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Andrea Pettersson - Inga Ingenjör

www.ingaingenjor.se

Instagram: ingaingenjor

Facebook: Inga Ingenjör

https://www.facebook.com/ingaingenjor

 

 

Andrea Pettersson

 


Andrea Pettersson - Inga Ingenjör #1

 

Describe yourself and your project. How did you get the idea?  

Malin Yngvesson and I have created a children’s book that inspires 5-9 year old kids to science and engineering. The process took 2 years and the main character is Inga Ingenjör (Inga the engineer).

The book “Inga och Leo löser allt” was published in August 2015 by Fri Tanke and is really appreciated among children, parents and teachers.

Finally, we are ready to reach out with Inga Ingenjör’s inspiration to all kids in Sweden.

 

Who are you? Previous education/jobs/ experiences etc.

When I was little, we discussed society and the value of diversity a lot at home. At age 10, I choose to go to school in a multi-culti area in Örebro, Sweden.

I discovered my passion for natural sciences when I was 14. Spending hours at the local library trying to figure out what physics was all about.

Today, I am an engineer and author – working as a social entrepreneur inspiring kids to science.

 

What will you do during these three months? How will you spend the time? 

  • Arrange events and workshops for kids 5-9 years old with Inga Ingenjör (Inga the Engineer)
  • Establish collaborations with value driven teachers, librarians, students, science centers and companies.
  • Search for ambassadors that want to contribute to project
  • Research and improve my skills in storytelling and technical edutainment
  • Create and document a lot of material with Inga Ingenjör as front figure

 

What do you expect to achieve during Leapfrogs?

  • To develop and try out new workshop concepts with Inga Ingenjör
  • To evaluate the concepts and get feedback
  • To create inspirational material for working with the  book: at home, at schools and at libraries
  • To find new ambassadors for Inga Ingenjör
  • To find ways of engaging people already familiar to the project
  • To start developing our long-termed strategy to be able to reach all kids aged 5-9 years in Sweden with our inspiration and enthusiasm

Andrea Pettersson - Inga Ingenjör #2

 

Tell us what you have done on your project so far during the Leapfrogs time. 

I have held 10 different “Inga Ingenjör-events” for kids at festivals and libraries. Further to this, our strategic objectives and marketing strategy is further developed.

Networking has also been a key activity. In Almedalen 2016, I went with Swedish Science centers contributing to their national seminar on programming for kids and I held a lecture with the Lund University incubator VentureLab. In addition, I participated in an international Science communication conference in Leuven, Belgium.

 

Has everything gone according to the plan? Has anything unexpected occurred? Has something been easier/harder than expected?

It has gone great and I have had lots of fun – especially during the events. An important achievement was new project funding in order to achieve certain objectives until the 31th December 2016. That will take us closer to our main objective: to reach all kids 5-9 years old in Sweden with Inga Ingenjör’s inspiration within three years.

It has been hard to find a life balance as a full-time social entrepreneur, as I want to work constantly. However, I recently got some great advice on how to manage priorities.

 

What will you focus on during the remaining time? Will you follow your original plan or has anything changed along the way? 

I will have more events for kids: at different libraries and participate in Swedish Television (Sommarlov, Barnkanalen) showing some fun science experiments.

My main focus will lay within documentation, research and developing additional and inspirational material to the book “Inga och Leo löser allt”. I have found new ambassadors and built a feedback-group so I will keep contact with them. In addition, I will continue with following our marketing strategy and share information about the project on social media channels.

 


Andrea Pettersson - Inga Ingenjör #3

 

How did you experience the three months?

Invaluable! We have achieved so much and leapfrogs has given us a rocket start to be able to build what Inga Ingenjör (Inga the Engineer) stands for. To work for every child’s right to learn and know about their opportunities in life, and thereby introduce them to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM subjects) at age 5-9, is amazing. And the experience is worth the world to me.

 

What has been hardest/most enjoyable?

The hardest thing has been to learn what is good enough, when is “good enough” really enough − and when to pay more attention and time: as the “good enough” level is not always enough.

 

The most enjoyable has been all positive feedback that we got during the summer from people in general and children in particular.

 In addition, I value all the personal meetings and communication with value driven professionals over these months. We are not alone as entrepreneurs trying to work for an increased social sustainability in Sweden and there are millions of ways to contribute and help each other out.

 

Did it go as expected? Will you continue working on your project in the future?

We accomplished a lot over the past few months. This Autumn, we are going to work in order to achieve some certain milestones along the way against our main objective: to reach out to all kids in Sweden aged 5-9 years old.

I think that our greatest challenge is not how to create value – especially for the society – as we are already doing that every day now. But, as we are social entrepreneurs, we need to establish our concept so that we can create shared values with viable business and/or organisations in the long term.

 

What would you say is the most important lesson learnt while working on your project?

This summer I spent a lot of time working alone. The lesson I learnt is that I am able to do so and I can keep my motivation up but I did not like it. I need people around me to be able to celebrate the achievements and I really missed having spontaneous and informal discussions at work. And I think that is really important in the long run!

 

Do you have any tips to other ”new” entrepreneurs?

  1. Start doing.
  2. Tell the world.
  3. Define your aims, objectives and visions.
  4. Believe in your vision and iterate and change your methods until you find a way to reach it.