While most teenagers are working part time jobs in supermarkets or retail, 16-year-old Koki Mashita is checking the latest stock market reports in his role as co-founder and managing partner of investment firm, Lallic Partners. With more than a million dollars in investments, Lallic Partners is just one part of Koki's entrepreneurial journey. He has sold old computers when he was barely in high school, has cut $3000 of losses in an attempt to revolutionise Summer Camps and is now on the brink of...
Jan 29, 2021•40 min•Season 1Ep. 31
Angelina has lived throughout Europe but it was when she got to Hong Kong that she realised she was in the racial minority for the first time. In an effort to give voice to young people from all walks of life, Angelina started the On My Mind podcast and joined the Inclusivity Hong Kong student-led organisation. In this episode, we chat about her experience as an international student, how to start a podcast and the positives that can come from not knowing what you want to do after high school. C...
Jan 27, 2021•37 min•Season 1Ep. 30
When COVID hit, so did mountains of misinformation. Armed with a love of science and a deep interest in epidemiology, Stephanie Wang went to work. At 16-years-old, she has now published a book called Epidemiology Unmasked and with the book royalties, she has donated 1000 masks to frontline health workers. She is also committed to addressing the root cause of misinformation and has not only taught hundreds of students the basics of public health, she has also written lesson plans for biology stud...
Jan 22, 2021•42 min•Season 1Ep. 29
While 12-year-olds often dream about being an astronaut, Caleb Anderson is dreaming about working at SpaceX and he's well on his way after being accepted to Georgia Tech to study aerospace engineering. An academic phenom with a deep love of learning, Caleb's mum helped him to read from an early age and he has only continued to accelerate. Caleb chats with Crimson Education CEO and podcast co-host, Jamie Beaton, about what he did differently growing up, why he's aiming for SpaceX and what motivat...
Jan 20, 2021•28 min•Season 1Ep. 28
During school, Nathaniel Diong felt helpless to make a difference in the face of the world's problems. Now at 19-years-old, Nathaniel has been recognised as a 2021 Young Australian of the Year, AMP Tomorrow Maker and World Economic Forum Shaper for his work in education. As CEO of Future Minds Network, he’s helped 11,000 students become future-ready through entrepreneurship programs. His students are mentored by entrepreneurs who have raised millions in funding, built companies alongside the fou...
Jan 15, 2021•46 min•Season 1Ep. 27
17-year-old Adara Hagman is an explorer by nature and her intellectual curiosities have helped her to create mentoring start-ups, get grants from the Canadian government, give presentations on genetic engineering and have cricket protein bars on her desk. We chat about how she has partnered with organisations like IBM to work on the UN's Sustainable Development Goals and how she is empowering more youth to feel like they can make a difference in reaching these ambitious goals for humanity. You c...
Jan 13, 2021•47 min•Season 1Ep. 26
Have you ever tried to memorise the order of a shuffled deck of cards? What if you had a time limit and had to recite the order in front of judges on a national television show? That's exactly what Mahesh Namasivayam had to do as a contestant on Child Genius Australia, a competition he won in 2019 for a variety of academic feats ( see the final episode here ). In this chat, we talk about how he memorised the deck of cards using his love of the FIFA football game along with his study tips for oth...
Jan 09, 2021•36 min•Season 1Ep. 25
In December 2020, Gitanjali Rao was named the first ever TIME Magazine Kid of the Year. At 15-years-old, Gitanjali already has already been innovating for years having won the 3M Young Scientist Challenge in 2017 with her invention, Tethys , a portable device to detect lead in water using carbon nanotubes. Since then, Gitanjali has developed apps to fight cyberbullying and opioid addiction and has been inspiring thousands of students with her message to “observe, brainstorm, research, build and ...
Jan 06, 2021•26 min•Season 1Ep. 24
16-year-old Neil Mitra is on a mission to help millions of visually impaired people with his biotech start-up, EyeCane . Largely developed in his home over the past few years, Neil has taken EyeCane to the Canada Wide Science Fair in 2017 where he won a silver medal and he has also won the Ted Rogers Innovation Award in 2019 again for EyeCane. More recently, he was a finalist in the prestigious MIT LaunchX which gave him valuable experience and an even more valuable network. Since then, he has s...
Jan 02, 2021•57 min•Season 1Ep. 23
Faith had two life-changing moments in 2020 - the first was being accepted to Oxford and the second moment was when she knew the Singapore government would be supporting her for her entire degree! The PSC Open Scholarship is one of the most prestigious scholarships offered to Singapore citizens and it has many similarities with other scholarships around the world - judging students on character more than anything else. Faith shares her experience studying at an Arts School, choosing to study exp...
