The number one thing we hear from entrepreneurs and artists and creatives when we ask them about their education is about how irrelevant it was to their story. Sure, some folks had wonderful educational experiences, but for many their experiences left them feeling ill prepared for life and their careers. So, we wanted to create a space for folks to share their experiences and ideas for how we can improve our educational system.

Ann Garcia

Our education system needs to be more integrated with our society. That would mean not just additional support so that young people aren’t taking all the financial risk of building an educated society and workforce, but that the educational system would collaborate with other parts of the economy to ensure that it’s supporting economic needs. For example, we should not have a nursing shortage when getting into a nursing program is about as competitive as getting into Harvard. We should not need H1B visa workers because we’re not producing enough engineers domestically. And similarly, we should not require masters degrees– or we should have a much better pathway to masters degrees– for jobs that essentially pay minimum wage, like social work. Read more>>

Alex Kafouse

The American education system, as it stands, is not designed to help students succeed in life. Students spend over a decade learning general information, much of which never translates into practical, everyday use. It’s ironic that a system created to prepare students for life fails to achieve its most basic goal. Read more>>

Emilia Igartua

I’ve always loved travel. When I was a kid I would devour and collect National Geographic magazines, staring into photos of what different corners of the world looked like. But I never really thought that “travel life” was really available for me. Traveling yes, but travel being my life? It was hard to imagine. Read more>>

Nicholas Loomis

What I would change about the education system is to teach people to actually think for themselves and teach them to manifest good things and to be around good people to manifest good things in our life and to be positive and look at things in a good way, and also show them the truth of how the world works versus teaching them useless stuff That doesn’t do anything in our life or get them anywhere in their life I want the future generations to be able to believe in themselves to do whatever they want to do because they’re capable of it and people telling them that they aren’t were making them do certain things or putting certain agendas on them is wrong. You’re capabilities are unlimited only you are stopping yourself. you have to chase your goals in your dreams and Will really matters to you in life. and don’t be afraid to be yourself always be yourself being yourself is what’s truly important in life. Read more>>

Victoria Coakley

There’s too much pressure in school to follow the “safe” path: become a doctor, lawyer, teacher—anything but creative or trade work. But what about the kids who are naturally gifted with their hands? I knew how to braid hair in high school. I told my barber I wanted to be like him one day because I saw how he made people feel good about themselves. That inspired me. But my mom, like so many parents doing their best, pushed me to follow a more traditional path—college, criminal justice, maybe law enforcement—just like my sister. That wasn’t me. Read more>>

Justin Schacknies

I tend to think the current educational system is dated, and fundamentally flawed for a modern society.

With information being so readily available, like no other time in history, I lean towards education needing to shift away from rote memorization and the retention of facts that aren’t as relevant as they might have been in times past. Instead, we should focus on how to equip the next generation to utilize the tools that are already available to us — and maybe inherently inside of each of us. Read more>>