Youth, Skills, & the Workforce of the Future
Social Entrepreneur + STEM Education = Social Sci-preneur
By Ashoka's Youth Venture
Our solution's stage of development:
GrowthOur solution:
We create Changemaker social sci-preneurs, who apply STEM to create positive change for the greater good. Partnering with education agencies (e.g. school districts), we integrate the changemaking skills - empathy, teamwork, leadership, and problem-solving into STEM curricula, redefining STEM as using knowledge and skills to create social change.
Our pitch:
The problem:
- The skill mismatch: Sixty percent of some of the best jobs of tomorrow do not exist today. We must align STEM education with social innovation to nurture the next generation of powerful change agents for society.
- Only 6.7% of women graduate with STEM degrees versus 17% of men.
- Lack of well-being: the educational system is not just outdated; test-focused culture today has made school increasingly more stressful for educators and students.
- Limited scope of intervention: Existing intervention models often fail to engage the entire ecosystem (local community) of educators, parents, youth, and organizations.
Why our solution will solve the problem:
To create transformational change, we shift the Mindset, Curriculum, System, and Culture of education agencies. After piloting with 80 educators, within a year, three U.S. school districts have refined their STEM curricula. Next year, five school districts in Massachusetts and Connecticut and two teacher schools in California and Texas will implement Changemaker Education. Purpose-driven student projects transformed how the community views youth. These community stakeholders are influencing state leaders to create a pipeline for Changemaking STEM values from education to the workforce. The pilot has led to conversations with Ashoka's country offices in East Asia to scale the program.
Our target outcomes:
Beneficiaries:
- Every Student & Educator A Changemaker, especially students from low socio-economic background, ESL learners, and girls in STEM.
- Changemaker Communities: proactively engage parents, businesses, and universities in communities the districts are based.
Outcomes:
- Self-motivated students, who practice Changemaking skills and apply science to solving problems: In 3 years, 250,000 students gain access to the revamped STEM education in 3 countries.
- Innovative educators: In 3 years, 3 teacher schools adapt their training materials to embrace Changemaking values.
- Engaged ecosystem: In 3 years, establish a network of research institutions, businesses, and universities in 3 countries to create a pipeline for new talents.
How we will measure our progress:
The populations we will benefit initially:
The regions we will benefit initially:
The technologies we employ:
Why our solution is unique:
Activation of the whole ecosystem - educators, parents, youth, community organizations, and universities to engage in the child’s learning. Most educational intervention happens top-down; Changemaking happens midway, where district leaders and classroom teachers co-create.
Co-creation of teaching methodology - our professional development helps teachers gain a sense of ownership over designing Changemaking activities pertinent to their students and subject matters.
Integration of empathy, teamwork, leadership, and problem solving into STEM curriculum and culture happens organically. We support the educators and districts to shift their mindset, curriculum, classroom practices, and systematic assessment.
Why our solution is human-centered:
- Students & educators drive the activities, as they learn to apply the skills of empathy, teamwork, leadership, and problem solving both in and outside of school.
- Teachers take the initiative to embed the framework into their classroom. After internalizing the values, they create self-sustained professional learning communities in their school and district beyond the initial co-creation session.
- Unique community needs inspire student and teacher STEM projects, as learning takes root in partnership with non-profits to address specific issues in the local community. STEM is not Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. It is the integration of human and technological aspects of sciences.
How people will access our solution:
Training for educators and community stakeholders:
- Five gatherings and workshops over 10 months between Youth Venture, educators, and community stakeholders.
Resources for educators and parents, freely available:
- Communication Platform, where educators post ideas of classroom implementation and build a support system.
- Blueprint of best practices for different stakeholders - teachers, school leaders, school district leaders.
- Manuals for pilot educators from year one to train new cohorts of teachers.
- Online resources from Ashoka: Fellows Network, Empathy toolkit, Dream It Do It Challenge, Storytelling, Parenting Changemakers.
Once changemaking has been integrated into the district curricula and system (professional development and hiring practices for teachers), it will be self-sustainable.
Technology-Readiness Level:
4-5 (Prototyping)Our organization:
Non-ProfitHow we will sustain our team financially:
Our revenue is generated from school districts, covering expense for professional development trainings with educators and gathering of community stakeholders. Having demonstrated impact in three school districts, we are identifying Change team members from our Changemaker Schools, non-profits, and Ashoka country offices (e.g. Singapore, South Korea, and Canada) to train to replicate this model. We will split the revenue with them to extend our social impact.
We also work with citizen sector organizations (e.g. Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, AFS-International Culture Exchange), providing services to help them integrate the principles of our work into their work.
The factors limiting our success:
- Funding from educational agencies is affected by federal/state budget plan.
- Difficulty in identifying strategic partners: The availability of solution depends on the priorities of the educational agencies and their leaders.
How long we have been working on our solution:
2 yearsHow long it will take to develop a pilot:
6-12 monthsHow long it will take to scale beyond our pilot:
12-18 monthsOur expected annual budget:
$700000
How much of our budget we've secured to date:
$150000
We're looking for partners in these fields:
Why we're applying to Solve:
- We have been inspired by the support the MeWeSyria program has received through Solve.
- STEM education is the door to bridge science and citizenship sectors; we value the exposure and visibility the Solve platform brings to the innovation in STEM education we are working on.
- We welcome the opportunity to meet with new stakeholders outside our current community to get new perspectives as well as connect with likeminded social innovators. We are especially looking for opportunities to connect with experts to build the communication platform for changemaker teachers, and with researchers and educators in STEM to scale our evaluation work.
Our current partners:
- Anne Arundel School District (Maryland)
- Capitol Region Education Council (CREC) (Connecticut) (serving 35 Districts, assisting 150,000 students each year )
- Cromwell School District in Connecticut
Solution Team
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Our Solution
Social Entrepreneur + STEM Education = Social Sci-preneur