Dec 30, 2020•35 min•Season 1Ep. 22
With Santa on his way, Top of the Class co-hosts, Jamie and Alex, reflect on what they've learned from the students featured on the show and give some tips for listeners to make the most of 2021. Jamie also talks about the latest news coming out of an extraordinary year in college admissions. On a personal note (Alex here), thank you so much for supporting the show! If you're feeling in a giving mood, please write us a review on Apple Podcasts and share the show with friends and family. If there...
Dec 24, 2020•26 min
16-year-old Satvik is a massive Marvel fan but it was one of the lesser known characters that took him on a journey that has changed his life. Jarvis, the artificial intelligence assistant of Tony Stark (aka Iron Man) got Satvik thinking of how he could have his very own version of Jarvis. Since then, he has learned 14 different coding languages, developed two apps for the Google Assistant, taken more than 50 graduate and undergraduate tech courses and is the founder and head of TechVik - a glob...
Dec 23, 2020•52 min•Season 1Ep. 21
When Danielle Geathers was elected Student Body President of MIT, she made history by being the first black woman to hold the role since the university was founded in 1861. But her achievement still shouldn't come as a surprise as Danielle has long been involved in student action and giving back to the community around her. In this episode, Danielle chats about her journey to becoming the Student Body President, how the experience has changed her views on leadership, her tips for students to get...
Dec 18, 2020•47 min•Season 1Ep. 20
Kaushal Reddy Ottem has accelerated through school and now he has just been accepted to Harvard Business School for postgraduate studies - even though he just turned 17 and he hasn't yet graduated high school! In this podcast, Kaushal talks about why he chose to fast-track his schooling and how he learned to code - setting up two companies in the process. He has also written five books available on Amazon and has multiple publications on Google Scholar. Kaushal talks us through how he got into H...
Dec 16, 2020•46 min•Season 1Ep. 19
Growing up in Hawaii and San Francisco, it was easy to find a group of students to discuss social justice issues with. But moving back to Japan, Yuko Nagakura started to notice that feminism and social justice did not get many people talking. She started the SheQuality blog to raise awareness of sexism in Japan and then made the decision to join online high school, Crimson Global Academy. After finding a group of like-minded students from around the world, the SheQuality blog now has an internat...
Dec 12, 2020•42 min•Season 1Ep. 18
More and more students are learning to code in high school but how do you take that next step to turn it into a profitable company? In this episode, co-founder of AppSydney, 15-year-old Nicholas Mihailou, takes us through how he learned to code to the experience of sharing his first app with friends at school. He also shares some of the pros and cons of being a teenage entrepreneur, what it's like creating apps for large companies and gives his advice for other students wanting to do the same. C...
Dec 09, 2020•40 min•Season 1Ep. 17
Fionn Ferreira's enthusiasm for chemistry and innovation is only matched by his passion for helping the environment. When you put these two qualities together along with the chance to win a t-shirt and a Chromebook, you get the beginnings of Fionn's journey to winning the 2019 Google Science Fair. Since then, he has attended the World Economic Forum, featured in ads for HP, spoken on global stages, had a minor planet named after him and is now working with engineers to scale his innovation. In t...
Dec 04, 2020•54 min•Season 1Ep. 16
After seeing thousands of talented students, it takes a lot to impress Crimson Education CEO, Jamie Beaton, but even he admits that Ben Zhang is 'one of the highest achievers I've ever seen.' Now at Harvard pursuing a degree in Molecular and Cellular Biology and Statistics, Ben is one of a handful of students to have won a medal at the International Biology Olympiad and the International Chemistry Olympiad - and that's just the start of his academic achievements! Ben and Jamie talk about prepari...
Dec 02, 2020•59 min•Season 1Ep. 15
"What do you want to be when you grow up?" We have all got a version of this question and while some may have certainty, many do not. Learning from her own struggles in attempting to answer this question, 18-year-old Hannah Ahn created YCompass, a platform to help students make more informed decisions about their future. It's not her first project to help students pave a smoother path beyond school as she is also the co-founder of Yakka. We chat with Hannah about how she set up Yakka and YCompas...
Nov 30, 2020•35 min•Season 1Ep. 14
16-year-old Melbourne student, Magnus Mulhall, was surprised after receiving the 'Best Delegate' award at the Harvard Innovation Challenge but he shouldn't be! Magnus has interests across the board being a member of the New York Science Academy, a water polo coach, a violinist and an active student leader just to name a few. In this episode, Magnus discusses what makes applications to any program or leadership position stand out from the crowd and how to make the most of a student leadership pos...
