Ventures

In Chicago, selective enrollment exams decide where students spend their high school years — and the path that leads there.

Entering a top academic center and high school in Chicago can expose students to more course options, interesting classes, clubs, ambitious classmates and out-of-school opportunities.

Joanna founded YScholar in 2023 as a freshman to prepare her sister for the academic center exam. Since then, she has reached hundreds of students across Chicago.

YScholar prepares students for Chicago’s selective enrollment exams through detailed, targeted courses that are built around the most updated materials and feedback.

The teachers are all qualified students who got into a T2 academic center.

YScholar is active in Chicago today. Families and students can find programs, timelines and contact details at yscholar.org.

Schools and sports teams run on fundraising — and the usual options ask supporters to buy things nobody designed for them. Generic merchandise raises money, but it rarely reflects the team, the school, or the season it’s meant to celebrate.

Joanna founded OjO Gifts to change that exchange: customized gifts, designed with AI so every school and team can sell something unique — and every purchase feels personal.

OjO Gifts uses AI design to create customized gifts for each school and sports team — unique designs that supporters actually want, sold to fundraise for the programs they belong to.

Instead of one catalogue for everyone, every fundraiser gets its own designs. The gifts carry the identity of the school or team, and the proceeds go back to them.

On OjO Gifts, schools and sports teams fundraise by selling unique AI-designed customized gifts — a fundraising platform built around products people are proud to give, made for the communities they support.

Live campaigns, designs and details are on the platform’s website, where they can evolve with each season and each school.

OjO Gifts is live at ojo.gifts, where schools and sports teams can explore AI-designed customized gifts and fundraising. Joanna continues to build it alongside her senior year at Payton — and alongside YScholar.

Teams interested in fundraising with customized gifts can start at the platform’s website.