led to RKS Design’s highly acclaimed Psycho-Aesthetics methodology.

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