Nov 27, 2020•40 min•Season 1Ep. 13
In 2019, a 14-year-old Kara Fan won the 3M Young Scientist Challenge for her nano-silver liquid bandage. The win gave Kara some great prize money and the title of America's Top Young Scientist. Now 15, Kara reflects on how the idea came about, how she created nano-silver in her family kitchen and her growing passion for bringing awareness to the problem of antibiotic resistance. Since then, Kara has adapted her project to assist with COVID-19 prevention and was a guest judge for the 2020 competi...
Nov 25, 2020•37 min•Season 1Ep. 12
While some students may tutor a few friends, Daksh Chuchra has set up a whole e-learning platform. Econocomics started as a resource sharing site which now has a global reach and he's doing it all for free! On top of that, Daksh was one of the early applicants to the International Study Ambassador Program. Being one of the first to join the student-run organisation has helped Daksh to shape the program in his role as COO. Daksh gives his advice on setting up an e-learning platform, the key to ru...
Nov 23, 2020•29 min•Season 1Ep. 11
Maha is a 15-year-old from Aurora, Illinois and is a self-proclaimed science nerd. With an interest in organisations that make a difference, Maha is now the Director of Science at ATHENA by Wi-STEM and a legislative ambassador for the American Cancer Society. Maha gives students an insight into how she has accelerated her learning outside of school, how she goes about contacting professors and politicians and why getting more girls involved in STEM is so important to her. Click here to connect w...
Nov 20, 2020•57 min•Season 1Ep. 10
When 17-year-old Gayatri went into lockdown, her phone usage started to skyrocket and her friends were experiencing the same problem. After deleting social media apps or phone usage apps didn't work, Gayatri started to look deeper into the problem. Through research and testing, Gayatri created the Look Glass Program - a 14-day habit based program to help people take back control of their relationship with technology. So far, the program has more than 4,000 downloads. In this episode, Gayatri tal...
Nov 19, 2020•38 min•Season 1Ep. 9
In this special episode, Crimson Education CEO and Top of the Class co-host, Jamie Beaton, sits down with former New Zealand Prime Minister, Sir John Key. John Key recounts his days in high school, his early career path and how he got into politics. He also shares his advice for this generation of students who are entering a rapidly changing future. Click here to see the chat on YouTube. John Key is a current Senior Advisor for the Crimson Global Academy ....
Nov 14, 2020•41 min•Season 1Ep. 8
When COVID-19 lockdowns started to cancel school extracurriculars, many students were at a loss at what to do with their new found free time. John Hopcroft, 16, was one of these students and after working his way through a few hours of Netflix, he turned his attention to his passion for debating. International debating is highly sought after but is difficult to get selected for and expensive to participate in. John saw the opportunity to start his own international debating competition that woul...
Nov 11, 2020•36 min•Season 1Ep. 7
In this episode, Jamie chats with 3 x VEX Robotics Champion, Jia Dua. Jia is originally from New Zealand but now studies at Duke University and is a recipient of the full ride Robertson Scholarship. Jia discusses her journey through each year of the competition and gives some critical advice on capturing the attention of judges and what makes a winning team. She also talks about her experience as a woman in STEM, reflects on what she'd change if she had her time in school over again and how she ...
Nov 09, 2020•51 min•Season 1Ep. 6
What do you get when you cross Grey's Anatomy and the Just Dance video game? For 17-year-old Krithik Ramesh, you get an award winning science project that could revolutionise spinal surgery. In this episode, the 2019 winner of ISEF (now sponsored by Regeneron) shares how he came up with the idea and the mindset that enables him to turn an idea into reality. You can read the project abstract here or see a short news story about his project on YouTube . Krithik also has a not for profit to put sol...
Nov 07, 2020•48 min•Season 1Ep. 5
Soumil Singh recently graduated from Harvard and now lives in LA to take part in the prestigious Y Combinator start up accelerator. It's a long way from Soumil's hometown of Hamilton in New Zealand so in this episode, Soumil shares some insights on how he got into Harvard, the experiences that led him to explore entrepreneurship and some sage advice for current high school students. Click here to read more about Soumil's Harvard admission Click here to learn more about the Crimson Global Academy...
Nov 05, 2020•49 min•Season 1Ep. 4
When Jack was 9, he had never visited a farm and didn't know any farmers. But when he saw a story on the drought that was devastating Australian farmers, he knew he wanted to make a difference. Since then, Jack's Fiver for a Farmer campaign has raised nearly $2M and is now a registered charity. In this episode, Jack shares his experiences and advice for students including logo and slogan creation, media presence and what it was like to do a tour of rural Australia with the Prime Minister. For mo...
Nov 03, 2020•36 min•Season 1Ep. 3
