“Any time we get the opportunity to share our story in order to uplift and inspire others, we will!” ~Alefiya Master
We have grown so much as a MAD-learn team as well as individually and couldn’t be more thankful for all our blessings and lessons. As the passage of time grants us more experiences, we are more than thrilled to share them with the rest of the world- especially to inspire up-and-coming education technology companies, entrepreneurs, students, and educators.
MAD-learn’s Founder/CEO, a seasoned keynote speaker, minority, woman, millennial, and educator turned entrepreneur (edupreneur) has had the privilege of speaking on various platforms around the world where she shares her journey, experiences, and lessons learned along the way. We would like to highlight three podcasts she was recently featured in and hope that you will be motivated to reach for your goals, no matter what they are.
The Institute for Education Innovation (IEI) podcast
Last year, MAD-learn was named the winner of the inaugural (2021) Supes’ Choice Awards in the STEM/STEAM Instructional Solution category by the Institute for Education Innovation (IEI), an organization that serves as the bridge between district leaders and organizations to support the greatest challenges in K-12 education.
Earlier this year, Alefiya, together with two other Supe’s Choice Award winners had the honor of speaking to Doug Roberts, Founder of CEO of IEI on IEI’s podcast, Education Thought Leaders where she shared the MAD-learn story and her journey through it. To learn more about how Alefiya ended up starting a company, her triumphs, failures, and everything in between that got MAD-learn to where we are today, we invite you to listen to this podcast. When asked about her thoughts on her organization’s plans around continuing to be responsive to the needs of districts in the coming years, Alefiya stated that based on the lessons learned from the ongoing pandemic, the crisis caused everyone to become comfortable with technology whether or not you wanted to, however, this did not happen in a sustainable and well thought out way therefore what we are doing now is taking all the lessons learned and supporting our teachers to use these tools by picking the right ones for them and using them well.
Actionable Innovations
Actionable Innovations is a professional learning community in which participants explore innovation in education. This community’s discussions center around trends in education by hearing from inspiring guests (Parents, educators, students, and other folks interested in improving teaching and learning) who share their work.
On Friday, March 11, 2022, Dr. Julene Reed interviewed Alefiya who believes that enabling students to have passion-driven career choices should be a key focus for all educational institutions. Alefiya shared how she founded and grew 2 EdTech companies that now impact over 50,000 students in 30 states and 5 countries. During the discussion, she talked about the critical role of education in workforce development and the need to have ALL kids learn to think and create for themselves and be exposed to technology creation, not just consumption. “When we don’t know what jobs are going to be available 10 years from now, we have to teach kids how to create their own,” she said. To listen to the full podcast, click here.
There are also very useful notes which touch on some salient points and some of the resources mentioned in the discussion.
The Why Show
Alefiya was invited to The Why Show podcast where she shared how MAD-learn is making a true impact in education as well as the power of owning your journey and growing in the process. She also talked about her drive to impact schools in meaningful ways. Her dream for our education system is for us to have every student in every school go through their 10 years of schooling and be exposed to some of the most exciting and cutting-edge career opportunities that exist in our world at that time.