大学生自学平台
OneZero: What is Big & Mini?
OneZero：什么是大与小？
Aditi Merchant: Big & Mini is a nonprofit organization that works to connect young adults with seniors (typically over 60 years old) to form mutually beneficial connections and combat loneliness. It is a virtual platform, so all you need to join is a computer or phone. After going through a quick application process and background check you can be connected with someone who has similar interests and is from a different generation. The two individuals are able to talk with one another and learn about each other’s life experiences. Ultimately our goal is to promote intergenerational connection while combating social isolation, which has especially been exacerbated by Covid-19.
Aditi Merchant： Big＆Mini是一家非营利组织，致力于将年轻人与 老年人(通常超过60岁)建立互惠互利的关系并与孤独感作斗争。 它是一个虚拟平台，因此您需要加入的只是一台计算机或电话。 经过快速的申请过程和背景调查之后，您可以与具有相似兴趣并且来自不同一代的人建立联系。 这两个人能够彼此交谈并了解彼此的生活经历。 最终，我们的目标是促进代际连接，同时与社会隔离作斗争，尤其是Covid-19加剧了社会隔离。
How did the idea come to fruition?
这个想法是如何实现的？
I am one of three co-founders (the other two individuals are Allen Zhou and Anthony Zhou). When Covid-19 started picking up in the United States in April, we kept seeing articles about seniors in senior living communities who had minimal social interaction and could not leave their residence because of heightened risk. Each of us volunteered in different nursing homes and senior centers throughout high school. We had gained a lot from the connections we were able to make with the seniors when hearing stories about their previous experiences, such as living through the Cold War.
我是三位联合创始人之一(另外两个人是艾伦·周和安东尼·周)。 当Covid-19于4月在美国开始接载时，我们不断看到有关老年人生活社区中老年人的文章，这些老年人的社会交往极少，并且由于风险增加而无法离开他们的住所。 我们每个人都在整个高中期间在不同的疗养院和高级中心志愿服务。 当我们听到年长者以前的经历(例如生活在冷战时期)的故事时，我们能够与年长者建立联系，从而从中受益匪浅。
Creating Big & Mini was our way of solving two problems at once. From the perspective of the “Big,” they are gaining companionship while on the side of the “Mini,” they are gaining access to mentorship. For example, if there is a senior citizen who was previously a nurse, we can try and match them with a young adult who is a nurse or nursing student. Big & Mini was started in response to Covid-19, but is helping to solve a problem (social isolation) which exists well past the scope of Covid-19.
创建Big＆Mini是我们一次解决两个问题的方式。 从“大”的角度来看，他们正在获得同伴关系，而在“小”的方面，他们正在获得指导。 例如，如果有一位以前是护士的老年人，我们可以尝试将其与一名护士或护理学生的年轻人配对。 Big＆Mini是为响应Covid-19而成立的，但它正在帮助解决一个超出Covid-19范围的问题(社会隔离)。
We see Big & Mini as a long-term vision because there will always be individuals who are isolated and do not have the ability to meet other individuals in person. This is an easy way to connect people and allow them to give back to the community.
我们将Big＆Mini视为长期愿景，因为总会有一些人与世隔绝，没有能力与其他人见面。 这是联系人们并允许他们回馈社区的一种简便方法。
What is your background?
你的背景是什么？
I’m a biomedical engineering major and have always been fond of the idea of using technology to create a positive impact, whether that be through human health or other avenues. I really wanted to study biomedical engineering to create something that would impact human health and quality of life for those who were older. When I came to college, I thought I wanted to do something to help those with Alzheimer’s or Dementia. Although Big & Mini is more aligned with the mental health and technology space, it is a platform that has helped many people.
我是生物医学工程专业的一员，无论是通过人类健康还是其他途径，我一直都喜欢使用技术来产生积极影响的想法。 我真的很想研究生物医学工程，以创造对老年人健康和生活质量产生影响的东西。 上大学时，我以为我想做些事情来帮助那些患有老年痴呆症或痴呆症的人。 尽管Big＆Mini与心理健康和技术领域更加契合，但它已为许多人提供了帮助。
Can you tell us a bit about the team?
