Tech School Launch: Our First Pilot in Action
Today's youth will apply to 65% of jobs that don't yet exist. With the AI boom and rapid innovation in this realm, this percentage will only continue to accelerate. At the same time, as it stands, 60% of K–12 students can't afford digital access.
That's why we decided to launch Tech School by monday.com. Our goal is to ensure that every student has access to the tech world.
Working with three experts—George Guida, James Burke, and Jason Ewert—we developed a curriculum focused on an emerging industry: AI and 3D printing. George, a Researcher at Harvard's Design Lab focusing on AI and 3D printing, collaborated with James and Jason, who have 30 years of experience teaching STEM and building tech education curriculums for organizations like NASA, Microsoft, and LEGO. Together, we created an innovative program to help students learn how to effectively utilize AI and 3D printing in combination.
We wrapped a pilot with School for the Future, which is a neighboring school to our NYC office, and we are ecstatic with the results of our program. Throughout the month-long program, George led various sessions at monday.com's office, and the students had the opportunity to practice hands-on applications for these new technologies. Additionally, industry experts and employee volunteers from Google, Salesforce, Cisco, and Twilio served as design mentors and met with the students.
We ended our program with a Hackathon, during which the students were tasked with hacking NYC's sustainable future. Together, in teams with their mentors, the students had the opportunity to create and present their 3D objects that would enhance sustainability, address urban challenges, and foster community engagement through 3D printed solutions.
Students creativity shone with some incredible designs including a 3D Public Art installation on top of the Empire State Building with a climate change message, a self-driving bus, and a community kiosk that provides essential safety and health services to everyday New Yorkers.
The results of our program are promising. 72% of students are interested in having a career in the tech sector compared to 37% before the program started, 100% want to learn more about 3D printing, and 91% would recommend our program to a friend.
“I really enjoyed working with monday. It was such an amazing experience because not only did it feel like a true community but I got to learn more about something that I hadn’t know so much about before and it made me love it. ” 10th Grade Student
This is just the beginning. Our goal is to scale this program across 20 schools reaching 400 students in the 2024/2025 school year and exponentially grow year over year.