2023 Ventures Showcase Recap

On May 24, our CityBridge community came together for our 2023 Ventures Showcase, the culminating event for our 2022-2023 Design Residency: Ventures cohort. Over the past nine months, our Residents received customized curriculum, coaching, connections, and capital that supported accelerated the design and implementation of their education ventures. 

Throughout the program, these passionate individuals worked tirelessly to reimagine the future of education and to push their vision forward. This work was on display during the Showcase as our entrepreneurs pitched their ventures to a panel of expert judges. 

Our 2022-2023 Residents:

• Tia Bell, The T.R.I.G.G.E.R Project. The T.R.I.G.G.E.R. Project is a non-profit focused on addressing root causes that create a culture of violence among our city’s youth.
• Laurel Djoukeng, Sparc. Sparc is a social network that connects college students/professionals with job opportunities, employer recruiting events, and networking opportunities.
• Noah Dougherty and Dan Englender, Relevant Learner. Relevant Learner connects students with locally and culturally relevant content by sourcing diverse and empowering content from expert community institutions and making it simple for educators to find, personalize, and share that content with students.
• Vanessa Douyon, The Polyglot Tot. The Polyglot Tot provides at-home tools to help caregivers pass their heritage language on to their kids, focusing on ages birth to three, when most language development happens, and where resources are at their slimmest.

Please join us in congratulating our entrepreneurs for all they have accomplished this year. We are grateful for the unwavering commitment of Tia, Laurel, Noah, Dan, and Vanessa and the collective impact they will make on DC’s education system.

We are also grateful to Riley Jones, IV, for his leadership and to our esteemed judges: Troy Duffie, Dr. Omolara Fatiregun, and Isaiah Walker.

Innovator Spotlight: Dr. Paris Gasque

Paris Gasque, Ph.D., is CEO at Heru Foundation, Incorporated. She is a 2022 Design Fellow.

What is the project that brought you to CityBridge?

Heru Foundation is committed to strengthening schools’ multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS) by providing professional development to school personnel that will enable students who have traditionally been underserved to thrive academically, socially, and emotionally.

Why is that project important to you?

Schools are struggling to meet the needs of all students, especially students with disabilities. These students are the most vulnerable and are often marginalized and disenfranchised. The Heru Team aims to prepare ALL students—regardless of their race, disability, family income, or circumstance—for success outside of the classroom. By providing responsive and authentic professional development, our team can equip school personnel with skills and resources to increase overall student achievement.

What prompted you to apply to CityBridge’s fellowship? What were you hoping to gain from participating?

The CityBridge philosophy to create equitable and transformative educational design opportunities that aim to improve life outcomes for all students and families aligns with Heru Foundation’s vision: Success for all, by Any Means Necessary.

What was the most impactful aspect of Fellowship? What was your biggest takeaway?

Coaching sessions, brainstorming with other Fellows, and networking were the most impactful aspects of CityBridge’s Design Fellowship. The CityBridge approach enabled us to streamline our “big idea” into manageable components that led to an evidence-based design without losing the essence of our desired intention. 

What are your next steps for you and/or your project?

In our re-imagined future, students with disabilities have experiences in schools that foster a sense of community, compassion, and creativity, with leaders and teachers prepared to provide these experiences. Through our multitude of offerings, Heru Foundation will continue providing relevant professional development locally and nationally to ensure all students are successful by any means necessary.

What piece of professional advice would you give CityBridge alumni and education entrepreneurs? 

Trust the process, maintain an open heart and an open mind, and always remember your “why.”

Innovator Spotlight: Rodney D. Parker

Rodney D. Parker is a second grade teacher at Ludlow-Taylor Elementary. He is a 2022 Design Fellow.

What is the project that brought you to CityBridge?

The project that brought me to Citybridge was a closer look at helping Black and Brown students who struggle with math see themselves as mathematicians.

Why is that project important to you?

This project was super important to me because, as a Black male teacher, I want students to see a reflection of themselves and know that they can achieve high levels of academics. We have many great examples of successful math and science professionals in African American history. I want to be an influence in the classroom. One that sees and affirms them throughout their formative year of education.

What prompted you to apply to CityBridge’s fellowship? What were you hoping to gain from participating?

Our school administrator approached me about creating a space to specifically look at math intervention to help Black and Brown students. I hope to unlock new levels of math learning for the students and myself as a math educator.

What was the most impactful aspect of Fellowship? What was your biggest takeaway?

CityBridge provided an open space for our team to explore possibilities when you have the resources and a process that leads to solving a problem. CityBridge created a place where my team could make mistakes, reflect, and build on a process that can be used repeatedly to approach any problem-solving situation.

What are your next steps for you and/or your project?

We are in the process of doing a book study to focus on thinking and what a thinking math classroom looks and sounds like. This is important because what we think “thinking” is is sometimes just us asking students to follow directions the way we presented them, essentially mimicking.

What piece of professional advice would you give CityBridge alumni and education entrepreneurs? 

