Alumni Spotlight – Dylan Merrick

Learn to Start is proud to be working with the next generation of lower, middle, and high school students in reimagining what the 21st-century education system should look like. Hear from one of LTS’s incredible alumni, Dylan Merrick, as he shares how LTS has impacted his personal and professional life since graduating from the program.

Confidence

Learn to Start: How has being in Learn To Start impacted your confidence as a person? From my past experience in being in Learn to Start, it has completely changed my confidence as a person. Throughout middle school and the beginning of high school, I used to be a very shy person and could never think of myself getting up in front of a group of people or reaching out to people I was not familiar with. Within the first week of class, I was tasked with getting up in front of everyone and introducing myself. I had written everything down that I was going to say because I was very nervous before this presentation. I struggled to give this presentation and it was pretty clear that I was reading straight off of my computer the entire time.

After this experience, I became more comfortable with getting up in front of people and speaking straight from my brain rather than having everything written down beforehand. For example, I had gotten up and sang in front of my entire sleepaway camp 2 years ago and this was something that I would have never been able to do if I did not participate in this program. Throughout the 3 years of this program, I constantly got up in front of the class to speak about ideas that I was not really comfortable with, but it made me into a better person, and now I have confidence in myself whenever I do something.

Risk-taking

LTS: What was your experience with risk-taking before LTS vs after? How has LTS impacted your ability to take risks? I was never a big risk-taker at all before LTS, and by going through this program I am not afraid now to come out of my comfort zone and take a risk that I would not normally have. The biggest risk that I took in this class was when I was tasked with reaching out to people in the bedding industry, which had to do with my cooling bed sheets product at the time. I reached out to about 5 people and the co-founder of a bedding company called Buffy responded to me. I did not expect any of the people I reached out to to respond to me so I was very excited. I ended up interviewing him with my partner on this project at the time, and he gave me great insight into the industry and how to develop my product. He ended up coming in to speak to my class as well, and I pitched everything I learned from him to the entire class and he ended up sending me and my friend a comforter for each of our beds.

My mindset is now to reach out to as many people and to take as many risks as possible because the worst thing that can happen is they do not reach out back or the situation does not work out. Failure gives me more motivation to strive for greatness in life.

Taking advantage of opportunities

LTS: Has your experience with taking advantage of opportunities changed before LTS vs after? How has LTS impacted your ability to take advantage of opportunities? Before LTS, I would not be comfortable taking advantage of the opportunities surrounding me, but after the program, I felt more inclined to take advantage of opportunities because you never know what could happen. The first opportunity I looked to take advantage of after starting this program was applying for this leadership program that helped me to make connections. I got into the program, it is called Soloman Leadership, and I had the opportunity to collaborate with a mentor and have guest speakers come in and talk about their personal experiences.

Another opportunity I took advantage of more recently was applying for a program on the UF campus called Tamid. They work directly with startups in Israel and it seemed very intriguing to me. I made it past both the application and interview rounds and now I am involved with the fund program where we evaluate stocks and help companies grow. Lastly, the President of The National Baseball Hall of Fame came to speak to one of my clubs last month. I then took the initiative to reach out to him and we had a phone call where he guided me through the process of how he became successful. I am very interested in working for a baseball team, so I took advantage of reaching out to him because you never know what can happen if you just send that one message. He will be a connection for life now. The LTS program brought out my networking skills and made me fearless to take on any opportunity that was in front of me.