It’s time to brainstorm. This summer, a team of six high-school interns, under the mentorship of local e-commerce software company Unbound Commerce, wants to build a mobile app to meet the needs of some organization or community in Newton. What should they build? Can you recommend a need, or an organization that may have a need, or a person the team should meet? Post your ideas here, or email [email protected].
From July 10 through August 18, the team will work in the Upper Falls headquarters of Unbound Commerce, learning to code and building an app for Apple iOS and Android. Last summer, Unbound Commerce mentored a similar team that built a mobile app for the Newton South HS Athletics Booster Club.
This project is part of the Mayor’s Summer High School Internship Program, which this year has matched 100 students with 38 organizations/city departments across the city. All interns will participate in weekly workshops at City Hall on financial literacy, resume writing, workplace communications, and problem solving. Graduate students from Boston College will provide support to help interns assess their own core values, strengths, and what impact they want to make in the world. This program is no longer accepting students for this summer, but applications for next summer will be accepted starting in December. If you have questions — or would like to mentor one or more interns next summer — contact Newton’s Director of Youth Services, Quinn Etchie, at [email protected] or 617 796-1436.
The city’s 311 app leaves a lot to be desired and has many embarrassing bugs. In the unlikely case that the city owns the code and not a 3rd party provider, fixing the app would make an educational and useful project.
We have successfully taught Junior & Sr high schoolers how to sell on ebay, furthering their college experience with a down to earth sense of value in the global marketplace. Recognizing intrinsic value within the community, gaining global supply & demand technique, and building on a lifelong skill of negotiation, has supplemented the formal structured educational process. The world is at their fingertips, why not improve upon their future success.
I’m a little biased on this, but given their location in the N-Squared Innovation District, I’d love an app that helps people know where they are and how far they are from various features of the district (kayaking, walking in Culter Park, lunch on Needham Street, other companies, etc.).
Ideally, it would also take a data feed so it could let people know about food trucks at Needham Crossing, menu specials from local restaurants and any business networking events that are local.