NextStep: unlocking the full potential of the next generation

Vision and Value proposition:

NextStep is a big data analytics platform that integrates information from academic, social and extracurricular activities and offers a holistic roadmap for success guiding parents of middle and high school children.

Problem:

Parents spend billions of dollars every year to provide the best possible opportunities for their children. They have a lot on their minds. They are research assistants and project managers for their children. There is a gap between what are the best activities that the child is excited about and what activities the parents identify and get involved in. Some of the common questions on the top of a parent’s mind are:

 

• Private school versus public school
• What is the right set of activities for my kid? 
• Where can I go to get the best experience and learning for my kid?
• Sports: Basketball, Soccer, Tennis, cross country 
• Piano, Music, dance, drama , band, choir 
• Speech and debate, journalism   
• Summer camp coordination, science fair, science research, internships
• Leadership skill development, club participation, club leadership.
• College tour
• College selection
• College counseling

Discovering and  planning are very time consuming for parents.

• Overwhelming amount of information
• Fragmented sources and inefficient tools
• Lack of high quality, trusted and personalized content
• Too many messaging platforms   
• No easy way to get trusted recommendations.

The solution: 

A personalized discovery and planning platform, built to help holistic development for the teenage children and aid parents in this process. This platform will be used by school guidance counsellors, teachers, parents and students. 

The platform has the following capabilities:

NextStep-College is a college counseling platform utilizing big data to provide personalized development solutions and test prep services.

School guidance counsellors use the platform and work with students and parents to create a roadmap for each individual student where they want to be and set a goal.  This also identifies what after school activities they need to pursue in order to reach their goal.

NextStep is a tool for the school counselor, parent and student  to assist students in making academic and career plans.  It provides an adaptive roadmap for the student as below:

• They provide aptitude assessments and individual planning to help identify students interests and abilities. 
• Identify barriers to success.
• Provide  a road map for the students to achieve their best.
• Recommend tutors and after school activities  
• Iteratively update the roadmap based on the students progress and interest

 NextStep Freshman Roadmap

NextStep Sophomore Roadmap 

NextStep learns from the students progress and input and updates Junior Roadmap

 

NextStep Senior Roadmap

NextStep provides a Marketplace with qualified resources

These services can be purchased and included. 

1. 1. Tutoring sessions (Qualified tutored recruited globally)
   2. Test Preparation services
   3. College Apps counseling 
   4. Internships
   5. Volunteering opportunities

 Competitive advantage:

Trusted:  Tutors and after school services are qualified to meet NextStep standards.  

Personalized: Content tailored for each location and child based on age, location, interests, context and social signals.

One stop: Find places, products, activities and services and purchase it online with a few clicks.  

Market trends:

• Virtual learning
• Obtain research based on trends and AI
• Supplemental learning materials and classes
• Increased competitiveness for selective educational programs 

 

US tutoring, counseling and test prep service market is 2.2 billion

Modest Projection : 0.1% of the Tutoring and Test prep service  = 2.2 million

Middle and High Schools: Platform Licensing fee

Team:

Anu Jagadeesh Entrepreneur, Digital Strategy, Data Science

Experienced computer science professional, entrepreneur and community builder with a passion for leveraging technology to promote the greater good.

• 20 years of experience in System Software
• 10 years experience as a social entrepreneur
• Mother of 2 boys who are college graduates and gone through US K-12 Public/Private school system

Vanessa Hu Relationship Manager at Bank of America

• 10 years of experience in relationship building, sales and marketing
• 7 years of experience in financial services and banking
• 1 year of experience in data science and machine learning

Ideation mentor:

David Gurzick, Ph.D  Business Analytics | Strategic Management | Innovation

Experience in the education space for 15 years and a PhD in information systems with a track record of publications in the design and development of educational social media platforms

• Associate Professor of Management Science and Chair of the George B. Delaplaine Jr. School of Business.

Sharanya V Prasad Global Product Manager at Aruba Networks, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company

NextStep ambassadors:

Jyothi Dattatreya Software Engineering Manager at VMware

Sources: College Wise, College Board, GreatSchools

Conclusion:

Platform for analysis of middle school and high school student data to provide personalized analysis and recommendation for activities. Parents will be able to engage their kids in a more holistic well rounded approach and better learn their kids interests. Parents can better spend every dollar on most effectively supporting their kids. Kids can better understand their peer group and what are the common activities others are involved in.

As a next step, NextStep will bring in the latest research from the education field to help parents transition from the exploration phase (kids trying out many activities) to the exploitation phase (figuring out what kids are most excited about and honing in to build expertise). We will implement a dynamic learning and recommendation based on data collected from millions of kids across varying geographies and backgrounds. The ultimate goal of our platform is to help children become amazing world citizens contributing positively to society. 

Citations:

“Insight Education: College Admissions Counseling (Live And Online), Test Prep & Tutoring”. 2020. Insight Education. https://www.insight-education.net/.

(“Little Rock Family | Central Arkansas Parents Magazine For Childrens Events, Activities And Schools | Little Rock Family Magazine” 2020)

“To Phd Or Not To Phd”. 2020. Symmetry Magazine. https://www.symmetrymagazine.org/article/to-phd-or-not-to-phd.