Company

…never regains its original dimensions. Being a part of Project Activate was a dream come true for me.  One of the factors that influenced my decision to work at Blackboard 7 years ago was that the company was dedicated to providing a better educational experience for students like me.  That was an exciting goal to be a part of for a recent graduate from the University of Maryland (GO Terps!).  But looking back on my and Blackboard’s journey of providing schools in the US with education solutions to now testing it in remote villages in rural Africa makes me even more excited to work here. Overall, the experience was an amazing one.  We took mobile devices to Tanzania to teach a school full of kids who had never seen a smartphone before.  We made a significant impact on the students we worked with.  The technology was – as it should always be – a means to an end and not the end itself.  We went there with the intention of providing a few technology resources to students for this research project and in the process ended up providing a lot more than we expected.  Like:

H O P E :   To reach new heights of what is possible C O N F I D E N C E :   To shape the future by learning new things I M A G I N A T I O N :   To explore all opportunities, no matter how ‘unrealistic’ they may first seem

So much so that at the end of the trip, I was left wondering whose “minds were stretched” more about what is truly possible with innovation and hard work?  Theirs?  Or ours…?

We may not have all the answers today on how to provide access to each and every person on the planet but there are 7 billion reasons to keep working towards them.  And while it’s true that we can’t predict the future, it’s also true that we can certainly help shape it.