The Bizzie Group: Connecting the Real World to Students

BizzieGroup is a collective ecosystem of makers, creators, doers and thinkers who share their journey, gifts and skills with the next generation. Through our platform, we leverage this ecosystem to engage students in dynamic interdisciplinary learning experiences that challenges and cultivates their interests, talents and skills for in-demand career opportunities.

Unfortunately, schools in high poverty and high minority communities are less likely to have the resources and access to industry professionals to prepare students from disadvantaged communities for future in-demand professions. Without a quality education at the K-12 level, many disadvantaged students of color are left unprepared for a post-secondary education, which ultimately leaves them struggling in the job market.

Research suggests students must practice and learn the outcomes that are expected of them under realistic conditions to prepare for the real-world. Through strategic partnerships, we connect in-demand professionals to  schools  to offer students practice with in-demand skills in experiential learning activities. Schools such as Iowa Big and Junior Achievement’s Academy have built this praxis through a unique “community-as-curriculum” model that leverages community stakeholders to curate real-world learning experiences. Similarly, we believe teachers, especially in disadvantaged communities, need a community of support to design learning opportunities that stretch beyond classrooms. In short, preparing students for the real-world, requires the real-world.

The Bizzie Group’s goal is the develop a sustainable ecosystem of innovators and industry professionals that support and enrich K-12 education by sharing their skills, talent and time.Students, ages 14-18, from disadvantaged communities are the target beneficiaries who will engage in expertly-curated hands-on activities in and outside of class. In our first year, we expect to connect 100 teachers to meaningful learning experiences on our platform.  As a result, we project that we will engage and equip 30,000 students, from disadvantaged communities, with in-demand skills that will prepare them for college and career opportunities.

Track experiences booked on site - 100 teachers as users of platform

Tracked through analytics from platform - 30,000 students impacted through learning experiences from our platform

Tracked through survey data from contest/challenge for students to get a gig and show mastery - 10% of participant students employed in-demand skills in real "gig" during first year

Our technology enables project-based learning to be more accessible for any K-12 classroom without all of the hassle and bureaucracy. Teachers struggle to create academically rigorous projects that connect students with the real-world without their help. In most cases, teachers, especially those in disadvantaged communities, usually have to piece together google searches, personal contacts and long email threads to provide these learning experiences in class. However, The Bizzie Group limits this time consuming process for teachers trying to find and secure these resources, through our seamless platform, which houses an on-demand marketplace of real-world industry professionals and skilled experts.

Through our technology, we connect our community’s greatest assets, the people, back to schools. We provide an easier pathway for community professionals and innovators to be involved in shaping and inspiring the minds of future leaders. We leverage technology to enable teachers to create authentic learning environments with professionals from around the world. Through our work, we also build a talent pipeline of skilled young professionals. As students learn new skills, students showcase their work in their digital portfolio on our mobile app, BizzieTeen. Through BizzieTeen, they can find opportunities to use their skillset, pick up gigs and earn money.

Our platform can easily be accessed online where teachers can access our marketplace from any device to search, chat and book learning experiences with our experts. We will host both paid and free activity options from skilled professionals to provide all teachers with the option of hosting one of our learning experiences for their students. We will also work with community partners and businesses to offer affiliate and sponsored projects that can subsidize the cost of supplies, transportation and any project materials for students to ensure that students in disadvantaged communities have equitable access to gain hands-on learning opportunities.

As we research and pilot our platform we will be sustained by philanthropic grants and bootstrapping resources. However, as we grow and scale our platform with a diverse pool of skilled experts and invested teachers, we plan to earn revenue by charging  (1) entrepreneurs and businesses a service fee for each paid transaction for an experience or for services from a student freelancer on our mobile app for platform maintenance and administration(2) schools or districts annual subscriptions for premium services such as extended experiential learning experiences for an entire semester or year, coordinated teacher professional development from our experts and project-based learning consultation for instructional leadership.

Limiting factors are minimal quality industry professionals on the platform, traditional teachers resistant to change and overall government bureaucracy with a focus on over-testing students and slowing down progress with too much paperwork. First, the platform’s greatest asset is the marketplace of human capital. We will need quality industry experts on the platform along with progressive teachers willing to experiment in and outside of their classes. Lastly, school is inundated with bureaucracy of permission slips, waivers, background checks etc. However, we believe that all of these factors can be overcome with community outreach, engagement and education for all stakeholders involved.

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https://www.instagram.com/bizzieteen/

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It’s my hope that as a Solver, I’ll be empowered to change the odds for and with my students through access to a network of influential leaders willing to be a part of our community, funding to scale our platform and mobile application and mentorship to support my growth and development. Additionally, I believe Solve’s global platform can elevate our work and share our narrative to support more robust and rapid replication or adoption of our model and platform for communities around the world. In short, I am looking to take advantage of Solve’s greatest asset which is its community.

Currently, for our pilot this fall, our partners are two teachers in Atlanta Public Schools and Fulton County Schools as well as two community professionals who will host learning experiences for our teachers. We also partner with Fiverr's local community engagement staff to connect with industry professionals in Atlanta. 

Our indirect competitors are Project Lead the Way, Junior Achievement Academy, Coursera, Udacity