I would say you can never go wrong with trying to move toward greatness. Even a wrong decision is a decision to make a difference. Engage in the process and stay encouraged. It is easy to get discouraged when doing heavy work, but it is all worth it. The coaches, especially Kim, and the team will remind you that you are not alone and you can do it.

CityTutor DC Announces New, Expanded HIT Partnerships

CityTutor DC and Georgetown University have partnered to expand the DC Schools Project at Georgetown’s Center for Social Justice Research, Teaching & Service. Georgetown University students will provide high-impact tutoring and support services for migrant and newcomer youth in Washington, DC. 

“High-impact tutoring for newcomer migrant students will improve their literacy skills and academic performance,” said Jessica Lee, Assistant Director for Immigrant Justice Initiatives at the Center for Social Justice Research, Teaching & Service. “Ultimately, our race-conscious and justice-focused approach works to increase the ability of the youth and families to fully participate in the cultural, civic, educational, and economic life in US society and close the equity gap.”

DC Schools Project’s individual or small group tutoring model will serve K-12 students both during school and after school, meeting students where they are. During the spring semester of school year 22-23, Georgetown tutors will serve approximately 100 elementary, middle, and high school students across the District with high-impact tutoring. 

Additionally, CityTutor DC has expanded partnerships with six tutoring provider partners—including universities, tutoring organizations, and school networks—to provide school day high-impact tutoring for several hundred students throughout the District this school year.

Meet the Inaugural CityBridge Launch Fund Entrepreneur: Dr. Omolara O. Fatiregun

CityBridge Education is thrilled to announce Dr. Omolara O. Fatiregun as the inaugural entrepreneur in the CityBridge Launch Fund, a 15-month venture philanthropy investment fund. Dr. Fatiregun is the Founder and CEO of THRIVE!, a venture that uses technology to help school systems and human services agencies root out systemic racism in spending. 

Through the Launch Fund, we aim to fund and advise equity-minded ventures that advance our vision of Washington, DC, as a national proofpoint for educational equity and excellence. The CityBridge Launch Fund provides seed funding for early-stage education entrepreneurs as well as consulting support from a bench of seasoned experts and access to our network of education leaders and venture advisors.

“We were compelled by Omolara’s leadership and deep experience in working with government and school systems to advocate for equitable outcomes for young people,” said Rachel Evans, CEO of CityBridge. “THRIVE! was the ideal first investment for our Launch Fund because of its ability to make the invisible visible for schools around their most marginalized students, as well as the centering of research-based strategies that schools and systems leaders can immediately implement.”

THRIVE! helps school systems evaluate their budgets and invest in evidence-based approaches that have been scientifically proven to break cycles of poverty. The software platform first conducts an equity audit, considering the academic and impact evaluation literature on how to close the achievement gap, improve attendance, and reduce disciplinary actions that fuel the school to prison pipeline. It then checks individual school and central office budgets for investments in programs and practices known to work—like strategic resource allocation and school climate interventions. THRIVE! also assesses the extent to which students and parents are empowered in decision-making. Based on this comprehensive analysis, districts get a score and concrete recommendations on how to reallocate resources or partner with other organizations to reduce disparities and improve results and experiences for marginalized students.

Dr. Fatiregun designed THRIVE!’s equity algorithm based on her 20-year career as an impact evaluator, a cabinet-level official in DC’s juvenile justice agency, and a foundation executive. Dr. Fatiregun earned a bachelor’s in Sociology and African American Studies from Harvard, a master’s in public policy from Georgetown, and a doctorate in education leadership from Harvard where she was a Presidential Public Service Fellow and an Adrian Cheng Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School Social Innovation + Change Initiative. She has won many innovation awards including the HP Prize for Advancing Digital Equity, MIT Solve, and fellowships from Halcyon and Camelback. Dr. Fatiregun’s work has been featured in Boston Globe, MSN, and Nasdaq.

Founder Spotlight: Lanette Dailey-Reese

Lanette Dailey-Reese is Executive Director of Capital Experience Lab. She is an alumna of CityBridge’s 2019 Summer Design Studio, led by Caroline Hill, and a 2020 Resident. 

What was the project that brought you to CityBridge?

The CapX team was in search of an ED to lead the organization through the charter application process. CityBridge’s was our first funder and support the piloting of CapX.

Why is that project important to you?

This project is important to me because it is the school model I want for my daughter. It is an approach to learning that I wish I had as a young person. I value the disruption to inequitable approaches to learning for under represented students. The world as a classroom can not be reserved for communities with economic means to access real-world learning. At CapX we are cultivating student engagement with the world so they can make meaning and lead change in the world.

What was the most impactful or meaningful part of participating in CityBridge Programming? 

CityBridge provides an open space for designers to explore what’s possible when the constraints of the world seem too large to overcome. CityBridge creates a place where designers can build supportive partnerships and friendships during the most challenging stages of the work.

