A new report has found that 80% of undergrad grades at Yale last year were A’s.

Apparently, this is called “grade inflation” — and it’s prevalent in all schools.

But is it a problem?

Yep.

Unlike infinite economic inflation, grades top-out at A’s. So this means that an ever-growing pool of kids are racking up top scores.

On the surface, this may not seem like a terrible thing, but handing out A’s to kids who don’t truly deserve them isn’t doing them a favor — it’s doing them a disservice by not preparing them for the real world.

Kids need to stumble.

Kids need to fail.

Kids need to compete.

It’s the only way to grow.

In today’s issue:

1. Tactical Tuesday: AI will help you raise your kid if you let it.

2. Something to inspire you: This kid earned a rockstar internship by following a key BETA Camp principle.

3. Ivy’s takeaway: Buck up and talk to your kid about fear.

I built a parenting bot on ChatGPT, and it rocks

Ok, hear me out—

I’m not saying robots will take over parenting our kids.

Well…not soon, anyway.

But this new innovation can serve as a second-brain, when frankly, your first brain isn’t enough to tackle the crazy stuff your kid is dealing with.

Wait… what?

For those who don’t follow OpenAI super closely, a few weeks ago (amid their CEO drama), they released a new GPT Builder that allows anyone to train their own AI chatbot.

So I built a Prequel chatbot, of course. 👇

How is this different from regular ChatGPT?

👉 I uploaded all of our newsletters into the bot’s knowledge base, so when you ask it a question, it will source an answer based on the carefully curated and human-led research we’ve done here at Prequel.

It blends the incredible power of OpenAI’s unprecedented large language model with our research team’s specialized knowledge.

Go ahead, try it out. 

Note — it’s only available to those who have a ChatGPT membership. That’s on them, not me. I’d make it free for everyone. 🤷

Whether you’re dealing with a 9-year old who is addicted to video games… 👇

… or a teenage girl who is getting bullied… 👇

…you can seamlessly access the most useful information from our catalog of 70+ issues of Prequel.

Now go build your own

Why is GPT Builder the most remarkable child-rearing tool since internet parental controls? 

Because you can access advice from everything useful you’ve ever read by typing a simple prompt.

It’s easy—

Every time you read something with helpful parenting tactics (like the Prequel newsletter), just upload it to your personal GPT.

It will continue to learn more about your parenting style with every new piece of knowledge you feed it.

Oh, and it takes about 5 minutes to set up.

You can tell it all about your kids — their ages, interests, goals, and challenges — to customize the feedback and advice.

From now on, you’ll always have an AI parenting pal to lean on. 👭

This kid embraced fearlessness and it earned him an internship

At the start of his freshman year, Jesse Chang had a hard time getting excited about his future.

“I was a boat in the middle of the sea with no sail,” said Jesse. “And everywhere I looked was more sea… I needed something to latch onto.”

For Jesse, the answer was to just try things:

• He tried piano, then quit. 

• He tried violin (nada). 

• He tried Model UN — which was a resounding heck no. ❌

Then, Jesse tried DECA, an organization for students interested in business. 

Bingo — he had found his calling.

⛵ Once Jesse had a direction, he set out to find wind for his sails. 

First, he had to find his people. 

DECA connected Jesse to like minded peers — like his friend Harry, who started the nonprofit Helivox to help students learn about academic and extracurricular opportunities. 

Jesse has been helping him build it ever since. 

Jesse knew he needed to learn more, but had a hard time finding a program that would teach him skills he didn’t already know.

✅ BETA Camp checked all the boxes.

The summer after junior year, Jesse set himself on the path of building his own startup… in just 4 weeks.

Then, he had to really challenge himself.

At BETA Camp, Jesse and his team built a monthly subscription box customized with toys for neurodivergent kids. 🧸

As far as businesses go, this was no lemonade stand — it was a serious product, and it came with a big learning curve.

“We didn’t really know what we were doing, to be fair, when it comes to something as pivotal as toys for children with neurodevelopmental disorders,” says Jesse. 

The team needed expertise — so Jesse used his outreach skills to find therapists they could interview to revise their product.

It was during one of these interviews that he realized he had a special product:

Finally, he had to choose to be fearless.

The most valuable outcome was not the money earned, but the lessons learned — and for Jesse, that was learning how to overcome rejection. 

Before BETA Camp, Jesse worried a lot about what others thought — even staying off social media entirely because of it (word). ✌️

His outlook now? It’s pretty close to fearless: 

“I might as well just throw myself out there… what are they gonna do, reject me?” laughs Jesse. “It doesn’t impact me whatsoever.”

The secret to his transformation was the BETA Camp rejection workshop.

In it, students are assigned outlandish tasks, like:

The lesson?

You can get better at rejection with a little practice. 

But also… you can make the craziest things in the world happen, if you just ask. Check out Jesse’s BETA Camp pitch if you need proof.

And boy did his fearlessness pay off.

Jesse didn’t waste any time applying that lesson. 

When one of the BETA Camp guest speakers mentioned they were hiring interns, Jesse put his name in the hat.

That kind of pluck doesn’t go unnoticed at BETA Camp. The students who…

• Actively participate in sessions

• Reach out to speakers on LinkedIn

• Take every opportunity available to them

…walk away from BETA Camp with much more than business savvy. They leave with a network of valuable connections that will carry them to their next opportunity.

Jesse’s halfway through that internship now, gaining real-world outreach experience and working with people from prestigious colleges all over the world.

“I never would have gotten this opportunity if I didn’t apply,” says Jesse. “If you don’t ask, you don’t receive.”

Lesson learned.

Share your fears

There’s a ton of power in fearlessness.

But how do you teach it to kids?

It’s different from confidence. Confidence is self-assurance in their own abilities. They can be confident without being fearless.

Fearlessness is the art of taking a leap into the unknown. It’s about caring more about what they might learn rather than how they might look.

It’s a mindset.

And there’s only one way to start: normalize fear.

Humans are afraid of being afraid, and our kids are no different. Fear can’t be overcome unless it’s recognized.

This weekend, I challenge you to do one thing:

Tell your kid about a time you were afraid.

Don’t force them to reciprocate — just share.

Then watch this space. We’re brewing up some great research on this topic, and we’re gonna walk you through how to help your kid become fearless. 👊

Until next time,

Ivy

CEO Prequel, BETA Camp, Apollo

Follow my journey on LinkedIn