Transforming education through entrepreneurship
Details
Educelerate Twin Cities: Transforming education through entrepreneurship: A conversation with new school founders
June 3, 2014 · 5-7 PM
Venture Academy, 315 27th Ave SE, Minneapolis, MN 55414
Join us for a unique opportunity to hear from the founders of several innovative and entrepreneurial schools in the Twin Cities metro area that are shaping and transforming our local education environment. Learn about what is working at their schools. Innovative approaches discussed will include: blended learning, adaptive learning, hands-on project and discovery learning and personalized digital learning plans.
We want to extend a special thank you to Venture Academy (http://ventureacademies.org/) for graciously hosting this event!
Panelists include:
· Jon Bacal
Jon is CEO/founder of Venture Academy (http://ventureacademies.org/), the state's first NGLC award winner. Serving 115 6th/7th-graders in Minneapolis, Venture blends personalized digital and entrepreneurship learning, emphasizing Making, the arts and web development/coding. Previously, he served as the Executive Director of the Office of New Schools for Minneapolis Public Schools. He has also founded Hiawatha Leadership Academy, SchoolStart, served as an education advisor to the city of Saint Paul and consulted on the founding of 25 other charter schools.
· Ember Reichgott Junge
Ember is a former Minnesota State Senator and author of Minnesota's 1991 first-in-nation charter school law. In honor of the 20th anniversary of chartering, Ember wrote Zero Chance of Passage: The Pioneering Charter School Story (http://www.zerochanceofpassage.com/), a candid memoir of her challenging journey of pioneering the first charter school law from idea to national movement. The book has won multiple national awards, including Third Grand Prize Winner for Nonfiction Books in the 2013 Next Generation Indie Book Awards, and Grand Prize Winner of Writer’s Digest 2013 Self-Published Book Awards.
Ember serves as board chair of Level Up Academy—Personalized Learning for All (LUA), a new school opening in fall of 2015. LUA presents a ground-breaking model that generates on-time assessments where key student academic data and curriculum are embedded in electronic games. Ember is also a national public speaker and consultant on chartering and education reform, and on leadership and personal breakthroughs. She is past board member of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, current board vice chair of Washington D.C. based Charter Schools Development Corporation (CSDC), and a member of the National Charter Schools Hall of Fame.
· Kerry Muse
Kerry is the Chief Learning Officer and Head of School at Venture Academy. Previously, he was an innovative math teacher leader at KIPP Bridge charter school in Oakland, CA where he helped propel KIPP Bridge to become one of California’s highest performing, high-poverty urban middle schools. He is an alumnus of KIPP’s training program for teacher leaders and began his 10-year teaching career as a special education teacher in Texas district schools.
· Nora Whalen
Nora serves as a high school advisor and shares a program coordinator position and coordinates Avalon (http://www.avalonschool.org/), a St. Paul charter school with a project-based learning model, student-directed culture and teacher-led governance. After receiving a recruitment flyer in the mail, she and other teachers started Avalon in 2001. Nora also works to support other charter schools as an advisor to Innovative Quality Schools, a charter authorizer.
· Ben Whitney
Ben serves on the boards of Mastery School (http://www.themasteryschool.org/), the Minneapolis Foundation, and the Persephone Foundation and is board chair of MinnCAN (http://www.minncan.org/). He has over 25 years of experience as an ambassador, venture capitalist, campaign manager, attorney, and community leader. Notably, he served as the U.S. ambassador to the Kingdom of Norway from 2005 to 2009, where he increased student exchange between the United States and Norway and advanced several policy issues from NATO to energy and the Arctic. Ben also serves on the advisory boards of the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs and Venture Academy.