How has your experience with CityBridge influenced or helped you in your life and career? 

Participating in CityBridge programming expanded my understanding of the complexity of the DC education ecosystem. Being surrounded by other passionate and talented designers has been a constant motivation for my work at CapX Lab. While [our participation in] the CityBridge school incubator has come to an end, the partnership and support has not ended. The connection to CapX Lab has endured and grown.

What are you up to now? 

We are currently in partnership with Friendship Public Charter School at Blow-Pierce Middle School. Students and teachers use DC museums and research and cultural centers as classrooms through community-based learning experiences. The experiences are aligned to the FPCS curriculum to deepen the connection between the classroom and the world around them. CapX Lab is preparing to launch our learning and design programming for teachers, leaders, and school teams across the city. We are committed to expanding the number of students learning in spaces beyond the classroom.  

What piece of professional advice would you give CityBridge alumni and education entrepreneurs? 

I would tell them to stay engaged and connected. It is very easy to keep our heads down and into the work. The support and connection to other designers will remind you that you are not alone.  

ABC News Highlights CityTutor DC

ABC’s Justin Finch interviews CityTutor DC Executive Director Cat Peretti and visits CTDC Hub, Horton’s Kids for a story about how high-impact tutoring is helping to accelerate learning for students in the District.

Celebrating the Riverseed School

At CityBridge, we have the privilege of supporting incredible entrepreneurs who have planted seeds that will grow into new classrooms, schools, nonprofits, or ventures.

This month we celebrate a seed that has grown into a beautiful new model. This fall DC Wildflower Public Charter School (DCWPCS) opened its first school in the District.

DCWPCS was founded by Maia Blankenship, a 2020 Design Resident. DCWPCS will serve up to 225 students through up to six community-embedded, teacher-led microschools in Wards 4, 5, 7, and 8 over the next four years. DCWPCS’s first school in DC—The Riverseed School—was founded by two teachers, Zani Dalili-Ortique and Ebony Marshman. Rachel Kimboko, Executive Director for Stakeholder Engagement at DC Wildflower Public Charter School, is also an alumna of CityBridge programming. The Riverseed School celebrated its grand opening in early October by bringing together nearly a hundred community stakeholders, parents, and educators for a ribbon-cutting ceremony.

The Riverseed School Opening Celebration Photo Collage from Wildflower Schools on Vimeo.

Congratulations to Maia, Zani, Ebony, Rachel, and the entire Riverseed School community!

Promising Practice: CityBridge’s New Pilot Planning Tool

The CityBridge Education Program team has a new Pilot Plan and Learning Tool that we’re offering to the community. To introduce it, I’ve prepared this set of Frequently Asked Questions to help orient folks to this latest addition to our toolkit.

Wait, why did you create yet another pilot planning tool? Don’t you already have one?
It’s true! We have iterated on our pilot planning tools consistently in our Fellowship programming: here’s what we built in 2018, 2020 , 2021, and 2021 (again). Our tools are in “perpetual beta.” Based on feedback from teams in Design Studio and Design Fellowship, as well as results from their pilots and input from expert coaches, we’re constantly working to improve materials.

What’s new about this one?
In previous versions, we created detailed documents that relied on complex navigation schemes to help folks move back and forth between different parts of the planning process. Each section was full of boxes; the boxes were individually numbered. It was precise and exacting… It was also confusing!

In the new version, we’ve simplified things into six (and a half) sections. Each section includes a self-contained explanation of its purpose and the most important information necessary to plan a pilot. The intention here is to make the tool more self-contained, so that educators and social entrepreneurs can use it independently, without a CityBridge coach. We hope that it’s useful for alumni seeking micro grants!

What’s the most important part of the tool?
In the 2021-2022 school year, we tried to clarify what a strong pilot looks like by writing a rubric that set expectations for each part of the plan. Applying scores to each element of the pilot emphasized that each component—from empathy data to problem statements to learning questions—is important. But each important step in the process has to contribute to learning and reflection at the end of the pilot.

So while every step in the process is crucial, the keystone to a successful pilot, based on our work with dozens of teams over the past few years, is the reflection process, now part six in the revised tool. This is where teams push themselves to honestly consider the learning questions and hypotheses they proposed before running the pilot. How did colleagues feel about the new program? Did families attend the pop-up learning experience? Did students hit the intended learning goals in a new lesson? Was it feasible to get your idea up and running?

Each of the first five parts of the tool is a stepping stone to that reflective moment, but as we say to Fellowship teams: “a pilot only fails if you don’t learn anything.” It’s hard to know what you’ve learned if you don’t pause to reflect.

Who is this for?
Anyone who wants to start with the needs of students and stakeholders, then test a new approach. The pilot plan could help you design any number of tests, large or small. Not sure where to start? Get inspired with these templates based on pilots from teams in Design Fellowship.

What else do I need to know?
If you need help planning empathy interviews to kick off your piloting process, check out the “Building Empathy” section of our Incubator Toolkit.