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During time off between semesters in college, it’s awesome to sit back and relax for about 6 days, and then you can start to get stir-crazy. If you don’t live close to your friends, facing a winter break can be a tough experience.
But what if you could link up with people from your college - ones you don’t know but should - or another student at a similar school who’s in the same area as you? That’s the premise of startup site Summer Playbook - and its upcoming winter counterpart Holiday Playbook.
Connecting college kids
Luke Heine, a student at Harvard, came up with the idea for a worldwide meet-up network for college students a couple of years ago based on his own travel to Italy.
“I won this grant to go out to Italy in the summer,” Heine told me. “I was thrilled, especially coming from rural, northern Minnesota where not a lot of people do international travel. I was pumped and started talking to people on my floor about it.”
“I found out a bunch were going to be in Italy at the same time,” he continued. “This wasn’t just the case on my floor. It was the entire college. Everyone is traveling the world and seeking opportunities to grow. I realized there was a chance we could meet other people and explore new places and ideas together.”
Who's near you this holiday?
With two summer breaks under their belt, Heine and his team - which includes key engineer player Kunal Sarkhel - are getting ready to open it up to students on winter break. By the time this semester is over, the site will be letting users discover students nearby them who want to share experiences and connect - in-person or just virtually.
“The whole point of our Playbook is that learning about our college community doesn’t end at term time,” Heine said.
"If you’re home or visiting another state, you can go on and see if there’s anyone near you who wants to hang out and go tobogganing.”
Although the startup was solely used for Harvard at first, it has since expanded to all of the Ivy League. And Heine is taking that one step further with the next iteration, allowing students from any college to find each other no matter where they are in the world. The only catch is that both colleges have to opt to connect with one another and if there’s a match, then users can meet up.
“When you visit our website, you’re asked to fill out a form that has several questions,” Heine explained. “We’ll ask you where you’ll be (which city you’ll be in), when, what you’re doing there and what you’d like to be doing there.”
“It’s international, but we also have a big domestic presence,” he went on. “Almost every state in the U.S. is represented. If you’re home or visiting another state, you can go on and see if there’s anyone near you who wants to hang out and go tobogganing.”
They've already made a difference
So far, Heine has had numerous people approach him and share their positive Playbook experiences. He’s aiming to carry over that momentum to the Holiday Playbook, in addition to some new features they'll be trying out.
“Some guy found his girlfriend off the Playbook,” Heine told me. “Kunal and I raised our eyebrows for a second and asked, ‘What are we making?’”
“There was also a girl in Brussels who used the Playbook to get contacts just to have numbers in her phone. She said she felt safer walking around the city knowing she had people to call in case something happened. When I heard that, I felt so amazing knowing I could do that for someone.”
Image via Luke Heine.
