Elevate social & emotional learning

Middle school years are stressful to navigate—for students and for teachers. Grades 6, 7, and 8 are critical stages to prevent early adolescents from disengaging from learning, especially during the summer months when achievement typically slows and opportunity gaps grow. Now with COVID disruptions, the demand has magnified for positive, high impact summer enrichment that meets the social and emotional developmental needs of middle school youth and keeps them on track to reach high school prepared to succeed.

In this 10 min. webinar, Executive Director Thomas Bacon highlights how schools can elevate social and emotional learning through Future Genius this summer.

Inspiring The Next Generation of Leaders

We began laying the groundwork for Future Genius back in 2013 with the founding of Young Hacks Academy. Our goal? To introduce kids to computer science in a fun and meaningful way. Young Hacks brought together students of all backgrounds—beginners and experienced coders alike—to create video games, while also addressing the critical issues that impact our communities. Between 2013 and 2019, Young Hacks Academy hosted more than one hundred and seventy camps across eight states.

In 2020, we took all we’d learned from those precious seven years and formed Future Genius, Inc., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to providing affordable summer and afterschool enrichment. We expanded our focus on environmental and entrepreneurial literacy, 21st century sustainability and stewardship, modeling our curricula in concert with the United Nations Global Goals for Sustainable Development. Our programs activate middle school youth to become agents of change—regardless of family income. Kids emerge as dedicated problem solvers energized to transform the world they live in.

“The main goal of education would be to give future generations tools for thinking and seeing the world differently, constructing their own world views, and acting to create a sustainable future.”

– Erkka Laininen

PREPARING YOUTH WITH PRACTICAL SKILLS THEY CAN USE

Technology is always changing. Regardless of what the job market may look like in 2030, there are still certain critical skills that our kids will need to navigate a pathway to a sustainable future:

  • Cognitive
    • Help youth develop the literacy required to better understand real world problems, while practicing the critical thinking it takes to solve them.
  • Environmental
    • Teach students about the planet and the relationship we have with it, in a way that prepares them for practical, effective stewardship.
  • Social
    • Impart valuable communications experience in which youth learn what it means to be a productive, contributing member of a team.
  • Technological
    • Build on kids’ computer proficiency with curricula that challenges them through computational thinking, digital literacy, and navigation.

These skills are critical for students of all disciplines – technology, science, art, and business included. No matter their direction, young learners will gain a greater understanding of the problems our planet faces, will be tasked to think critically, plan collectively, and apply new skills to create an optimistic future full of possibility and growth.