Staying in School

Tue, Jun 18, 2013 - 8:41am -- Isaac Sukin

Yesterday the new Dorm Room Fund blog launched, and along with it Steve's post What It Really Means To Drop Out. Steve explains how meeting amazing Thiel Fellows (who are given money to drop out of school and start companies) lent confidence to his conviction to stay in school, saying "that is exactly why Dorm Room Fund exists."

That point -- that Dorm Room Fund exists to help students do amazing things while they are in school -- is extremely important to me. As Dorm Room Fund founder Dan Shipper wrote last week, why are in you in such a rush? You can only have the college experience once, and you'll hopefully have another 60 years afterwards to continue building skills, relationships, and companies. As students, our lives have been a series of well-defined next steps and expectations, but the rest of our lives are anything but well-defined. College isn't for everyone, but there is a lot to get out of it, especially for would-be founders who should be seeking knowledge and experience as a long-term investment.

That's one reason why Dorm Room Fund is so important to me. If we can empower students to treat making an impact as a long-term investment, we can help build a sustainable community of innovators -- people who can join forces to thoughtfully embrace world-changing challenges together.