Supercool School

Worldpeace through education? An Interview with Aron Solomon

I had the pleasure talking with Aron Solomon yesterday. I was very impressed by the new project he is currently leading: the THINK Global School. Although the project is still in its beginnings - the message is simple and powerful: take a bunch of eager & curious students and have them understand the world by living & studying in 12 countries over the course of 12 trimesters.
I immediately had to think back to this simple exchange program for children in the post 2nd world war time between France and Germany. The two countries had a deeply rooted hatred for one another at that time - comparable to Israel & Palestine. The visionary exchange program was to shape future society leaders in both countries and make them understand each others culture. It literally had a game changing effect on our world today. 
Now as the world is growing together and we are challenged with more cultures than just our neighboring country - THINK Global School goes one step further and builds the next generation of global change makers.

Below a quick interview with the CEO Aron Solomon.

 

1. Aron tell us a little about yourself and why you decided to take the lead at THINK Global School.

Lasse, first, it's great to speak with you.  i think that Supercool School is, well, Super Cool :)

I've been involved with independent schools for 25 years and have done global work in education for many of them.  I'm an educator, a laywer, a Ford Fellow and a graduate of the nonprofit management program at Kellogg.  

As I think happens so frequently, many things bring us to a certain point in our lives.  Meeting our Founders in the fall of 2008 was one of those points, as their global vision very clearly intersected with mine.  The past year and a half has been an amazing ride :)

2. Why do you believe that THINK Global School change their students lives forever?

Because I believe that there is no substitute in life for experience.  We can all get on You Tube (which I love) and watch a video taken at the Great Wall near Beijing.  And that's absolutely awesome.  Now imagine vlogging from the Great Wall.  Taking in the smells and the heat and the crush of people who flock there from all over the world.  And sharing your "present sense impressions" of what you're experiencing.  That's true learning as it involves all of your senses and it's active.  That's what TGS is all about.

3. I almost failed my 5th & 6th grade - could I have become joined THINK Global School?

Wow - can kids actually fail Grade 5? :)  Tough school!

There are many reasons a child might struggle in school.  We're open to examining these.

But, the reality is, that it's not going to be easy to travel the world.  We're looking for kids who we're confident will succeed in and out of the classroom.

4. Where do you wish to see the participants in 20 years from now?

Everywhere.  I want them to make great contributions to their local, national and global communities.  I really don't care what this means in practice.  If they're going to be doctors or lawyers or diplomats - great, we think the experience will make them that much better in their careers and in their lives. If they're going to be entrepreneurs, great - we'll give them a world-class education that will allow them to be a true social entrepreneur, to understand and appreciate the power of their initiative and creativity.

5. I couldn't imagine a better path to world peace than making THINK Global School obligatory worldwide :) How likely is that to happen?

We think that it's a good start :)  I've been in very high-level meetings in my life where thought-leaders and influencers focus only on the problems.  The TGS team are a group of talented, global people who focus on solutions. 

300 new schools in 10 days! Lets democratize education!

The last two weeks were amazing. Supercool School received an enormous amount of love & helpful criticism from around the globe. Thank you! We tripled our schools in just a couple days to more than 400. With learners from more than 80 countries. With the help of people like Alberto Villanueva - who just recorded an entire Supercool School introduction in Spanish - or the team around Jean-Francois Ruiz who is currently translating Supercool School in French we are making Supercool School a truly global movement to democratize education. 

It feels very special to empower the dreams of people with schools as "The School for Peace & Friendship"  or to help Alex Castellarnau from IDEO to understand how people learn. Everybody can now learn more about security and viruses at the computer repair school or unleash their tech career at the Inspions University. The broad spread of topics, groups and different countries is super exciting and surpasses our expectations. Passionate educators, parents, infomarketers, designers or the the German  union started schools to teach skills like math or values like modesty to the world. Even children have a place where they can learn how to produce their first music - at the Music Mural & Arts project school. 

Much of this progress is thanks to all the coverage we received lately. 

USA Today says  "Supercool School allows anyone to teach online".

 

Venture Beat calls "Supercool School the Ning for education".

 Springwise underlines "$30 billion are spent per year in the U.S. education and training services industry alone"

Change.org wrote "They fucking want to fix education. Period."

Cause Global concludes  "Supercool School's message is totally "from the ground up" and direct and idealistic -- all the more reason it might actually make it to mainstream."

More coverage came from:

- Good.is

- Business Week

- Killer Startups

- PC Mag

- You should go to School 

- New York Times 

- Professor Digital (Spanish)

- Kirsten Winkler 

- We are here to change the world

- 1000 ideas (Russian)

- Conversation Agent

- Foerderland (German)

(I am sure there is much more. Please Let me know if I forgot something)

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Do you also believe that everybody should have access to education? Help us to build the new education infrastructure.!

Are you hacking with a purpose? Join us to transform education forever!

(for questions contact me at bjoern@supercoolschool.com)

I see myself often in sheer awe listening like a child to passionate hackers like our friends Taso Du Val or David Weekly. I truly admire engineers who have this playful vision that goes beyond the hypes of what people seem to dig today and strives for what truly transforms people's lives. 

On the contrary "When I see a new web startup trying to increase click-thru ad-rates by 10%, it breaks my heart a little. It's not that what they're doing is wrong. But I just can't help but feel like I'm seeing incredible entrepreneurial talent wasted on something that fundamentally doesn't matter much." (by Nathaniel Whittemore)

In fact it is a good start … now just add to the ycombinator equation of "building useful technology" variables such as "world-changing" or "socially transforming". Because the more technical visionaries adopt a social vision the more we will have great companies like Facebook, Apple, Google, Microsoft, etc.

How about you? Are you hacking with a purpose, yet? 

How about education? Just think about it - the majority of people worldwide have no access to quality education if any.

"At the same time our entire future economy will be based on knowledge and therefore education. Continuous learning will become a core institution of our and our childrens' lives."

So why not build the next generation infrastructure for education that is scalable, fun and effective and gives everybody the same chance in life?

We are searching for visionary hackers to join the Supercool School team.

We are a small team of highly purpose-driven individuals from Europe with an outstanding expertise in education and a strong entrepreneurial background. Vlad our - current technical chief - has lead the development for 8 venture backed ROR Startups in Europe & US.

We are all driven by our believe in the power of learning. We believe that education is the answer to all the challenges that we face today. And even though we don't have all the solutions yet, we believe that they can be found in the hearts and minds of the people. So empowering them to learn and to develop their true potential means empowering the world to become all it can be: a better place for all of us. 

 

 Send me an email to bjoern@supercoolschool.com or apply here to join the team.