RWB Life Academy

1. We consider that the most important problem is the failure of educational systems to train people who understand their place in their community and in the world, who do not assume the necessary leadership and who do not have scientific curiosity.

2. We propose an intensive program in virtual format, which the participant must solve in a total of 60 hours. Through this program, the participant will have the knowledge and tools for the challenges of life, entrepreneurship, leadership and mechatronics, in order to identify a problem and design a potential solution.

3. We believe that if our proposal begins to expand gradually, we can contribute to forming citizens for peace, who will be able to identify a problem in their community, and address it from the knowledge of soft skills for life, entrepreneurship, leadership, and mechatronics.

According to official figures, in Tijuana we have 5 violent deaths a day, which places it among the most violent cities in the world. This problem of a society in violence, makes it necessary to address the deficiencies of the educational system in issues such as training and life planning, soft skills, technology, entrepreneurship and leadership. All of them oriented to the formation of citizens for peace. We want to train men and women who are aware of their environment, of problems, and who seek to contribute to their solution.

The solution we propose consists of an intensive 60-hour virtual program, aimed at supporting young people in their personal training. You are offered a series of courses in virtual format, which you can take at any time, in addition to carrying out a series of practical exercises, both individual and group, that allow you to evaluate your progress from start to finish. At the end of the program, the participants have a set of knowledge and tools that allow them to identify the challenges of life, as well as through the knowledge of mechatronics, entrepreneurship and leadership contribute to the resolution of any problem in their community.

RWB Life Academy is a program that we are developing by a group of teachers who teach in Tijuana, Mexico. We are concerned about the level of violence in our city and we consider that one of the roots of this problem is that the educational system, at its different levels, does not form citizens for peace. We want to offer our program to young people between 10 and 18 years old, to support them with knowledge and tools that allow them to understand their place in the world, as well as awaken in them their leadership and entrepreneurship skills and scientific curiosity (through mechatronics ), to guide their efforts in a possible resolution of a social problem in their community.

The solution we propose consists of an intensive 60-hour program, divided into three blocks: life training (soft skills), entrepreneurship and leadership, as well as technology (mechatronics). This body of knowledge will help young people take on their role in their community to identify a problem and offer a potential solution. They will take this program through a series of educational sessions and practical exercises available on a website and supervised by teachers. We consider that this set of topics addresses the preparation of people for the work of the future.

We are a group of teachers of different educational levels in Tijuana. We have agreed that we must work to combat the culture of violence in our city. For this reason, we are developing an intensive virtual program that provides young people between the ages of 10 and 18 with elements of education for life, entrepreneurship and leadership, and technology.

At RWB Life Academy we believe that our program is innovative in that it seeks to address problems at the various levels of the educational systems in which we participate. Likewise, we want our program to be able to be completed in an app that we would have to develop, to make it easier for any young person who speaks Spanish or english in Mexico and the United States to participate. In addition, we have mentioned that one of the components of our program is mechatronics, in order to promote scientific curiosity aimed at solving a social problem.

Our program uses technology in two ways: the first is the publication of a website where participants will take the lessons through videos, participate in discussion forums, and develop various tasks and exercises. In addition, one of the components of our program is to promote scientific curiosity by learning mechatronics. Finally, we want the participants to develop an entrepreneurial proposal to solve a problem in their community with mechatronics.

An important part of making our program work lies in video recording and editing. Currently, we have several platforms such as Creahana, Domestika, coursera.org that teach courses on any subject through short video lessons and practical tasks and exercises. All those plataform are now very popular. We believe that education will be wide open in years to come, alongside with scholar systems.  Our additional element is that we want to focus learning on consolidating a society for peace.

The risks that our proposed program are low in terms of use. In any case, since student information will be handled, there could be a risk of hacking our website and that personal information could be dispersed.

Our previous experience is a course that we teach for 15 young people in Tijuana, through transmissions via zoom. In our first year of activities we have contemplated having served 1,000 young people in Tijuana. In five years our program must be serving 10,000 young people in Tijuana and San Diego.

As we have mentioned, our concept is made up of three elements: training for life (social skills), entrepreneurship and leadership, as well as mechatronics. The vision of our project is to promote a society and citizens for peace. People require knowledge and tools that allow them to have a positive impact on their personal and family environment, as well as in their community. Our program can be a tool that helps reduce the culture of violence in Tijuana. It is essential to turn around the solutions to the problem of violence, it is not only about government programs that support marginalized communities, but also giving them tools and knowledge for their personal and professional development in the long term. Of course, since our program is available on a virtual platform, the great challenge is to support us through alliances with internet providers and computer equipment or smartphones to be accessible to anyone who wants to take the program.

The measurement of the progress of the program is obtained not only if the participants apply the knowledge and tools they learned, it could also be evaluated based on the recommendations that those who have completed the program can share. We reiterate that a necessary element consists of partnerships with public sector schools in Tijuana, Mexico, so that our program reaches as many young people as possible.

The work team is made up of 7 people. 3 of them are full-time, and 4 part-time.

The responsible team is made up of professors who have taught at public and private universities, as well as secondary and high schools in Tijuana, Mexico. There is also experience in the publication of books, the curricular development of programs at the bachelor's and master's level on the part of two of the members. Most of the members have at least 10 years of teaching experience. It is precisely this experience that has led us to the conclusion of developing an after-school program of this type that helps to reduce the culture of violence in the city. We do it from a humanistic and social science perspective.

The members of the work team consider that we have a social responsibility to expand opportunities for young people. This leads us to develop this program that allows them to have tools and knowledge with which they can identify the problems of their community and think of a possible solution from entrepreneurship, leadership and technology.

We decided to participate in this call because, being teachers in Tijuana, Mexico, we have a general vision of the education for life needs of young people in public and private schools. That is why we have developed this program in order to help consolidate the improvement in the quality of life in Tijuana.

We require advice to improve our business model.

We want our project to comply with all legal requirements in Mexico and the United States, which will be our main countries of expansion.

We need a guide to guide the work of promotion and dissemination of our program in order for it to be successful.

The main support that we require is to develop the audiovisual elements that the program requires, as well as for the development of the website so that it works safely and optimally.

We are considering an alliance with both the Autonomous University of Baja California and various corporations in Mexico and the United States that support us to expand our audience.