Student Assunta Mareschi Selected to Participate in Open Italy Innovation Boot Camp

Graduating senior Assunta Mareschi was recently selected to participate in the Open Italy Innovation Boot Camp. Hailing from Salerno, in the south of Italy, Assunta is an International Business major and a Marketing minor.

Assunta Mareschi

Last February, Assunta applied for the Open Italy Innovation Boot Camp, an 8-week intensive educational program organized by ELIS, a non-profit association that prepares disadvantaged people for the job market. The boot camp focuses on innovation skills and aims at preparing participants as Junior Innovation Consultants. The program is challenge-driven, and the start-ups and corporates of ELIS’s ecosystem provide the practical cases. After the first 8 weeks, Assunta will go through another selection process, where she’ll have the chance to enter a Consulting Team in ELIS’ Innovation Hub for 12 weeks and work with corporate and start-ups based on clients’ needs.

“This experience is a great opportunity to challenge myself both on a professional and personal level. Professionally speaking, I look forward to enhancing my problem-solving skills, developing my consulting skills, and increasing the network of opportunities to meet and connect with other professionals who share my interest in innovation. On a personal level, I look forward to strengthening my adaptability to new challenges and changes, improving my ability to navigate uncertainty, and expanding my perspective by learning from a group of peers and mentors from different backgrounds and cultures,” said Assunta.

After becoming the JCU Enactus Team Leader in February 2022, Assunta got involved in different projects, including the Enactus National Competition. During the 2022/23 academic year, the Enactus team decided to continue developing projects for the Enactus network. The opportunity to participate in the Open Italy Innovation Boot Camp came about through Enactus Italy in January 2023, when she received an invitation to attend the Open Italy ELIS event hosted at the MAXXI museum in Rome. During the course of the different panels, ELIS presented the Innovation Boot Camp, and after learning about the opportunity, Assunta applied, and she was one of the 25 people selected out of over 500 applicants.

“Studying at JCU has helped me adapt and understand different contexts, regardless of culture or background. My studies in International Business have provided me with the tools to work with a team of people with a variety of educational backgrounds,” said Assunta.

“JCU has helped me keep an open mind to navigate the various situations that life puts in front of me. The more days go by, the more I am convinced that pursuing the path of innovation is what I would like to keep doing.”