Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Tessa Zimmerman. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Tessa , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today One of our favorite things to hear about is stories around the nicest thing someone has done for someone else – what’s the nicest thing someone has ever done for you?

When I was eight years old, I started experiencing severe anxiety and panic attacks in the classroom. My teacher had no idea what to do when I was having a panic attack so she’d send me to the principal’s office. As I got older and continued to experience anxiety, school offered little help outside of handing me a stress ball. Luckily when I was twelve years old my parents had been introduced to a private school and an amazing school leader, Suellen Inwood, that was known to help kids that struggled with anxiety.

At the age of twelve, I had a really hard time getting into any school building. I was having multiple panic attacks a day. Despite this, Suellen saw something in me and offered me a full-scholarship to her school. This is by-far the kindest thing anyone has ever done for me because it completely changed the course of my life. At my new school, I learned how to navigate my anxiety. I was surrounded by teachers who knew what to do when I was having a panic attack. I became a student who loved going to school because I felt supported. I wouldn’t be where I am today without that full scholarship.

Tessa , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am the Founder and Executive Director of ASSET Education. We’re a nonprofit that trains and equips educators in a curriculum of bite-sized, stress-reducing tools. We currently work with 64 different school and district partners across the country. Through these partners, we impact about 40,000 students weekly.

Our niche is that all of our lessons take less than 10 minutes to implement. This means educators can start of their academic class with one of our stress-reducing tools, help their students get out of the stress response, and ultimately help them be in a mental state to learn. We’re not biologically designed to convert short-term memory into long-term memory when we’re stressed.

Last year in a case study conducted by our dear research partner, Signe Hawley of Datacated, she found 82% of ASSET students reported using the ASSET tools outside of the class they initially learned them in. It’s a big deal to have teenagers not only engage with these tools meaningfully in class, but actually use them on their own. I am most-proud of that impact.

Can you open up about how you managed the initial funding?

When I was a senior in college, I applied to pitch the idea of ASSET at the Denver Public Schools Imaginarium’s Design Challenge. I initially was not accepted to the design challenge, but someone dropped out and I was given their spot.

I was able to pitch the idea of building a curriculum of bite-sized stress and anxiety reducing tools to the Imaginarium. My friends from school came to the pitch competition wearing t-shirts that said “I am an ASSET to Tessa.” A sign literally fell on my head while I was pitching on stage (I was not hurt and luckily the adrenaline helped me through). I won the Design Challenge and at 20 years old, Denver Public Schools Imaginarium Innovation Lab gave ASSET $9,000 to pilot a curriculum with ten teachers.

Having funding from the school district itself was a game-changer for me to be able to raise funding from other philanthropists and local foundations.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

At ASSET, we have built really strong relationships with our school partners and deliver a much-need, easy-to-use product. We take the time to get to know our school’s point-person and their school culture. I think this has helped us not come across as some curriculum organization, but people who really care about the social emotional wellbeing of students and teachers. Educators are more likely to talk about our work because they feel connected to our mission and what we’re trying to accomplish. The deep care for our work and our partners has helped our reputation immensely.

The other component to our reputation is our easy-to-use curriculum. Our curriculum is built by teachers, for teachers so it speaks to the user. People talk about our program because we provide tangible tools that are easy to implement.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.asset-edu.org
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/asset_education/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/asset-edu/

Image Credits
Alexander Hellar, Christopher Austin Creative