Say YES! to Teamship: Aanandi’s Story

Finding My Team

By Aanandi Thakur

“Thanks for being an awesome teammate during the program. I’m so glad I got to know you.”

I stared at this text for way longer than I should have. It came a month after my Teamship experience ended, entirely out of nowhere on a random Wednesday. But something about it hit different. Here was someone I had known for only just a few weeks, someone I would have probably never met otherwise, taking the time to reach out just to say that working together mattered to them.

Going into my Teamship experience, working on a project with other students sounded like a cool idea. What I didn’t anticipate by the end, however, was how much I would actually care about these people, and how we really did build something real together.

 

My Why Teamship

Pure curiosity inspired me to pursue Teamship towards the end of my high school journey. I had never heard of an opportunity like this before. I have always been passionate about innovation, solving real-world problems, competing at pitch events, and working with real companies. However, my experiences with these ideas over the past four years have been self-driven, and no one has really stepped up to teach me the foundational skills that Teamship focuses on.

For the first time, I found something that combined all of my passions and made it available to students without having to go out and search for it myself or create it from scratch. I was super intrigued about what an experience like this would look like.

And I absolutely loved it. Truly, nothing like this exists within the field of student innovation, and I am so grateful that I got exposure to it when I could!

 

Our Team Dynamics

My team consisted of three people: me (a senior), a junior, and a freshman from all across North Carolina. Naturally, we all had different personalities and ways of thinking, which made the process challenging, but also super rewarding. We had to learn to adapt, communicate clearly, and trust each other’s strengths. That is what really made Teamship stand out. It wasn’t about having all the answers but about collaborating with the team to find a solution and figuring it out together. Turning our messy vision board ideas into our final solution was only possible by learning to include everyone’s input meaningfully.

Teamship taught me how to lead and, uniquely, how to follow.

 

Teamship’s Intentional Focus

It is easy and common to say that teamwork, problem-solving, and communication are essential skills. Still, students often assume that they learn these skills naturally or are just part of a person’s character. If they aren’t a good communicator, they tend to think they are simply not cut out for it.

While schools often emphasize a growth mindset, many students don’t have the resources or support to recognize that they can develop these skills over time. A student might be an excellent team player, but because there is no formal class or measurable way to show that teamwork is a skill they’ve mastered, no grades or certificates for it, they may lack confidence in that ability.

Teamship is unique in that it not only teaches students methods that most people our age (and I can attest some people twice our age!) haven’t learned yet, but it allows them to apply those skills in real, meaningful ways. It teaches soft skills explicitly and helps students identify which specific skills they are developing. This intentional focus builds both skill and confidence, giving students tangible proof of their growth in areas that traditional education often overlooks.

 

Say Yes! to Teamship

Ultimately, Teamship teaches its students how to think like innovators, which will stick with me and every single Teamship student far beyond our experience. The confidence to collaborate, the ability to navigate different perspectives, and the work ethic to turn ideas into action are life skills that will serve us in college, careers, and each team we engage with moving forward.

If you are a student thinking about applying, or a parent wondering if this is worth it, I can honestly say that Teamship gives you something you can’t get anywhere else: the chance to discover what you’re capable of when you are part of something bigger than yourself!