The future of learning

Susan Colby, Co-Founder, and Joe Wolf, Co-Founder and CEO of Imagine Worldwide

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      Photo of Susan Colby and Joe Wolf

      We empower children around the globe to build the literacy and numeracy skills needed to achieve their full potential.

      • All children have immense potential, but hundreds of millions lack access to the learning they need — especially refugees and other marginalized children.
      • Imagine Worldwide believes child-directed, tech-enabled learning can deliver foundational literacy and numeracy skills to these children — increasing their educational opportunities and improving their long-term health, wealth, and social outcomes.
      • Their tablet-based learning solutions work in any setting (school, community, or home), do not require internet connectivity, and can be charged via solar power. Software is a research-based full curriculum that is adaptive and appropriate for local context. Children drive their own learning at their own pace and annual unit cost is less than $7 per child and declining.
      • Imagine Worldwide has a rigorous research program to confirm what works, for whom, and under what conditions. A recent 13-month randomized controlled trial (RCT) with children in Malawi showed significant learning impacts despite significant disruptions due to COVID.
      • Imagine Worldwide is laser-focused on scale — increasing access, affordability, and efficacy of their solutions to drive greater adoption. They also increase impact by sharing research findings with their software and implementation partners ensuring a continuous improvement process.
      • In addition to student learning gains, their projects provide infrastructure (electricity, storage/security) and capacity (training of teachers, local partner staff, and community members) as well as awareness and exposure to digital technologies. These systems and processes are essential building blocks to launch any subsequent edtech initiatives. The hardware (like solar cages) will also provide renewable energy for over 20+ years and promote wider adoption of renewable energy in the community.
      • Susan is Co-founder of Imagine Worldwide, founding CEO, and serves on Imagine's Board of Directors. Susan has spent her career working to improve opportunities for all children, especially for the world's most marginalized populations. Prior to founding Imagine, Susan was a founding partner at the Bridgespan Group, where she opened and led the San Francisco office and built the firm's education practice. She also was a partner at McKinsey & Company and led the firm’s North American Education Practice, serving clients in the social, public, and private sectors.
      • Formerly in leadership roles at Goldman Sachs and RS Investments, Joe turned to venture philanthropy and is passionately committed to eliminating global educational inequity through scalable solutions. Prior to co-founding Imagine Worldwide, Joe co-founded The Learning Accelerator (TLA), a nonprofit dedicated to transforming K-12 education in America. Through TLA, Joe helped to incubate nonprofits with scalable impact on domestic educational equity, bringing high-speed internet connectivity to all schools through Education Superhighway and high-quality, open-access curricula through OpenUp Resources. In co-founding Imagine, Joe is now focusing on bringing scalable learning solutions to the most marginalized children globally.

      Imagine Worldwide works towards this UN Sustainable Development Goal:

      Sustainable Development Goals 4

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