MIT Solve

Solution Overview & Team Lead Details

Our Organization

F4RM School

What is the name of your solution?

F4RM School

Provide a one-line summary of your solution.

a for-impact organization focused on investing in creative technology education and resources for students in the most underserved communities

What specific problem are you solving?

1. Education

The backbone and foundation of the development of our country is education. The current state of public education in the Philippines are as follows:

total enrolment of K-12 in SY 2019-2020 in the Philippines is 27.7 Million
81% (22.4M) of which is enrolled in the public school system
4 Million un-enrolled out-of-school youth in 2021 due to the pandemic

The reality of public school education in the Philippines due to poor education funding & investment from the government are deteriorating quality of education, high dropout rates, underpaid, understaffed & overworked teachers, shortages of books & tools, widening social divide and mismatch of skills to relevant careers.

The government has been allotting between 2-4% of the annual GDP to education for decades. UN recommendation is 6%. The Philippines did that only once this decade in 2020 due to the pandemic. Despite this increased government budget in 2020, the education crisis has become dire due to the already poor public education infrastructure that is unprepared to handle this situation. Covid-19 further exposed the weaknesses and limitations of our educational system.

2. E-waste -

Based on the world counts statistics: https://www.theworldcounts.com... 40 million tons of devices.. That’s roughly 800 laptops per second are put into trash. We will be running donation drives all year round. We will set up collection points in the United States, Canada, and Europe. We will be sending the collected devices to the Philippines to be donated to the kids who will be participating in F4RM school program.

What is your solution?

Through capacity and community building, F4rm aims to build a school that supports the development of our students’ technology education. With our community of global mentors, we will design a unique 12-week summer workshop composed of STEAM workshops and build a strong network of mentors for our students even after the program. We will bring this program, the resources, tools, quality educators to an underserved community in the Philippines chosen in partnership with a local NFP.

There are five labs where workshops for the different ages stem from: Computing, AI and Robotics Lab (Coding a Virtual Robot), Immersive Lab (VR Game Design), Future Earth Lab (AI for Oceans), Art Hacking Lab (Future of Music Tactility) and Digital Citizenship Lab (Designing an Unbiased AI). By the end of the program, creators will produce a final project that solves a problem in their home, personal life or the community.

We are investing in K-12 students for this first initiative to start them early in their most formative years. We hope that students develop critical, holistic, creative and sustainable relationships with technology and can use programming concepts, immersive experiences and AI literacy to solve problems in their communities.

Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?

The Philippines is the 12th most populated in the world and roughly 40% of them are under 18. Within that population are 20 million people under the poverty line. Due to extreme corruption in the Philippine government, the education system is poorly funded. F4RM will serve Grades 10-12 in an underserved community in the Philippines.

With the F4RM founders' resources and network built in North America - US and Canada, along with their abundant and strong network in the Philippines, they could pull people and resources to give more to the underserved communities in the Philippines. There are more than 12 million capable and talented Filipinos overseas and among those are people who are uncertain on how to give back and help the country without going through the government funded charity or organization. So, F4RM is creating an avenue for Filipinos overseas to give back to the community without the need to let go of their life overseas. It could also be seen as a reverse brain-drain method. The F4RM already has a good amount of Filipino-Americans and Filipino-Canadians volunteers who are willing to put the time and effort to inspire and share their knowledge as mentors.

Workshops are designed by global mentors of engineers and professionals from NASA, Blue Origin and Johnson & Johnson to name a few. The program will be taught in partnership with local educators, volunteers and organizations. The F4RM STEAM education will provide a meaningful connection to young adults and will inspire the youth that there’s a place for them in the future. Living in an environment with very limited resources could limit the knowledge and imagination of the people. The founders are prioritizing holistic and practical education to bridge the gap of real world demands vs. skills and technology available.

How are you and your team well-positioned to deliver this solution?

The founders of F4RM, Ariana and KC, grew up in Manila and they have seen these challenges first hand. Having spent their years in an institution which molds women to become an agent of social change, they are both exposed to socio economic issues at a very young age. As an example, they spent their highschool days going to underserved communities of Baseco, Tondo, building houses under the “Gawad Kalinga” charity. Every exposure and immersion trip, they have seen the challenges and unfortunate situations of families striving for a living with just less resources.

We have already partnered with YWCA in the Philippines and they are helping us together with DepEd reach pubic schools students. We are now in the process of getting applicants through YWCA and we're set to start our Pilot Program on June 2022.

We have gathered inputs from different experts in each STEAM field and have followed the advise level of knowledge in Philippine public schools.

Which dimension of the Challenge does your solution most closely address?

Enable personalized learning and individualized instruction for learners who are most at risk for disengagement and school drop-out

Where our solution team is headquartered or located:

Manila, Metro Manila, Philippines

Our solution's stage of development:

Pilot

How many people does your solution currently serve?

For now 10 because of Pilot, after this phase, we will expand to a higher reach

Why are you applying to Solve?

For a network of people who could make our solution to education problem better.

In which of the following areas do you most need partners or support?

Financial (e.g. improving accounting practices, pitching to investors)

Who is the Team Lead for your solution?

KC Adviento and Ariana Villegas