Christa Westheimer

Social Impact + Entrepreneurship

Hello, I'm Christa Westheimer! I recently graduated from Rice University with two majors (Managerial Studies and Sport Management) and two minors (Entrepreneurship and Business). Now, I hope to pursue my passion for sports business and impact at Deloitte as a Strategy Analyst.
I encourage you to explore my past experiences in order to identify how I can help you professionally.

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© Christa Westheimer. All rights reserved.

About Me

From an early age, my mom showed me the value of a servant's heart and a positive spirit. My dad showed me what a tenacious work ethic and an imaginative mind looks like. With these two influences, I grew up with the goal of wanting to serve my community through entrepreneurial means. I am blessed with the opportunity to live out this goal by capitalizing on an entrepreneurial mindset to solve tangible problems at Deloitte.In life, I am driven by my Christian faith and the values my parents instilled in me. I try to reflect the woman described in Proverbs 31:26.She opens her mouth with wisdom,
And on her tongue is the law of kindness.

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liu idea lab for innovation and entrepreneurship (lilie)

The Liu Idea Lab for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (Lilie) is the entrepreneurship hub at Rice University.
I was first introduced to Lilie during the summer of my freshman year when I became a New Entrepreneurs Grant recipient. From there, I took my favorite classes and explored entrepreneurship in a new light!
As the Lilie Lab soon became my favorite place on campus, I knew I wanted to get more involved with ALL things Lilie.
So, I became a LilieRep where I represented Lilie to my peers and experimented with ways to get Rice students excited about the intersection between social impact and entrepreneurship.

In Spring 2021, I deepened my involvement with Lilie by being a Teaching Assistant for Dr. Hesam Panahi's New Enterprises course (where I recruited mentors and speakers, assisted with online class functions, and hosted office hours).
During this same semester, I began to write Lilie Lab Notes, a monthly newsletter that gets sent to Rice students, community members, and alumni (5,000+ readers) with the goal of highlighting the exciting entrepreneurial ecosystem Rice is building!
Throughout Fall 2021-Spring 2022, I worked as a Lilie Lead where I supported in community management and programming. This work entails: 1) ideating and developing new networking processes to manage the community of 1,400+ engaged Rice entrepreneurs and 2) supporting and iterating upon programs (such as the Rice Experiment Fund, Lilie Launchpad, and the Napier Rice Launch Challenge) to increase the accessibility and ease of allocating funds to startups.

4Words

4Words is a student organization that engages with Houston residents through English Second Language (ESL) tutor sessions and resource development.After being incredibly impacted by my volunteer experiences as an ESL instructor, I tried to recruit my peers to volunteer with me. However, many barriers prevented my peers from doing so (ex. teaching ESL classes was very time-consuming). I figured there was a way to break down these barriers.Inspired by my entrepreneurship class mottos (start now and fail fast), I launched an 80-hour pilot program to test my assumptions. In May 2020, I recruited college students to teach ten ESL classes with pre-created materials.

The pilot program was only the beginning of a lengthy journey to creating 4Words. But, eventually, 4Words was officially registered as a Rice student organization in Spring 2021.During our first semester as an official organization, we partnered with three literacy centers (BakerRipley, The Alliance, and Boat People SOS) and collectively dedicated 250+ hours of critical service (indirect and direct).Our Edu-Creators produced 40+ ESL lesson plans, and our 4Words Fellows successfully engaged with 25 ESL students at our partner locations through weekly tutor sessions.I am incredibly proud of our work with 4Words, and I can't wait to see how we continue to grow at Rice (and at other universities in the future).

Rice Ventures

Rice Ventures is the sole student-run startup accelerator on campus.I joined Rice Ventures in January 2020 as the Marketing Director. The rest of the Rice Ventures Board were juniors, and I felt like a fish out of water as the sole freshman.Nonetheless, without any design or marketing experience (which definitely showed through my initial graphics), I created the Rice Ventures social media accounts and promoted entrepreneurial insights and events.Marketing was fun, but I wasn't passionate about it.As I attended more board meetings, I found something to be passionate about when I realized that the potential for Rice Ventures could be much greater than it was.

I became Managing Director in December 2020, and I set out to make our program more impactful and valuable to our participants.I conducted interviews with successful student-run startup accelerator programs (such as Cardinal Ventures and Almaworks) to learn from their experience and successes.From these interviews, the Rice Ventures Board and I changed our Spring 2021 program model from a content-heavy workshop series to eight weeks of mentor rotation sessions.We recruited 30+ world class mentors and a cohort of four incredible teams. Every week, our teams would have 20 minutes to ask questions and engage with four unique mentors. The last 30 minutes of our meetings would conclude with knowledge sharing.This model was effective, and we plan to continue to iterate on it in future semesters.For Fall 2021, we organized our first annual Startup Summit where 11 speakers broke down the barrier to entrepreneurship for attendees.

