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May 17, 2019

NGPF Podcast: Evan Marwell of EducationSuperHighway on the challenge to bring high-speed broadband to all schools

 

Evan Marwell was a man on a mission when he founded EducationSuperHighway in 2012. A data driven entrepreneur he analyzed technology at K-12 schools and didn't like what he saw. While many assumed that schools had adequate bandwidth to deliver new technology tools into classrooms, what he found was a huge difference between that perception and reality. Then he created a non-profit to tackle this problem. Evan will take us on his entrepreneurial journey over the past 7 years, his lessons learned along the way and tips for any social entrepreneur striving for large-scale change. Enjoy!

Details:

  • 0:00~1:40 Introduction
  • 1:40~6:31 Early money lessons
  • 6:31~10:59 Life leading towards Education SuperHighway  
  • 10:59~15:11 Experiences in the White House
  • 15:11~23:28 Bringing awareness to the issue by gathering data
  • 23:28~29:16 Getting government funding for the program
  • 29:16~29:41 A word from NGPF
  • 29:41~34:39 Using data to solve multiple problems
  • 34:39~38:12 Reaction from internet vendors   
  • 38:12~40:39 How state governments became involved
  • 40:39~44:32 Fixing the expertise problem  
  • 44:32~ 46:17 State of broadband in schools today
  • 46:17~48:08 Future of Education SuperHighway
  • 48:08~50:52 What will Evan do next?
  • 50:52~51:47 Conclusion   

Resources:

Quotes:

  • “The objective was helping schools get more broadband for their budget. We never said go to your service provider and tell them to cut your price by a thousand dollars but we said go to your service provider and tell them for the amount of money your spending, you should be getting 4 times of the amount of internet access. The goal is to get more internet access.”

  • “Having a goal [for school districts] was huge. For a lot of school districts, they were like ‘I don’t know how much internet access I need’ but now you put a number out there and they are like ‘now I know how much internet I need and I can go get that’. I can not emphasize how important that was.”

About the Authors

Tim Ranzetta

Tim's saving habits started at seven when a neighbor with a broken hip gave him a dog walking job. Her recovery, which took almost a year, resulted in Tim getting to know the bank tellers quite well (and accumulating a savings account balance of over $300!). His recent entrepreneurial adventures have included driving a shredding truck, analyzing executive compensation packages for Fortune 500 companies and helping families make better college financing decisions. After volunteering in 2010 to create and teach a personal finance program at Eastside College Prep in East Palo Alto, Tim saw firsthand the impact of an engaging and activity-based curriculum, which inspired him to start a new non-profit, Next Gen Personal Finance.

Ren Makino

Ren started interning at NGPF in 2014, and worked part-time through high school and college. With his knowledge growing alongside NGPF, he joined the team to work full-time after graduating from college in 2020. He is also the producer of the NGPF podcast. During his free time, he likes to try out coffees from different roasters across the world.

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