Today we’d like to introduce you to Udit Agarwal.
Udit, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
NextWaveSTEM was founded in 2017 by Udit Agarwal after a successful career in tech when he recognized the importance of creating a continuously vibrant culture of STEM learning for students at the very beginning of their educational journeys. Mr. Agarwal understood the lack of exposure and access to emerging technology as an existential threat for future generations. If students aren’t able to experience and learn more about the future of technology as young children, they are effectively disadvantaged from their peers with more resources who are able to access and learn about that technology. We see NextWaveSTEM as a platform for not only growth in students, but as a support mechanism for educators who are always looking for ways to expand what they teach in STEM and how they teach it.
NextWaveSTEM also holds at its core the importance of creating a lasting and dramatic change in the way that students experience STEM in the classroom at a global scale. We’re a local company thinking globally about our impact. We’re proudly based in Chicago and since our launch in 2017, we’ve been focused on serving the youth in Chicago in over 25 Chicago Public Schools. We’ve been humbled to see to the response our programs have garnered so far from students, parents, schools, and the STEM professionals that we’ve engaged as mentors for our students. What we’ve seen is a response from our stakeholders that understands the importance of STEM learning from an early point in cognitive development in students and as a “must-have” component for learning in students who will grow to be a future workforce and solvers of some of the biggest problems humanity will encounter.
NextWaveSTEM is growing. We’ve offered courses, taught by our STEM professionals serving as mentors, on 3D Printing, Coding with Drones, Airplanes and Drones, Coding and Circuitry, and Intro to Robotics to over 1000 students in afterschool programs and workshops since launch and we’re already scheduled to surpass that number in the Fall of 2018. As we grow, we’re hiring more mentors and support staff. That’s really exciting for us because that makes our vision of offering courses for teachers to access in an in-school format as well! Teachers will become more hands-on directly with our curricula. What we see, is the beginning of a revolution in the way that STEM is executed across Chicago and subsequently, across the United States
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Startup life is often full of bumps, detours and learning moments. We’ve been fortunate to have really excellent buy in from our school stakeholders. What we’re looking for now is the passion of STEM professionals as educators as well. Part of the disconnect in STEM education is the lack of expertise in the Elementary and Early Elementary classroom on emerging technologies.
We recognize teachers as experts in teaching pedagogy and cognitive development. They face lots of challenges institutionally and systemically that make it unreasonable to expect them to be emerging technologies as well. For us, it’s about finding and the like minded professionals in STEM communities that are passionate about getting hands on with our youth. We know they’re out there and we’re constantly working to bring them and our next wave of STEM geniuses together.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about NextWaveSTEM – what should we know?
We’re a B2B modeled company. We’re here to serve schools and support community organizations like schools and school districts, religious organizations, scouting and youth mentoring organizations, museums and education supplementers, by providing an easy way access to emerging technologies and the expertise to teach it to their students.
Where we really seek to differentiate ourselves is by bringing the elements of successfully teaching a course on emerging technology together. When you have students who are eager to learn, STEM professionals who are excited to share their passion, teachers who are lifelong learners (and also want to do cool stuff in their classrooms), and the access to the technologies to make it possible, that’s a special experience. The whole is much much more than the sum of its parts.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.NextWaveSTEM.com
- Email: udit@nextwavestem.com
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