您能告诉我们有关团队的一些信息吗？
Both my co-founders, Allen and Anthony have always wanted to use technology for good as well. I met Allen in math on one of my first days of college at UT Austin and we have been friends ever since. He is an electrical and computer engineering major, and his role has focused on thinking about Big & Mini’s long-term vision.
我的联合创始人艾伦(Allen)和安东尼(Anthony)一直都希望同时使用技术。 在UT奥斯汀大学的第一天，我在数学上认识了艾伦，从那以后我们一直是朋友。 他是电气和计算机工程专业的一员，他的工作重点是思考Big＆Mini的长期愿景。
When Covid-19 happened we wanted to do something to help. We kind of felt helpless just sitting at home, so we sat down one night and had a brainstorming session to come up with different ideas and thought this idea would have the biggest possible impact.
当Covid-19发生时，我们想提供一些帮助。 我们只是坐在家里有点无助，所以我们坐了一个晚上，进行了集思广益的会议来提出不同的想法，并认为这个想法可能会产生最大的影响。
Anthony is Allen’s younger brother. He joined in and has really helped to build out the technology in a cohesive way. It’s great to have someone on the team who can really think about the technology side from different perspectives. We pitched the idea to him in the initial stages of Big & Mini and he’s been involved ever since.
安东尼是艾伦的弟弟。 他加入进来，并确实以凝聚力的方式帮助建立了该技术。 团队中有一个可以真正从不同角度思考技术方面的人真是太好了。 我们在Big＆Mini的初始阶段就向他提出了这个想法，从那时起他就参与其中。
I work on a lot of the day-to-day tasks, such as getting user feedback. Although roles are divided to an extent, any major decision always involves the team sitting down and talking through whatever is needed. We are united in the fact that we are all using our skills and backgrounds to create something which is positively impacting others.
我从事许多日常工作，例如获取用户反馈。 尽管角色划分了一定程度，但任何重大决策始终都会让团队坐下来讨论所需的一切。 我们团结一致，我们都在利用自己的技能和背景来创造对他人有积极影响的东西。
How does the matching process work?
匹配过程如何工作？
When we first started out, we used a Google form where each individual would answer some questions, type out their interest, and from there we would manually match them. It’s definitely evolved since then. At this point, we’ve set up a ranking system that automatically matches individuals based on their preferences and information provided.
刚开始使用Google表单时，每个人都会回答一些问题，输入他们的兴趣，然后从那里手动进行匹配。 从那时起，它肯定已经发展了。 至此，我们已经建立了一个排名系统，可以根据个人的偏好和所提供的信息自动匹配他们。
Are there group activities?
有团体活动吗？
We saw a lot of individuals wanting to connect within the wider community. We created group activities, which are online socials open to everyone in the Big & Mini community. We also have a nursing home that wanted a way to keep their residents engaged so we have nursing home hangouts to connect residents. We are also working on having broader matches in which a group of six people can meet weekly.
我们看到很多人希望在更广泛的社区中建立联系。 我们创建了小组活动，这些活动对Big＆Mini社区的所有人开放。 我们还有一家养老院，希望通过这种方式来保持其居民的参与度，因此我们设有养老院视频群聊来联系居民。 我们也正在努力进行更广泛的比赛，一组六人每周聚会。
We are currently close to 1,000 active users and we’ve grown pretty steadily since starting the platform this past April. We were recently featured on The Today Show, which brought a huge boost to the number of people who are interested in signing up.
目前，我们已有近1,000个活跃用户，并且自从今年4月启动该平台以来，我们一直在稳定增长。 我们最近在“今日秀 ”上获得了关注， 该节目极大地推动了有兴趣签约的人数。
Going forward, we are looking to work with different organizations and senior living communities, rather than mainly seniors individuals who are living alone. We would also like to partner with different youth groups who may not traditionally have access to as many forms of mentorship. Overall, we are trying to build out our platform to be more accessible to different organizations who can benefit and grow our community.
