Welcome to the Social Impact Podcast, brought to you by the Loeb Center at Amherst College and hosted by Ella Simons ’26!
In each episode, I sit down with a student or alum to explore their personal career journeys, the choices that have shaped them, and the insights they’ve gained along the way. Whether you’re curious about purposeful work or looking for inspiration in your own path, tune in for fresh perspectives and meaningful conversations. Stay tuned for new episodes dropping soon!
The transcription below has been edited for clarity.
Ella:
Hi there everyone! Welcome to another episode of the Social Impact Podcast from the Loeb Center. I’m your host, Ella Simons, and in this week’s episode, I sat down with Alex Nichols, a junior here at the College, and the founder of venture accelerator Ideas to Innovation, or i2i. We discussed topics ranging from entrepreneurship to the role of internships. So sit back, relax and enjoy the conversation.
Hi, Alex. Can you just briefly introduce yourself?
Alex:
Sure, I’m Alex. I’m a junior here at Amherst College. I’m a computer science major, and I also run on the track team. I’m a sprinter, so I kind of get the athletic academic outlets, and both of those I really appreciate. I would also describe myself as an entrepreneur. I come from a family of entrepreneurs, and what I mean with that word is someone who enjoys identifying problems in the world and trying to generate solutions. So that’s not necessarily profit driven. It’s just solution and value creation.
Ella:
Okay, very interesting. So I know that you have founded i2i here at Amherst. Can you explain briefly what that is to the people listening?
Alex:
Sure. So i2i stands for Ideas to Innovation and ultimately, it’s the culmination of a lack of organized entrepreneurship at the school. So about a year ago, some friends and I who wanted more outlets to kind of create the ideas that we have, we got together, and we decided to work together to try to create something student-led, because that’s the best thing we could do, and just create more infrastructure for students to be able to pursue ideas they have. Our ultimate goal is to champion the entrepreneurial voice at Amherst, most importantly, because we believe that the liberal arts education we get here produces really strong entrepreneurs, and that entrepreneurship, in a lot of ways, is very vital to what we hold dear and near for the liberal arts education.
We believe, at i2i, that entrepreneurship is about identifying a problem and then creating a solution. And with the liberal arts, it teaches us very aggressively and astutely how to ask the proper questions to best understand the full problem. And in doing that, it positions us actually to be the most effective solvers of that problem, because the multi-discipline, multi-faceted and overall, broad education we get through the liberal arts really sets us up to ask the right questions and understand the entire complexities of a problem, and ultimately, like I said, solve it better than most.
Ella:
What are you studying? And have you studied things outside of your focus of study?
Alex:
Yeah, so I’m a computer science major, which should be no surprise to anyone who also hears the word entrepreneurship. Ultimately, I chose computer science because it’s a way to think very logically and step by step, and deterministic about a problem, but also gives me a lot of the tools I was seeking to create things in the world.
I have tried to take full use of the liberal arts and open curriculum we have here. I started as a neuroscience major. Yeah, I studied the brain, and ultimately I was interested in how these kinds of networks work. But the neuroscience degree here is more biology, which is very interesting in its own right, but I was looking for a little bit more about the interconnectedness of things. And for me personally, I found that through computer science. But I also take a good deal of religion and English and math courses. Those are probably the top three other courses.
Ella:
Yeah, that’s cool.
Alex:
What about you?
Ella:
I’m an anthropology and English major. And for me, I was thinking, as you said that, anthropology, to me, explains a lot of the interconnectedness of things. I guess cybernetics is almost like the more sociological analog to computer science.
Alex:
What’s cybernetics?
Ella:
It explains, kind of how societies function, like at the individual level. So in that way it is a little like neuroscience. It’s like behavioral science, pretty much.
Alex:
Yeah, that’s fascinating.
I mean, I think a lot of ultimately, if you want to build solutions for the world, you need to understand how humans operate. Because humans, ultimately, for the most part, are the ones who interact and use and spread your tool. So I bet you have a very interesting lens on the world through that study.
Ella:
I hope so.
So can I ask if you have a success story that you’re particularly proud of?
Alex:
Yeah, I think it’s probably i2i at this point. I gave a pretty conceptual explanation of it. What we actually do is we’re a venture accelerator, which means we’re a centralized hub for students to come and build projects and work on projects. We have a group of 40 students now, and more faculty, staff and alumni who work alongside us to help us and advise and kind of shape us. But we’re a group of about 40 students who want to work on problems.
Entrepreneurs, or anyone really, what we’re trying to do is broaden that term, anyone who has an idea about how they could solve a problem in the world, they can come to us and tell us about that problem, and together, we can shape it and ultimately help them realize their goal. And we do this because, A, we want to nurture this entrepreneurial spirit at Amherst for a variety of reasons, but also B, the students in our club i2i, the 40 of us, they’re looking for project and work experience to put on their resumes, talk about in interviews, and ultimately prepare themselves to act and shape the world. And so when entrepreneurs come to i2i, they’re also kind of giving and generating this type of work and experience for our members to help them shape their own problem solving skills.
