Student Centered and Growth-Mindset Driven

Developing an innovative solution to the problem of inequity in college access has been an exercise in growth. I have expanded my ideas of possibilities, grown my network of change-makers, and gained new perspectives through a great book, Disruptive Classroom Technologies: a Framework for Innovation in Education by Sonny Magana. These last couple of months have been a whirlwind of innovation, and I feel like it's finally settling into something concrete.

From right to left, Vince Beese (Sales at Scale), Larry Long, Jr. (Teamworks), Erin Hensz (Tier Point), & Ryan Walsh (Repvue)

Attending Startup Summit at NC State afforded me the opportunity to meet some really amazing folks, including Donald Thompson, a speaker, advisor, and investor. His keynote on equity in business was inspiring and relevant. The panel pictured above spoke on sales best practices, great insight from people who work in the innovation industry day-in and day-out.

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Additionally, keeping in mind a student-centered approach in developing transformational technology, a former student of mine and I have been able to put together a prototype as an initial iteration to an intervention focused on providing college access and success resources to students and families.

Our app, Easy Access, will provide students with an intuitive, interactive platform to learn everything they need to know about the college application and admission process, including financial aid, letters of recommendation requests, and best practices for college essay writing.

Knowing that gaining admittance to college is only the first step in graduating, Easy Access will also help teach students "soft" skills such as self-advocacy, interviewing skills, and professional etiquette. The goal being that, with these skills, they will have another tool in their bag to graduate from a post-secondary institution.

There are still lots of tests to run and focus groups to be had before we finalize our intervention, but I think we are on the right track for developing an innovative strategy to combat postsecondary access inequity.