In 2011, I spent a summer in Southern California working for the Middlebury-Monterey Language Academy at Pomona College. During my two months in Cali, I spent everyday in a Spanish One Immersion class with six or seven students ages 13-15. It was a great experience and I even got the chance to pilot Middlebury's online language program. Even though it was just a few years ago, it feels like a lifetime ago! A few months ago, a colleague who started a new course at our school called Small Business Start-Up, told me about an amazing 19 year old that had started her own company, Yellowberry. I was so impressed by the story behind the company and how the founder was trying to empower young girls. As I was browsing the website, I came across a video telling her story. As I watched the video, I kept thinking, this girl looks so familiar. Finally it hit me that it was Megan, a student from summer I had worked for Middlebury-Monterey Language Academy. Today I was lucky enough to participate in a Skype chat with Megan and the Small Business Start-Up class. Megan's story just reminded me of how much young people can accomplish when they use their tech skills for good. Since starting her company, she has deferred her entry to college (at Middlebury!) until next year. In the meantime, she is running PR, Social Media and Blogging for her company. It has since grown to employ 5 full-time employees and outsourcing some parts of the work. She has even been picked up by Aerie for a collaboration.
Hearing her story, I really started to reflect on the skills that our students will need when they enter the work force. Megan has been thrown into the business world pretty quickly with the success she's had. She's had to learn a lot in a short amount of time. I want to make sure that when students leave my school they have the skills they need in order to be successful. Over the past few years, my school has discussed content versus skills a lot. We arrived at the conclusion that skills should outweigh content. But the struggle for many teachers is making that shift. Moving assessments away from memorization of facts to demonstrating mastery of skills is challenging and it takes time. Megan's story reminded me that we are moving in the right direction and reignited my interest in motivating teachers to make that transition.
I encourage you to check out Yellowberry and Megan's story, I promise you'll be impressed!