展望未来，我们希望与不同的组织和老年人居住社区合作，而不是主要与单独生活的老年人合作。 我们还希望与不同的青年群体合作，这些青年群体传统上可能无法获得许多形式的指导。 总体而言，我们正在努力构建我们的平台，以使能够使我们的社区受益并发展我们的社区的各个组织更容易使用它们。
Can you tell us a bit about the marketing process?
您能告诉我们一些有关营销过程的信息吗？
When we started out, our goal was to get people on the platform who could be consistent users. We reached out to professors at our university (UT Austin) who specialize in working with older adults and asked them if they knew anyone who might be interested in joining, and they connected with us to a couple of organizations such as Age of Austin. We also did press media pushes and a couple of them picked up on it. One was the Houston Chronicle, a well-known newspaper in Texas, which propelled a lot more people to sign up. Additionally, we’ve reached out to different colleges and even have a representative at some universities to spread the word. All of this, social media, and, of course, word of mouth has helped us get to where we are today.
当我们开始时，我们的目标是让平台上的人成为一致的用户。 我们联系了我们大学(UT Austin)专门与老年人合作的教授，问他们是否认识可能有兴趣加入的人，并且他们与我们联系了一些组织，例如Austin。 我们还进行了媒体报道，其中一些人对此表示赞赏。 其中之一是德克萨斯州的著名报纸《 休斯顿纪事报》，该书促使更多的人签约。 此外，我们已经接触到不同的学院，甚至在一些大学都有代表来宣传。 所有这些，社交媒体，当然还有口耳相传，已经帮助我们达到了今天的状态。
What challenges have come with building the platform?
平台构建面临哪些挑战？
The most significant challenge is to ensure we are scaling efficiently. We need to ensure there are an even number of bigs and minis who are joining the platform. Generally, the numbers have leaned to a higher number of minis due to us [the three co-founders] being in that pool and having access to a large network of individuals from our age group. Some of the ways we’ve addressed the challenges of getting bigs is partnering with different aging organizations who are able to spread the word about Big & Mini in their community. It can be difficult to get our foot in the door of these organizations, and yes there is a lot of cold emailing involved! However, we definitely try and use warm intros and have those we’ve connected with in the past make introductions for us as well.
最大的挑战是确保我们有效地扩展规模。 我们需要确保加入该平台的大型企业和小型企业的数量均达到偶数。 通常，由于我们[三个联合创始人]处于该池中并可以访问来自我们这个年龄段的庞大个人网络，因此人数有所增加。 我们已经解决了获得大牌挑战的一些方法是与不同的老龄化组织合作，这些老派组织能够在其社区中传播有关Big＆Mini的信息。 很难让我们步入这些组织的大门，是的，其中涉及很多冷邮件！ 但是，我们肯定会尝试使用温暖的介绍，并且让我们过去与之联系过的介绍也为我们做介绍。
Lastly, what advice would you give to founders or others looking to build something?
最后，您会给创始人或其他寻求建造东西的人什么建议？
I think the hardest part is always just getting started. A lot of people have great ideas, but there may be a doubt that exists within your mind of “this will never succeed, people won’t want this, it’s going to be hard.” If you have the belief that you can start something regardless of the barriers present, that just may be the most difficult step to take in the process. Believe in yourself, and listen to what others say, but make sure you prioritize your own experience and potential which can help you get to where you want to be.
我认为最困难的部分总是刚开始。 很多人都有很好的主意，但是您可能会怀疑“这将永远不会成功，人们不会想要，这将很难。” 如果您相信无论遇到什么障碍，您都可以开始做某事，那么这可能是该过程中最困难的步骤。 相信自己，听别人说，但是要确保自己优先考虑自己的经验和潜力，这可以帮助您到达想要的地方。
*Note: Big & Mini is an online platform. All members are required to complete the Big & Mini safety screening process, and are also encouraged to consistently use internet safety practices and precautions while using the site.
*注意：Big＆Mini是在线平台。 所有成员都必须完成“ Big＆Mini”安全性筛选过程，并被鼓励在使用网站时始终遵循互联网安全惯例和预防措施。
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
为了清楚起见，本次采访已经过编辑和整理。
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