New Stack ventures

New Stack Ventures (NSV) is an early-stage venture capital firm that invests in exceptions.Venture capital (VC) was completely new to me when I joined the NSV Fellowship in July 2020.Over time, working in venture capital not only became familiar, but FUN!In the end, I sourced 150+ startup companies, attended learning sessions and office hours, shadowed introductory calls with founders, led investment discussions, and published content.

The entire fellowship experience was incredibly enjoyable, and it has led me to heavily consider VC as a potential career path.

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Alternative spring break (asb)

Alternative Spring Break (ASB) is a yearlong educational program where cohorts of students investigate specific social issues.Alongside Anvita Kandru, I worked 100+ hours on developing and leading a 25-hour curriculum around the mental health impacts on refugees, asylees, and asylum seekers.

Throughout our program, we partnered with eight community partners, formed three long-term projects (around developing mental health modules), and organized cohort bonding sessions for our participants.

• Our Notion
• Our Research Paper
• Our Showcase Poster

McMurtry College

McMurtry College is the tenth residential college at Rice University, and I absolutely LOVE McMurtry College.During my freshman year, I became the First-Year Representative (FYR) at McMurtry where I (alongside two other FYRs) took our $500 budget to organize events and bonding initiatives for 100 students.At the end of my freshman year, I became the At-Large Representative at McMurtry (which I held from Spring 2020-2021) where I oversaw the Diversity Council, Culturals Committee, and People's Council (with the goal of making McMurtry more inclusive).

I spearheaded the creation of Sophomore and Junior Class Representatives, organized a virtual awards ceremony for 40+ recipients, oversaw the budget allocation of $7,000+ for college-wide events, and led bi-weekly meetings for 22 student leaders.As a junior, my McMurtry College involvement has changed. I am currently a Hall Representative where I organize community-building initiatives and represent my hall in the People's Council.I am also an Academic Fellow where I provide tutoring to McMurtry students in business and sport management classes on a weekly basis.

Champions for Philanthropy

Champions for Philanthropy (CFP) serves as philanthropic advisors to help professional athletes begin or further their philanthropic pursuits.I began interning with CFP after being introduced to Ms. Alycia Powell in an informational interview. I was overwhelmed and inspired by the impact she was leading at CFP, and I knew I had to be a part of it.The majority of my work consisted of spearheading the Student Sport Philanthropy Symposium where I ideated the concept, recruited speakers, organized the event timeline, and aggregated contacts for email marketing campaigns.Overall, the Student Sport Philanthropy Symposium was a success that equipped attendees with the resources necessary to pursue a career in sport philanthropy.

In my time with CFP, I also produced content to amplify the impact of athletes (as linked below).I returned to CFP as a New Ventures Intern in Fall 2021 where I worked on business development initiatives, providing research and support for the firm's clients.I am currently working as a Consultant for CFP (Summer 2022) where I am conducting an individual project on a major need in sport philanthropy.

• Symposium Recording
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Center for Civic Leadership (ccl) volunteers

CCL Volunteers is a program where Rice students engage in critical service while simultaneously engaging in service-based educational lectures and group discussions.Through CCL Volunteers, I practiced critical service at Memorial Assistance Ministries (MAM) Literacy Advance as an English Second Language instructor.In Spring 2020, I taught ESL classes for a group of ten women for four hours/week. In Fall 2020, I taught ESL classes for a group of five adults for four hours/week.

• My Reflections

My main takeaways from this experience include:
1) Empathy - After interacting with my ESL students, I now understand that learning English is INCREDIBLY DIFFICULT. It is hard to learn English while maintaining a job and taking care of kids. Heck, it is just hard to learn English. Period. And in spite of this, all of my students were trying SO very hard every single week, every single class.
2) Intergenerational Connections and Differences - My students were all adults - in their 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, and 70s. And I loved it. I loved how fun they were and how lively and appreciative and kind and funny - and every other positive word ever. People who are older than me carry a lot of stories with them...
3) Understanding of Language Privilege - Not knowing English in America is difficult. It impacts mental health, health care costs, job security, housing security, social ties, and so much more. I am incredibly blessed to have been raised learning English in America... because the cost of language barriers is only increasing as time goes on.