When Michael Aaron Flicker was 14, he and his friend Abraham Wong were looking for a way to get out of gym class. They decided to do an independent art project over the summer instead - surprisingly, the school agreed, and Flicker spent his summer constructing an online project.
With Wong, he created a virtual walk-through of their high school so that freshmen would not get lost on their first day. This was in 1997, a year in which video had barely graced the Internet. After finishing the project, Flicker asked Wong how their work differed from that of an online design company. "We didn't get paid for it," Wong replied.
From there, XenoPsi Media was born. Flicker and Wong created the Internet Solutions Firm, and their New Jersey high school was their first client. Their first paid project was creating online forms for teachers applying to the Board of Education. As the year 2000 approached, they worked on Y2K issues for Ridgewood Savings Bank.
Aside from avoiding gym class and creating his own company, Flicker was busy eradicating vandalism. Many of his peers complained about the graffiti at Ridgewood High School, especially in the bathrooms. Flicker decided to start a group to get rid of it, and he formed what came to be called the Quality of Student Life Committee. The graffiti was removed.
When Flicker started as a freshman at Boston College in 2001, he happily moved into Duchesne Hall on Newton Campus. But by November, Flicker says, "it was cold, the buses never ran, and the food was bad." He wanted to do something but thought there was no one he could talk to about the things that needed to be fixed.
So Flicker decided to continue the group he had started in high school, and created a Quality of Student Life Committee at BC. While the group was unable to make large-scale changes on Newton Campus, their efforts were not ignored. Under Flicker's leadership, the group was responsible for bringing ATMs and a mailbox to Lower Campus as well as expanding the drop-add period from five to seven days.
Perhaps their best known project on campus is the Be Current Campaign, which brings The New York Times, Boston Globe, and Boston Herald to BC daily. As a freshman, Flicker subscribed to the Times but was frustrated because it would rarely make it to his doorstep. When he researched how many kids actually had subscriptions, "there was something as low as only seven kids on the entire campus," Flicker says. "Something had to be done."
When Flicker graduated from BC in 2005, he turned over the reins of the committee to its membership, which had grown from six to 24 students in his four years at BC. Flicker moved to Washington, D.C., where he began an internship under New Jersey Sen. Frank Lautenberg. Flicker was hired as a staff assistant and then became a legislative aide. As an aide, he worked on special projects such as transportation and communicated with Lautenberg's press office.
During his time with Lautenberg, Flicker says he learned two things he will always remember. First, "it is an intellectual place, so you can make an argument and actually change people's minds. And, if it doesn't go your way, at least there was a discussion about it." The important thing, he adds, is just to do as much good as you can while you are there.
Today, Flicker, who is now 24, has moved on from Lautenberg's office and focuses on XenoPsi Media, which will soon be celebrating its 10th anniversary. In the past few years, the company has grown from its two 14-year-old founders to seven people. The organization has clients all over the world.
Though XenoPsi is on the cusp of becoming a bigger company, Flicker may keep it small. As a small business, he says, "our costs are low and we are able to do so much more. We are able to patrol the quality of our product, as well as keep a better relationship with our clients." Currently, he works with a range of clients, from non-profits to companies as large as Exxon Mobile. Flicker has also maintained ties with Lautenberg. Currently XenoPsi runs the his campaign, his Web site, his outreach program, and will soon launch his Facebook page.
Flicker has some advice to share with BC-ers soon to graduate or thinking about what to do after school: "Remember that BC alumni are always there to help. There is a great alumni base in many cities. Second, know and be confident that you are prepared to do whatever you want and that the opportunities are available. You just have to decide what it is you want, and then go out and do it."
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