U of A Student launches study group app StudiousCat, part of Franke Honors Quest Project

When he was in high school, Yona Kleinerman had an idea for a new social media platform.  

“I pictured this big map, where you could see places that your friends were gathering at a given time,” he explained. “If they made the gathering public, that would be an invitation to other friends that they could join the hang out. It would all be based around where people were at, whether they were playing pick-up basketball or studying together.” 

The underpinning of Kleinerman’s vision was simple. He wanted to create a way for his peers to connect beyond the classroom. 

Yona’s Quest Project 

Kleinerman is a junior studying Biomedical Engineering. Originally from Austin, TX, he chose the University of Arizona after an impactful experience touring the W.A. Franke Honors College. 

“I loved the facilities and met a lot of amazing professors and people. I really could see myself here,” he said. 

Arriving on campus for his first semester in fall of 2022, Kleinerman wasted no time jumping in to all that Honors had to offer him during his freshman year. After attending a research panel for the Franke Honors Quest Project, he was inspired to revisit the idea he had back in high school. This time, as a freshman at the University of Arizona, he saw an opportunity for a different approach: what about an app that helped connect students to study groups? As a biomedical engineering student, Kleinerman was often seeking study partners to collaborate with, and saw the benefits of tackling the complex course material alongside others. 

Research programming like the Quest Project is part of what defines the W.A. Franke Honors College undergraduate experience. Quest encourages students who are in their first or second year to participate in a research project of their choice, based on something they are interested in beyond their chosen major. For Yona, pursuing a Quest Project was the perfect opportunity to tap into his entrepreneurial spirit. 

Kleinerman sought out Franke Dean John Pollard as a faculty mentor to guide him through the research process and assembled a team of software engineering students to begin putting his plan into action.  

“Yona is an extremely ambitious student,” said Dean Pollard. “It’s been amazing to see him just relentlessly pursue this entrepreneurial passion outside of his discipline.” 

Studying is better, together. 

StudiousCat is the name of Kleinerman’s brainchild—a virtual tool that will allow students to find study groups and partners at the University of Arizona based on their courses, assignments, and availability. On a campus of nearly 45,000, with lectures that can sometimes reach upwards of 100 students at a time, StudiousCat offers an intimate approach to finding study groups. 

Here’s how it works: After creating an account and bio, students who use the app will have access to a calendar where they can see every active study group happening across campus. Once they assess the calendar and decide to join a group, the app places them in a chat where they can coordinate meetups for studying, or just communicate about the assignments via the chat. The goal is so that next time a student wants to study with their peers, but they don't have the connections to do so, they can either create or join a study group through StudiousCat, allowing them to meet people they would not have met otherwise in an academic setting. 

Kleinerman presented his Quest Project at the Franke Honors Pinnacle research symposium last spring, which earned him an award for Outstanding Research. 

While StudiousCat is a passion project of Yona’s, he sees it fitting in with the bigger picture of what his future might hold. He also hopes that StudiousCat will one day expand outside of the University of Arizona campus, ideally becoming something that he could market to other universities as a resource to offer to their students. 

“I love research and entrepreneurship and connecting people. I have a vision of incorporating those interests with medicine and starting a company one day,” he said.  

What's next?

The W.A. Franke Honors College is grounded in providing students with rich interdisciplinary experiences and untethered access to experiential learning opportunities. Yona’s Quest to create StudiousCat is a great example of how these two values can fit together, serving as a launching pad for students to break boundaries, be curious, and, sometimes, do something that’s never been done before.