SchoolSpice

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SchoolSpice is an online learning platform that aims to assist approximately 17 million grade 9-12 students in developing the 21st century skills needed to succeed in post-secondary education and beyond.

Standings & Awards

396 out of 422 in North America
136 out of 779 in Education
546 out of 935 in Design
734 out of 1066 in Blended
1251 out of 4003 Overall

10

VOTES

SchoolSpice-Cofounders: Sumit Mitra, Andrew Dotey

Empowering high school students to develop 21st century skills regardless of their socio-economic status.

Vision: We aim to assist 9 -12^th grade students in developing the 21^st century skills needed to succeed in postsecondary education and beyond. We envision a future in which students, regardless of their socio-economic status, have the necessary skills and information needed to excel in all walks of life.

Problem: In the current educational paradigm, schools mired with budget cuts and increasing class sizes, are unable to provide all the resources students need to succeed in post-secondary education and beyond. High school counselors are having even more difficulty in assisting their students with developing their soft skills. Moreover, only students from privileged families are able to find resources and have opportunities to participate in activities outside of school. So how are students suppose to develop much needed skills and reach their academic goals when they don’t have the resources to?

Solution: While there are websites like Khan Academy, Udemy etc. that aim to help students with classroom education, there is no comprehensive website that students can access to find information on opportunities outside of the classroom. SchoolSpice aims to address this issue. We aim to assist 17 million grade 9-12 students in developing the 21^st century skills. There are two primary methods that we will use to accomplish this. First, we will provide high quality crowd sourced video content on soft skills. We will help students learn about skills that are essential to succeed in life but are not emphasized enough in schools such as effective leadership, communication, time management, resume writing etc. Second, we will provide a comprehensive list of competitions students can participate in. Competitions are important because they provide an avenue for students to discover their passions and develop an intrinsic motivation to learn. They also teach students how to use failure as an effective tool for growth.

Impact: Time and time again, we have seen that students do not reach their goals, not because they do not have the ability to do so, but because they don’t have the resources to. SchoolSpice hopes to provide such a platform for students, regardless of their socio- economic status, where they can not only gain information but collaborate with industry experts and peers and hone their skills. This will help them accomplish any goal they set for themselves and ultimately succeed in the real world.

FIVE PROJECT QUESTIONS Required (60 - 90 minutes)

1. What is your innovation?

Even though there are companies like Khan Academy and Udemy that provide videos on inside the classroom learning, none of them assist students with their beyond the classroom needs. Currently, there is no website like SchoolSpice that aggregates important “beyond the classroom” information for 9-12th grade students under one portal. By providing this information, we will help in ensuring the road to post secondary education and beyond is based on merit and not on privilege to information.

2. Who gains the most?

Students, parents and high school counselors gain the most by this website. Students and parents will finally have a resource to address and supplement their academic needs outside of the classroom. Counselors will finally have a tool that they can use to more effectively advise their students based on the students interest.

3. Who pays?

All the information on academic and non- academic competitions will be offered at no charge to the students as will be the videos on basic soft skills. There will be charge for Premium soft skill video content that directly caters to 9-12th grade students and will be paid for by the parents. Competition hosting will be paid for by the organizations hosting it. Participation in these online competitions will also be free for students.

4. What is your success?

We currently have on average 20,000 views on our website and 50 users and we have only done one small beta test on 250 9-12th grade students and 20 random families. In 12 months, we hope to have 75,000 users. Three years from now we hope to have 1.5 million users. 5 years from now we hope that we are helping nearly 9 million students, parents and counselors and hence provide a level playing field for all students in grades 9-12. The objective is to reach as many students as possible nationally.

5. How will you do it?

We plan to approach professors and other 21st century skill providers to help us with the development of premium video content. We are also in the process of developing platform for organizations to host competitions for students. We will leverage our Stanford network and professors such as Professor Denise Pope who is connected to over 150 high schools and over 300 parent alumni. Besides marketing at school, we will use social media and academic enrichment centers to market the website.