Sundays can be a space for innovation
Sundays @ USC encourages collaboration and feedback on a wide range of projects.
By MAX RUBENSTEIN
Sundays @ USC is a new organization that provides a space for individuals to work on their passion projects with the support of their peers.
“We meet every Sunday to create whatever it is that makes us feel alive,” the group’s website reads.
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The group of students was inspired by their shared love for creation. Prior to its founding, they had been supporting each other’s project ideas through a group chat and occasional meet-ups at Ministry of Coffee.
The founders cover a range of years and majors: Byeongjun Moon, a sophomore majoring in arts, technology and the business of innovation; Jade Franson, a junior majoring in cognitive science; Jake Sacks, a senior majoring in economics; Josh Wolk, a junior majoring in business administration; Chris Pramana, a senior majoring in business administration; and Ethan Lippman, a recent graduate.
The idea for Sundays came from a discussion of an organization called Socratica at the University of Waterloo. Socratica hosts biweekly meetings to provide a central space for builders, researchers and entrepreneurs to create a variety of projects and receive tangible feedback from those doing the same, and they wondered how they could bring the idea to USC, Wolk said.
“Working on independent projects can get very lonely,” Wolk said. “What we wanted to accomplish with Sundays was … [to create] a place where people could actually come together and socialize, but also truly get down to business.”
The club utilizes a method similar to the Pomodoro Technique, in which members have 50 minutes of quiet, independent work time followed by a 10-minute break to socialize with others, share ideas and ask questions.
At the end of each session, attendees have the opportunity to show their progress, whether it be a demo of a finished product or just a recap of what they have been exploring.
In just five meetings, Sundays has provided a space for a variety of project creations, including those of the founders themselves.
Sacks is currently planning a dinner party and art exhibition program for other USC students, and Wolk is currently working on an app called “Meds AI” to prevent unexpected drug reactions. Through the Sundays community, he and his partner were able to bring on a third founder.
Another group of students is creating an open-source artificial intelligence system that listens to an individual’s conversations and suggests health-related action items. Moon said that this project is both challenging in terms of software and hardware development.
Jade Franson, a junior majoring in cognitive science and one of the group’s founders, said that the biggest long-term goal of the organization is not just to attract more members, but to foster an intentional and connected community. (Josh Wolk)
Another student is creating a card game called “Fill Your Tank,” which encourages vulnerability and bonding within communities through asking difficult questions, Sacks said.
Although many participants come to work on existing passions, Franson said Sundays has allowed them to learn and grow in new ways. One student, she said, was working on a project that required her to create her own font with the software Glyphs, allowing her to learn a skill she had never done before.
“There have been people who have come up to us and [said], ‘I want this space because I’ve been having this project in my mind for a while, but I haven’t actually had the agency to do it and I need some external motivation,’” Franson said.
A core part of the project stemmed from the founders’ collective perspective that, despite the University’s wide range of talent across multiple subject areas, there is not enough collaboration across different disciplines.
“What happens if we create a space to let them pursue those projects simultaneously with each other and then also give them a space where they can get feedback, meet other interesting people doing interesting things and also have the opportunity to show off and talk about what they’re working on?” Sacks said.
Although USC already has many entrepreneurial organizations such as LavaLab and Spark SC, those organizations often have high barriers to entry and don’t allow for completely inclusive participation, Franson said. That is why Sundays has adopted a different philosophy to organizational acceptance called “effortgating.”
“Effortgating is this concept where instead of being exclusive by means of applications and interviews, really the only thing gatekeeping Sundays is whether someone wants to put in the effort,” Wolk said. “If someone is willing to spend their Sunday for several hours just working on their project, then that is a perfect indication that they’re the right fit.”
One of the ideas behind this philosophy is heightening the emphasis on community, which Sacks said is part of the organization’s larger vision.
“If we can put those passionate, hardworking people who want to learn and grow around a bunch of people who may have already accomplished a lot of things, it will enable them to learn and grow faster,” Sacks said.
He also said one of the most powerful parts of a community like Sundays is its ability to point people in a new direction they may not have considered before.
“The reason why the Mac system has such great fonts is because Steve Jobs accidentally signed up for a typography course in college, just by chance. He ended up stumbling across this new way of art, and now there’s this whole great thing that came out of that,” Sacks said. “So what happens if there’s more serendipitous … types of collaborations that can happen from a space that we create?”
Franson said that the biggest long-term goal of the organization is not just to attract more members, but to foster an intentional and connected community.
“Deep work is one thing, but another thing is just being in the same room as all of these really passionate people,” she said. “Maybe you’re an artist, and you learn how to code, or you’re a coder who learns how to paint … It’s all about just learning new things and hav[ing] an open mindset.”
Correction (Feb. 24 at 2:39 p.m.): A previous version of this article referred to Franson by the incorrect pronouns and misstated the time interval for the club’s meeting format. The Daily Trojan regrets these errors.