And so one, one reason I feel so passionately that this was a success of mine and the group that I’m with–a success of ours–is that the school, Amherst College, prides ourself on being an institution and a community that creates problem solvers, but, but in reality, it sometimes it feels abstract. And for a lot of students I talk to, they don’t know where the actual practice of that problem solving is. And so, you know, I feel that, you know, with the energy we’re generating and the community we’re building around entrepreneurship, we’re really, really creating a viable outlet for students to actually problem solve and practice this skill that they’re told that they’re getting, and they can feel more more physically and intuitively.
Ella:
Yeah, I do see that as a gap here. Some people have a stereotype of liberal arts education as like, “oh, you learn a lot of theory that just kind of doesn’t really help you much like in the real world,” right?
Alex:
But the important thing here is the theory does really help us, and it’s really important, but like you said, we’re told that the theory is important, but it doesn’t apply to the real world.
And ultimately, it’s this study of theory that makes Amherst College and us as entrepreneurs so well prepared for these problems. It’s just the extension and the connection between that theory and the world that I think we miss.
Ella:
Also, for those who don’t know, could you explain what the term venture accelerator means?
Alex:
Yeah, so I tried to do my best, but a venture accelerator is just a group that tries to accelerate the growth and the creation of an idea. And so in this case, idea means venture, and our group is accelerating that idea.
Ella:
And also, more clarification, these are kind of new terms that we hear sometimes: what is social entrepreneurship? And impact investing?
Alex:
I think I’ll answer that, and I’ll throw it back to you, because that’s more your expertise. In my head, social entrepreneurship is creating a solution that solves the problem, but most specifically in the social realm. So it’s fixing some type of social or cultural problem, and that could be through social mechanisms, that could be through other mechanisms that aren’t necessarily social, but result in some type of social solution. What would you agree?
Ella:
Yeah, I think so.
So, do people come to you with ideas, and you kind of determine which ones are viable? Or how do you kind of work with students to realize their ideas?
Alex:
So right now, i2i is a collection of four teams, and we’re broken down into different categories, or experiences that students are looking for. So engineering is one, creative is another, finance is the third. And then finally, the catalyst team. We’re still workshopping, still trying to ultimately figure out what fits, but the catalyst team is almost like the consulting arm that tries to help shape the idea into something that fits with the world, and then the other three work to implement that solution effectively.
Naturally, as a student led organization, we have limited resources, so sometimes we do have to choose which ideas we focus most on, but we’ve positioned ourselves that we can give, honestly, in my opinion, pretty helpful advice and help, regardless of the quality of the idea or the stage, even if it’s just a shower thought. We have a lot of students who right now are looking for opportunities to help.
Ella:
Do you have an example that you could give of an idea that you and your team kind of worked on?
Alex:
Sure, I’m going to shout out my friend Tucker here. Tucker Barrick, he is a junior computer science major. He’s very, very skilled, and I’ve been helping him. What we’re doing is we’re building a tool that connect high school students to college students. Ultimately, the pain point we’re trying to fix is when you’re a high schooler and you’re learning about colleges–honestly, not enough of the time are you actually talking to the people at that college, and you are learning from secondary sources, like YouTube videos and articles. And so what we’re doing is we’ve built a system that will connect high school families to college students, and the high school families can pay to do a video call or ask questions to the general population of the college.
College students can get paid to take calls with high schoolers and tell them about their life. And the high schooler, for example, who is interested in anthropology, can talk to a variety of anthropology majors at certain schools and learn about the curriculum and the professors. Even the social scene and what the food is like. And he and I built that completely from scratch. And once again, even if the idea doesn’t actually succeed, it’s been such a fantastic outlet for us and him to understand the world and learn how these concepts shape and grow when you try to apply them to the real world and just practice, bringing something to life, which I think is a skill everyone can use.
Ella:
I would be a part of that, being paid to talk to high schoolers. I remember watching a lot of Amherst vlog videos before I decided to go here, and it would have been much more useful, I think, to talk to someone–but I don’t regret the decision!
So, how do you see the field of social impact changing, or the field of venture acceleration changing given current events, like the Trump administration slashing of dei programs? AI is getting really intelligent, too, so how do you see that affecting your field?
Alex:
Yeah, there’s a lot there. I think I’m going to focus on the tech piece, just because, as a computer science major, I am more informed on that front.
But with AI, ultimately, I see it as a democratizing tool, and one that gives greater access to a variety of tools that used to be stonewalled and hidden, only for the elite. Now the general population has access to them. I mentioned Tucker earlier, he and I pretty much only built that because we had AI at our disposal, and a lot of that was just properly using the tool to accelerate the production process. And so when you ask how will that affect venture accelerators and social impact? Ultimately, and maybe this is a little too idealistic, my hope is that with these new tools that are accessible for everyone and are much more powerful, like you said, than ever before, it will give a majority of people tools that they didn’t have before, and they can build more ideas and really act on some of the things that they’ve been thinking about.
