Making the most of your opportunities is the motto that Jada Coronel, currently a first-year student at Queens University in Kingston, Ontario, lives by. She completed her IB diploma in Toronto, initially thinking she wanted to follow a career in the sciences, but then realizing her interest lies more in the business field. At Queens, she is studying commerce, while also being part of the investment council and a private capital group at the university.

How did BETA Camp come into your life?

When Covid-19 struck, school and all the extracurricular activities I was involved in came to a standstill. I had some free time on my hands, and as it coincided with the time my interest changed from science to business, I decided to take the time to see how I could further my interest in business. Information about BETA Camp appeared on my Instagram, and after researching it, I decided at the very last minute to apply. I was part of the first cohort, so I was very new to the business world and BETA Camp was also still in its beginning stages.

Was it easy for you to join BETA Camp?

I literally had no business experience when I joined, so I did feel a bit intimidated by the other participants, who all seemed to know much more than I did. I was a bit hesitant at first to, for example, answer questions or talk in the Discord server, but once I was put in a team with a really great skillsets, it all changed.

What did you gain from the experience?

With BETA Camp I gained experience in so many areas, from website development to market research to marketing to pitching, which incidentally I loved.

And then BETA Camp became a super central part of my high school experience as I was offered an internship position. It continued throughout my Grade 11 year, which was still mainly online, and it kept me motivated and I learned so much. The mentorship that I was able to get from the founders and other staff helped me make the decision about which university to go to and the course I want to do.

I left the internship in my Grade 12 year but took it up again in the summer holidays before my first year. That helped me to gain even more experience in things like market research, the back end of running live sessions, analyzing NPS scores, copywriting, writing blog posts and so much more.

What startup did you build at BETA Camp?

We built a startup which uses sociability as a form of accountability. You would register on a website, enter your interests, and get partnered with somebody with similar interests. Then you would set weekly goals for each other and post your progress or completion of the goals. Our reasoning was we were all doing BETA Camp during Covid-19 because we wanted to stay motivated. It was a big issue during that time and with the startup we were trying to solve it – and we were literally our target market!

In retrospect we should have niched it a bit more because it was very generic, and we had people setting goals from coding to reading. It did not continue after BETA Camp, but we learned a lot from it.

How did BETA Camp change your outlook on the world?

Working as an intern and meeting the super accomplished guest speakers, I initially thought it would be almost impossible to become like them. But then I realized they're just people who are very ambitious and know how to work towards their goals. And really, if you want something bad enough, anybody can do it. So that definitely changed my outlook on life in general.

Also, I learned not to be afraid to reach out to people if you are really interested in what they are doing. It is a matter of making the most of your opportunities and not being scared to fail. That’s when there is the most room for growth for yourself.

What does the future hold for you?

I find the venture capital field very interesting – the whole process of looking at these startup companies from a very early stage, making educated guesses about their potential and providing them with resources for success. I don’t know if I necessarily want to start my own business one day, but that remains to be seen.

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