We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Armando Rodriguez. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Armando below.

Armando, appreciate you joining us today. So, let’s start with a hypothetical – what would you change about the educational system?

This is a critical point in all our lives with the emergence of Artificial Intelligence. Tools like ChatGPT, BARD, Midjourney and other generative AI tools will quickly change the way we do our every day jobs. Artificial Intelligence has the power to do in seconds what it would normally take a human being days/weeks to do.

Unfortunately, the education system today lacks the curriculum to prepare kids for this new era. What is needed today is a curriculum around the concept of creativity. If you ask any high school student to self asses their own creativity on a scale from 1-10, you would find that very few would rate themselves a 7 or higher.

The K-12 education system currently thrives on teaching kids to be the most disciplined, diligent and least creative. The reason for this is that creativity is usually coupled with critical thinking and critical thinking encourages students to disagree with their authoritatve figure, the teacher.

So why would you want a world full of creatives? The answer is quite simple. Being the smartest in a book sense no longer matters. Computers can outcompute us and they will continue to outsmart us for many many years to come. What artificial intelligence cannot do well today is be more creative.

Creativity is a human aspect and trait that cannot be preprogrammed because it requires the type of subtle intelligence that would take decades to recreate. From the moment we are born we are observing the world through a curious lense. This is and will always be our competitive advantage over supercomputers.

The problem lies in the fact that there’s nowhere to learn how to stretch your creative muscle. My company, Latino Renaissance, aims to change that by democratizing and being the first purveyor of courses aimed at not only teaching inner city kids how to use Artificial Intelligence but also how to become more creative.

Tomorrows economy will be centered more than ever before by a concept I call, the Society of Ideas. Companies and individuales alike will compete by out creating products and services. It is my company’s goal to spread this combination of tech and creativity training into the inner city streets of Los Angeles where it’s needed most.

My organization is a 501c3 non profit aimed at reversing systemic racism by using technology as a conduit for helping people from all walks of life accomplish their dreams. If you would like to learn more about my organization you are welcomed to visit my homepage at www.latinoren.org or email me at: [email protected]

Armando, 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’m an award winning artificial intelligence domain expert from East Los Angeles. I was one of the last students of Jaime Escalante at Garfield High School, the famous Bolivian teacher, who was featured in the movie Stand and Deliver. To say that it was unlikely for me to succeed in life is probably an understatement.

Fortunately, I never got the memo that said I wasn’t supposed to accomplish all my dreams. Over the last 25 years I’ve worked as both a project and product manager in Corporate America helping to implement complex technology solutions all across the United States. During COVID pandemic, I managed the installation of air filtration systems in over 200 schools including all of Oakland Unified and Coachella Unified School districts.

Last year, I relaunched my nonprofit organization that focuses on leveling the playing field for inner city residents. My organization, LatinoRen, was created to serve the next minority dreamer. The one who lacks knowledge of emerging careers, a mentor and even a dream. LatinoRen currently focuses on 3 critical programs aimed to help dreamers of all ages complete their education.

The programs currently offered include: Train AI courses aimed to teach inner city kids both how to use AI and also how to enhance their own creativity. The second program is the GED prep course that allows students to complete their GED in as little as 6 weeks. This course was meant to help high school dropouts not only get back ok track but also to discover what careers or jobs best suit their personality. Lastly, LatinoRen is launching a new citizenship course this summer that aims to help immigrants pass the US citizenship exam. Sadly only 32% of applicants who take the citizenship test pass it.

Through these 3 programs LatinoRen aims to reverse systemic racism. I’ve essentially created programs that I would have liked to have available when I was growing up. LatinoRen is for every little kid walking around Los Angeles who wants to succeed but lacks direction.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

The most important advice I can give a budding entrepreneur is to use social media carefully and as a conduit for spreading your company’s mission.

To that end, always be authentic. In my opinion, your Social Media accounts should always resonate 3 business values and showcase at least one weird thing about you.

Lets face it we are all weird in at least one way. The weirdness is what makes you relatable. Your audience wants to see the real you and while it might seem counterintuitive it’s what usually helps you build loyal customers and followers.

Have you ever had to pivot?

Every successful business owner knows that the only way to survive any economy is to constantly grow and learn to pivot

A business idea is either too early, too late or in the pocket. The faster you get at discerning where your products are in that spectrum, the quicker you will find your ideal customer.

Sometimes as entrepreneurs we fall in love with our own ideas. In life and in business we need to quickly figure out when we have missed the mark.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.latinoren.org
• Instagram: @latinoren_founder
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/LatinoRen
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/latinoren
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@latinoren_founder
• Linktree: www.linktree.com/latinoren