Real World Scholars Announces Additional $250,000 in Funding Available at SXSW
San Diego, CA (PRWEB) March 06, 2017 -- Today, Real World Scholars (RWS), a nonprofit working to reimagine PK-12 education through an entrepreneurial lens, announced an additional $250,000 in direct-to-teacher funding available for educators looking to build Education Corporations (EdCorps) in their classroom.
The $250,000 in funding will go directly to classrooms through a synergetic partnership with the funding platform ClassWallet. Each classroom will receive a minimum of $1,000 to build an EdCorp, or a student-run business that operates from the classroom, allowing teachers to add an “entrepreneurial layer” to classes such as English, Science, and Engineering. Interested teachers can learn more and tentatively claim their slot (and the allotted funding, which will be disbursed in September) by visiting http://www.realworldscholars.org/sxsw.
“We want to use the incredible gathering of innovators and leaders at SXSWedu to shake things up and offer a large amount of funding at once so educators and communities can join the movement of 200+ classrooms reimagining student-centered learning,” said John Cahalin, co-founder of Real World Scholars. “We are hopeful that connecting with current EdCorps founders while at SXSWedu and having the opportunity to learn about the program from our team will spark interest for the educators in attendance.”
While interest to date has been primarily in STEAM and project-based learning classrooms, EdCorps are finding their way into career & technical education, traditional entrepreneurial education, and beyond. Although some EdCorps have earned tens of thousands of dollars in profits, EdCorps’ primary purpose is to engage students in real world learning and provide them with early and frequent exposure to the entrepreneurial mindset in the classroom. EdCorps use business as a teaching tool, allowing teachers to approach classic curriculum in a new and relevant way (highlighted in the Google story, “How one teacher discovered the perfect teaching tool: a business”).
“We want to support teachers as they empower their students to become learners, makers, creators, and stakeholders in both their businesses and ultimately their own educational journeys. We now know that this can work in almost any classroom so we’re excited to offer the opportunity to more educators around the country” said Elyse Burden, co-founder of Real World Scholars. “We want teachers to be able to prepare all students to enter the world better qualified to take on big risks, ask big questions, and develop big solutions.”
Several teachers and school officials from the EdCorps Community will be on a panel discussion, “EdCorps: Where STEAM Meets Student-Run Business”, on Tuesday, March 7th at 11:00am in Salon B at the JW Marriott. Panelists will discuss what running an EdCorp is really like and will be available to answer questions.
For more information or to support EdCorps, please visit http://www.RealWorldScholars.org.
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About Real World Scholars:
Real World Scholars partners with teachers, parents, industry members and communities to build student-run businesses that stimulate learning in traditional PK-12 classrooms and prepare students for the world of work. For more information visit http://www.RealWorldScholars.org.
Brian Franklin, The Wakeman Agency, +1 7032013875, [email protected]
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