Danielle Egan and Saumya Goyal met during orientation for UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business and bonded over a mutual passion for social enterprise and education. With COVID-19 and shelter-in-place orders, the pair realized that youth would feel isolated and bored, and that opportunity gaps would widen drastically during this time.
 
They launched Connect-In-Place (CIP) as a way for students to take small, interactive classes where they could connect with peers and be mentored by college students at prominent universities. They also realized the digital divide was an even more pressing issue now than ever before, so they dedicated themselves to raising money to provide laptops to students with financial need.
 
Even as we return to a "new normal," the CIP team realized that the immense inequalities in education were not going to resolve themselves. So they decided to continue their mission of ensuring all students have the opportunity and mentorship to discover their passions.

The Connect-In-Place team is thrilled by our success so far, and we are excited to continue developing CIP into the future!