Arnaud Laravoire

Brainstormer, Philanthropist, Student, World traveler

Originally from Versailles, one of the epicenter of french history, I've started studying after high school international trade in a two-year degree. This degree gave the opportunity to work internationally in one of my dream places that is Vancouver-BC. I've worked as a Business Developer intern at Foodie, a local food tech start-up and a logistic assistant in Mayoly Spindler, a pharmaceutical this time located in France. This 2-year degree lead me to one of the top business schools in France (Grenoble Ecole de Management or GEM) located in Grenoble (Isère area) in 2017 after several competitive exams in. GEM aims to give birth to efficient and innovative managers and is one of the only technology-oriented business schools in my country. I've started working for a student association as a commercial executive named "Le Dahu" which gathers information about the best places in our city. My goal is to meet local companies to ask them whether they would be interested in figuring in our yearly guide. I am also a freelance worker who's worked in several start-ups. It has also helped me being more flexible as being a student includes a busy schedule thanks to a special administrative status.

Sports : I am passionate about sports in general and I've practiced a lot of sports as I've found different interests and values in any of them. Skiing and extreme sports are probably one of the most committing activities as your body is fully enrolled and at stake. When you achieve a certain move, it gives you a reward that you can't find in any other sports. Swimming is one of my recent passion as I've been inspired by the great Michael Phelps. Beside the technical aspect, this sport teaches you a lot of values that you need to apply to your daily life to be successful (Rigor, hard work, commitment, team work...)

I've been inspired by Idriss Aberkane, a french scientist who wrote a book about new ways to free our brains. Some parts of his book explains why we need to adapt our school system and change ways to teach our children. Indeed, he compares our school system as a buffet that appears to be at first, very appetizing. But then, someone tells you to eat all of that buffet that prompts disgust among students. We need to revise all of our school system and change our pedagogy to feed natural curiosity. For example, the simple reward or punishment system doesn't work anymore. it doesn't stimulate the way it used to. A solution to this issue, is the "learn by playing system". Games captivate and gives you focus that allows a full memorizing. This is one of many ideas that need to be spread. This subject is something really important to me, as I felt this lack of "pragmatism" during my whole scholarship.

I've known TED for about 5 years now. It has become an habit to watch a daily TED for me whether it is to be informed or inspired. It is a way to keep a healthy mind as it forces you to think and ask questions about yourself or your external environment. My aim this year is to organize a TEDx event within my school, that would be named TEDxGEM.

I'm good at analyzing people's mind, and I also like it. I like imagining what consequences has a certain event on somebody's mind. This is also related to some management issues within a teamwork for example, as we're always working as a team in business schools.