Allison Ore

My journey into entrepreneurship began in my junior year of high school when I was picked out of 80,000 applicants globally for a pitch I was making. That achievement led me to a community of really strong mentors and other young people building their startups to address problems within their own communities. I've been able to stay connected over the years and continue growing my skills, while also seeing other people I met across Mexico, Kenya, and other countries addressing problems that look different because they live in different locations with specific needs for their people. That experience has really widened my perspective. Before focusing on entrepreneurship and AI, I was on the pre-medical track and started an online community for people wanting to go into the surgical field, connecting with patients, families from all over my state, as well as different surgeons from hospital networks, private clinics, and academic research. I went to a magnet school for high school where my focus was economy for medical science. Even though it's not directly related to my field now with working with AI tools and entrepreneurship, it gave me a lot of insight into healthcare, and I've learned there's a lot of overlap between fields on the corporate or small business side and healthcare. My first project was a healthcare insurance small language model that took really long, complicated benefits policies and helped patients understand what they could actually appeal by having them walk through their experiences. That's pretty much parallel to what we're doing now with getting people attracted to the region around South Bend. I've learned that trying things out and building, taking the most out of the resources offered at school, but also looking online for certifications and reaching out to people across the globe has been key to my development.