So that’s kind of how I honestly hope to see the world go, like we learn here through our studies. The world is wildly complex and nuanced, and it’s very, very hard to predict how things are going to play out, but that is one trend I see, and I hope to foster that.
Ella:
Very interesting. So where do you see i2i after you graduate, and are you going to continue with it?
Alex:
It’s our ultimate goal to work with the school to create some organized infrastructure for entrepreneurship and ultimately solving problems at Amherst College. In my head, the student led arm, which is i2i, is the first step for that. And so if I envision it down the road, I see a variety of things the school can do. I know there’s a lot of support from students and from alumni that something like this exists. And so it’s my goal to organize the support, and work with the school to find implementations that work best with the liberal arts education and ultimately the vision that we all see for the school. I think there are a variety of interventions that could work. The most obvious in my head is just implementing a director of entrepreneurship, likely in the Loeb Center, one who can really champion the voice from an admin level, and then kind of be an adult in the room.
Ella:
Yeah. That would be good to see, I think, for a lot of students on campus who are interested in entrepreneurship and don’t have any outlet right now.
Alex:
Totally. I think we need to leverage the immense expertise and experience our alumni have. There are a variety of alumni who want to interact with students, listen and hear what they’re thinking and what they’re building, and kind of give back and offer some of their support. Ultimately, there have to be ways where we can bridge that student alumni gap better. So for i2i, we’re thinking of having an alumni board who we meet with once a semester to work together to do these things, and I hope to somehow work with them on that once I leave.
Ella:
That would be, I think, a very mutually beneficial relationship, if that could happen. So I know you’re very busy, and I was wondering how you balance academics with your company?
Alex:
I mean, it’s tough, because at Amherst College, the ultimate focus is always education and learning and growing, and I see all of my extracurricular activities as just an extension of that, really, it’s just applied in a different way. It’s not in the classroom, it’s in a club, or it’s in the real world. But ultimately, I think it’s all about education for myself. But, you know, it’s hard to manage time here, especially because there’s a lot of things to do. And ultimately, what often gets priority for me and for most students are the official college-supported things. So it’s true that a lot of my ideas and side projects don’t get prioritized because I don’t have the proper official outlets through the school. And it’s hard for me to really justify working on this instead of doing my research or reading, homework, and a variety of other things. I think there’s definitely space for it. I really do. And I’ve definitely fallen to a pattern to make it work. Ultimately, the priority is always school. But, you know, I see these as passion projects, and so it’s my own interest that carries me through.
Ella:
Have you ever had any internships that have affected the way you approach business or your scheme of where your life is gonna go?
Alex:
Totally, yeah. So last summer, I worked at Loeb New York City. Michael Loeb is an alumni here.
The Loeb Center is named after him, and he has a venture capital firm in New York City. And so I was fortunate enough to intern and work with them last summer, and it was at a period in my life where I wasn’t sure exactly if I wanted to pursue business, pursue tech, and where, you know, kind of the skills that I was gaining at Amherst fit into the world. And I think internships are a great outlet for that. Personally, for me, I was fortunate in that I had a highly technical and highly business-oriented role. I was working at a startup with five people, and I was doing a lot of development for them and data analysis, but I was also helping with the long term trajectory of the company and the strategic decisions. And that blend is one I found similar to how the education works here at Amherst, and something I really hope to hold onto for a long time in my career. So that that experience really helped me think, “okay, I probably want to do something in kind of tech and computer science, but I really love this outlet of figuring out how these ideas interact with the world and how to make decisions to drive entities and companies to ultimately be better prepared to serve their users.”
Ella:
Yeah, wow. Well, that sounds like a very worthy goal. So last question, how do you unwind after a long day of school and work?
Alex:
I think meditation is one way I do it. I really like to meditate. I have a very active mind, so taking some time to just chill, breathe, only kind of exist, feel what’s going on around me, and not try to think is super helpful. I’m also a big TV watcher, and I really love to watch TV. So right now I’m watching Invincible, which is super good, and West Wing. I’m also halfway through White Lotus, which was very interesting. And I’m a big, big Game of Thrones fan.
Ella:
Interesting. I tried to watch part of White Lotus, and I just wasn’t into it, but maybe I’ll try again.
Alex:
Yeah, I get it. It’s not for everyone, but I really love the music in that show. It really builds the environment and the emotion.
Ella:
A good soundtrack in the show is important, I think, totally. Well, thank you so much for the great advice you’ve given and for a great conversation!
Alex:
Thanks, yeah, ultimately, if anyone listening had one takeaway, I think it’s that if you have an idea and you’re a student, go after it. The worst thing that could happen is you’re going to learn more about yourself and how to impact an idea and create one. And the best thing is maybe you really impact lives.
Ella:
All right, thank you.
That’s a wrap on today’s episode. Thanks so much for tuning in. If you enjoyed this conversation, stay with us, because there’s plenty more coming your way from the Loeb Center. See you next time you.
