Valencia High School juniors Nika Moosavi, Ishita Puggera and Jaden Nakamura took their leadership and confidence skills to a new level.
The school’s chapter of Distributive Education Clubs of America, an international program that prepares emerging leaders and entrepreneurs in marketing, finance, hospitality and management, culminates the year with a state conference where they present their work to a panel of judges.
The three Valencia juniors were so passionate and dedicated to their campaign that the conference wasn’t enough for them — they personally wanted to present their innovative ideas to their company of choice for which they created the project: Prenuvo.
Prenuvo is a company focused on pioneering the future of health care offering an hourlong session of magnetic resonance imaging and searching for early signs of cancer, aneurysms, liver disease and multiple sclerosis.
“They just fell in love with the company and they reached out on their own … and wanted to share their efforts because they weren’t ready to say goodbye to it,” said Felicia Marquez, advisor for the class.
The three students’ initiatives earned them a personal invitation to meet and pitch their ideas and campaign to Prenuvo officials, including its CEO.
“I was interested in the medical aspects of startup companies [like Prenuvo] and … with the help of artificial intelligence we thought it was very cool. AI is kind of the future of medicine and society as a whole so we were going through different companies and Prenuvo really caught my eye,” said Moosavi.
Their strategy consisted of a 10-page marketing campaign, seeking out cancer-related advocacy events, developing a budget and scheduling campaign activities, and also creating an MRI machine prototype, said Puggera.
One challenge they faced during their strategy development was condensing their pitch to the appropriate time frame, said Marquez.
“They were so well researched in this project they had to cut out information because they couldn’t go over time. They went above and beyond of what was required for them as far as research,” she added.
The experience for the students was a fulfilling one and fueled them to continue their efforts in becoming well-rounded, confident leaders.
The Prenuvo team members were impressed with the students and loved their ideas, and it was overall a good experience for the students, they said.
“It was a cool experience because we were finally able to show everything we’ve been working on and it was a good summation of everything,” said Puggera. “We had that validation of, ‘We’ve actually done something really cool and we put a lot of work into it.’”
The ambitious teens aren’t done yet and hope to continue nurturing this idea during their senior year of high school.
“We are the future … It’s never too early to start, and I think this is just something that we’re super passionate about and it’s really cool to see that we were able to take it to the next level with this project,” said Puggera.
Marquez, who was proud of her students for implementing what she has taught them during their class, became emotional when she witnessed her students in front of corporate personnel showcasing their talents, she said.
“Projects like this are super important for students because it really gives them a competitive advantage not only for college applications but real work experience and it gives them something that is meaningful to work towards,” Marquez said. “I’d be intimidated if I was their age. I was proud. The action to reach out to the company on their own … most students wouldn’t do that.”
“They did a beautiful job and I felt like their pitch got even better when they were there,” she added.
Some advice the group would give to other students seeking to create opportunities like this for themselves is to “take action in what you’re passionate about because you never know what the outcome will be,” said Moosavi.
She recalled that her father was the person who encouraged her to reach out to Prenuvo via email.
“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take, and that’s what I learned from this,” said Moosavi.
