The seedlings of Zinch were formed during Mick Hagen’s senior year of high school back in 2003. As he entered into the mystical world of college admissions, Mick quickly recognized that many flaws and inefficiencies exist in the process. Mick managed to survive the college admissions process while many of his friends were swallowed in its gaping jaws. In the spring of 2003, Mick was accepted to Princeton University and committed to enroll.
After a two-year religious sabbatical volunteering in Brazil, Mick attended Princeton University for his freshman year in the fall of 2005. While at Princeton, Mick met several peers who were similarly perplexed by the inefficiencies and inequalities found in the admissions process. Together they started developing the idea. During the spring of 2006, they engaged in conversation with high school students, high school counselors, parents and admissions officers to gather feedback and thus evolve the idea. The excitement and emotion grew as the movement started getting legs under it. They concluded that change is needed in the college recruiting and admissions process.
After the initial phase of research, Mick realized that for the Zinch concept to fly, it needed wings. Zinch needed a team of individuals both passionate about the idea and competent to the task of developing the concept; the team needed more business experience. Mick contacted his brother Brad Hagen and Brad’s business partner, Sid Krommenhoek.
At the time, Brad and Sid had worked together as partners in a marketing company for three years. They built their business from the ground up, venturing to different parts of the country as their business grew. Their work together began while in Taiwan on an LDS mission (they are both fluent in Mandarin Chinese), where they developed a friendship and found common ground in their passion for hard work and unity. That hard work has since manifested itself in successful business operating in the states of Michigan, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Idaho, and Utah.
Before leaving Michigan (where their business began), they befriended a local high school student with whom they played basketball. This young man’s educational opportunities were few, so Brad and Sid decided to help out. They helped him apply to a college in Utah and paid tuition for his first year of school. Today, their friend is two years away from graduation. When Mick first approached his brother and Sid about the Zinch idea (which we cumulatively named Zinch later), he struck a familiar cord with both of them. Zinch gave global context to their personal belief in power of education.
In the early fall of 06, the new Zinch team continued research in Pittsburgh at the National Association of College Admissions Counseling National Convention. The consensus there was that educators were looking for answers, specifically to current questions regarding testing and recruiting methods. Numerous school counselors voiced their concerns, stating that too much of the weight of college admissions was based on standardized tests and that this was a problem for those who don’t take the tests and those who don’t do well on the tests. School counselors also expressed that the current admissions process advantages the advantaged. Minority, international, and underprivileged students have a hard time putting themselves on the radar due to their lack of resources.
Furthermore, educators, administrators, parents, counselors, and admissions officers were all searching for change. They addressed the concerns, pointed out the problems, and stated the facts. The Zinch concept proved to be something everyone was asking for. The Zinch movement grew even stronger; our confidence waxed stronger.
Upon returning to Utah, the Zinch team jumped back into making Zinch a reality, and not merely a pipe dream. Development of the Zinch.com website started in November of 2006. In January, Zinch welcomed two new members: Cache Merrill, who would spear-head the development/programming of the site, and Than Hancock, who would be in charge of relationships with high school counselors. In the first few months of 2007, beta testing began with students from high schools in Utah. Version 1 of Zinch.com officially launched in the beginning of March 2007. |
