Working in Support of Education (W!se)

"If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?" An old question, and for most, the answer is, “It doesn’t matter.”  Sustainability proponents, however, would say, “Yes there is a sound because the things that happen in the world do matter.”  From global warming to building an equitable social and economic future, we face the challenges of a planet in crisis as a result of willfully believing that our actions don’t have consequences.  

To reverse the damage and build stronger communities, we must invest in developing the next generation of leaders and a more informed future workforce that will drive change.  W!se has a goal of bringing sustainability education to the mainstream and ensuring an adequate foundation of knowledge and skills necessary to meet these growing challenges and set a new agenda for sustaining and advancing environmental, social, economic and personal well-being.  The Elevate Prize will support the dissemination of the Engineered Green Economics (EGE) curriculum and advocate for sustainability education, laying the foundation for greater access and inclusion of diverse communities thereby fostering a democratic voice to advance environmental, social, health and economic justice and equity.  

W!se is an educational nonprofit based in New York City (NYC) with a mission to improve the lives of young people and at-risk adults through programs that promote economic mobility through pathways for financial, college and career success. Our signature program, the W!se Institute, advances college and career readiness and provides enhanced educational opportunities that are often deficient in high schools, particularly in Title 1 public schools. The W!se Institute prepares economically disadvantaged NYC youth through seminars on industry topics, college and post-secondary planning, career exploration and skills development. The Institute is a unique educational model that delivers measurable outcomes and has been recognized as a national model for education reform since 1996. The secret sauce of the program is its inherent inclusiveness, current, relevant content and  partnerships with corporate, higher education and community entities that help create a network of support.  W!se believes that educating a new generation of talent with the capacity to influence change is the best investment for a more secure and resilient future.  By helping young people with diverse backgrounds establish a foundation for success, we raise the standard of living and address the greater social, environmental and economic challenges of the future.

Americans produce three times the solid waste per person compared to the global average according to the BBC.  While the population in the U.S. is only 5% of the world, we use more than a quarter of the world’s energy resources.  Because of America’s tremendous footprint, policy and economic decisions made in the U.S. reverberate worldwide.  There needs to be a generational and permanent shift to adopting the UN SDGs in America.   In order to make this shift, public school education must change, not to teach more broadly about sustainability, which incorporates environmental, social and economic factors equally.  This is a crucial time to arm American youth with the knowledge and skills necessary to meet these ongoing challenges and set a new agenda for sustaining and advancing sustainability.

In 2016, through W!se, I brought together an advisory committee of experts with the goal of bringing SUSTAINABILITY EDUCATION to the mainstream and ensuring an adequate foundation of knowledge on the subject. The initiative came together as Engineered Green Economics (EGE “edge”) curriculum that has successfully helped students to understand that sustainability could and should be interwoven across careers and in one’s personal lives.  

Our program is innovative because it merges college and career readiness with sustainability education to revolutionize tomorrow’s workforce.  At our core, the W!se Institute helps disadvantaged youth develop skills, knowledge and a network as a springboard to pursue fulfilling careers and interests; we want to ensure greater access to good jobs.  Many college and career readiness programs, do not provide programming that highlights multiple growth industries, such as finance, STEM and sustainability, including sustainability’s emergence across all industries.  Further schools are not providing a sufficiently broad foundation in sustainability, concentrating on the environment only, and are limited in making the connection to relevant work that can make a difference in addressing the 17 SDGs.  Working with industry professionals, scientists and professors, the EGE curricula were written from the perspective of real-world corporate mandates, sustainable practices and innovations, as well as career qualifications and/or job descriptions. The content also challenges students to think critically whether sustainability could be achieved given the respective data. We know that we are achieving our objective through student feedback: 

• “I loved how diverse the background and careers that each person has, yet they all focused on sustainability and making a positive impact on climate change.” 

W!se impacts humanity by providing the three building blocks for economic well-being achieved through earnings and financial management/growth to address economic and social inequality. As the premier organization in college and career readiness, our flagship programs include:

1. W!se Institute: expanded learning for college and career readiness
2. Quality of Life Innovations: college-level research and civic engagement
3. Financial Literacy Certification (FLC) Test: Testing and standards for personal finance literacy  
These programs provide high-quality, rigorous content for the communities that we serve because W!se believes that all students possess ability and talent that should be developed, and that access it the greatest hurdle to financial and personal growth.   We measure our success through college enrollment and persistence data and our nationally recognized FLC standardized test.

Enrollment of W!se Institute alumni in college or other postsecondary programs is higher than the New York City average 81% (vs. 62% citywide) and 90% of students who complete QLI attend a 4-year college. Annually more than 125,000 students take the FLC Test.  In 2019, 80% of students passed the Test and improved their financial behaviors: More students are budgeting (58%), setting financial goals (32%) and banked/saving (21%) after the program than before.