“Solve at MIT is the annual flagship Solve event, which takes place on MIT’s campus. Solvers present their solutions to Solve challenges, and participate in workshops with Solve members to develop partnerships to pilot and implement the solutions.”

It was quite a week!  From panels including a former Secretary of Defense of the US, a former Chief Technology Officer of the US, and the first African-American woman CEO to head a Fortune 500 company, to dinner with the CEO and cofounder of iRobot, and a performance by Yo Yo Ma, one couldn’t help feeling intellectually stimulated to capacity.  On the refugee side, participants in the workshop on education included representatives from the International Rescue Committee and Save the Children, and representatives of universities including MIT (of course), Harvard, the Africa Leadership Academy, and the University of Geneva.

The workshop format provided many opportunities for sharing of experiences, advice and suggestions.  While I am still following up on the many great suggestions and new contacts I received, I’ll share with you here my plans for what happens next.

1. Work on the list of online educational resources available for refugees.  There is one being compiled by Ana Jorge which is already quite extensive, but needs to be made easier to search by students and teacher (for example, by including brief descriptions and perhaps a rating bar).  I’d like to help recruit more people to help with the list (send me a message if you are interested!).  Here is my list so far; it’s open for comments.
2. Look for students to pilot the student-teacher mentorship concept.  I am hoping, through the new contacts I made at Solve as well as continuing with those I met during my travels, to get more student input into this project.
3. Explore options to work with existing education providers to make their products and our volunteer teachers more accessible to refugees.

Finally, if you’re interested in a few more photos from my trip, watch the video collection my Photos App made from my ipad pictures here.  Thanks for reading!