The story is about how a ten year old girl applied for a summer internship with the aim of bringing back hope and joy to the people of France. Such a selfless act touched the heart of one of the founding partners of ‘Five by Five’ sand they decided to share the encounter with the public.
Below Kat Borlongan gives a detailed review of her response to Eva’s letter.
This will make your day, I promise.
Eva, a 10-year-old, applied to our summer fellowship program amidst mostly computer science PhDs and seasoned urban designers. A summary of her pitch: “The streets of Paris are sad. I want to build a robot that will make them happy again. I’ve already starting learning how to code on Thymio robots, but I have trouble making it work. I want to join the program so the mentors can help me.” Here is my reply to her.
Dear Eva,
The answer is yes. You have been selected as one of Paris’ first-ever Summer Innovation Fellows among an impressive pool of candidates from all across the world: accomplished urban designers, data scientists, and hardware specialists. I love your project and agree that more should be done–through robotics or otherwise–to improve Paris’ streets and make them smile again.
I am writing to you personally because your application inspired me. There was nothing on the website that said the program was open to 10-year-olds but–as you must have noticed–nothing that said that it was not. You’ve openly told us that you had trouble making the robot work on your own and needed help. That was a brave thing to admit, and ultimately what convinced us to take on your project. Humility and the willingness to learn in order to go beyond our current limitations are at the heart and soul of innovation.
It is my hope that your work on robotics will encourage more young girls all over the world–not just to code, but to be as brave as you, in asking for help and actively looking for different ways to learn and grow. More good news: I wrote to Thymio, the robotics company whose tech you use and asked if they could designate a specialist to personally help you. They have decided that that person will be their President himself. They will also be providing you their latest robot.
Welcome aboard our spaceship, Eva. We’re very much looking forward to meeting you in person.
All the best from Paris,
Kat Borlongan
Founding Partner, Five by Five
PS
Please ask your dad to call me 🙂
As individuals, we should all learn from the selfless and bold attitude of Eva, which proves that everyone can do their part to make the world a better place.
Source: Kat Borlongan·Thursday, June 23, 2016
