U of A Student launches study group app StudiousCat, part of Franke Honors Quest Project
Franke Dean John Pollard (left) and Yona Kleinerman (right) at the Franke Honors Pinnacle research symposium, where Kleinerman received an award for his Outstanding Research.
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?
In fall of 2023, Dr. John Lee Compton made a generous $3.2 million gift to the W.A. Franke Honors College to establish The Compton Lab for Discovery and Innovation. In part this gift supports the newly established Exploratory Mini-Grants (EMG) for students, which awards financial support up to $5,000 for individuals and $10,000 for teams, and incentivizes students to explore beyond their primary major and discipline.
With encouragement from Dean Pollard and Tori Nardinelli, Kleinerman and his fellow team members Val Militeeva, Mason Mariani, and Honors student Eiza Stanford applied for the EMG last spring and got it. With this grant, they hope to launch StudiousCat this fall, likely in a large lecture class.
“We’re super excited about this opportunity. This summer we’ve been focusing on getting the pilot version of the app ready for the fall,” said Kleinerman.
Along with receiving the EMG, Kleinerman has also connected with Startup Wildcats, an innovation hub of Tech Launch Arizona and an entrepreneurship resource for U of A students.
"Startup Wildcats has helped our team through the struggles and many unknowns of how to take a rough product and continue to innovate it through talking to our users, understanding their pain points, but most importantly, acting on them," he said.
Through Dean Pollard and Startup Wildcats, Kleinermen has continued to seek mentorship opportunities, including guidance from Derick Maggard, Director of Student Ventures at Tech Launch Arizona.
“The network, resources, and programs at U of A are designed to empower student entrepreneurs like Yona. Through connections with mentors, access to funding opportunities, and hands-on workshops, students can turn their ideas into actionable ventures," said Maggard, "Yona has truly leveraged this ecosystem to not just learn but to actively build his business, demonstrating the real impact of these opportunities. These resources are available to all students within the Franke Honors College, and we hope to see more students like Yona, who strive to learn by doing and practicing innovation and entrepreneurship.”
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.
Franke Honors Quest Project
Quest is recommended for first-year, second-year, and recent transfer students. Students research a topic or issue of their interest with the guidance of a faculty mentor, which then culminates in a final project, paper, artifact, or recorded performance.
Exploratory Mini-Grants
Any Franke Honors student can apply for an exploratory mini-grant, and these mini-grants can fund projects inside or outside of your primary major. Grant options range from $5,000 for individuals and $10,000 for teams.