Esther Wojcicki Invests in Leading P2P Tutoring Platform, Joins as Chief Education Advisor to Launch ‘Moonshot Campus Initiative’
Pioneering educator joins Knack as investor and advisor, helping campuses provide students with greater ownership over their learning outcomes via tech-enabled peer-to-peer learning communities.
SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Knack, the fastest-growing peer-to-peer college tutoring platform, has added Esther Wojcicki as a strategic investor and has appointed her as Chief Education Advisor. As the best-selling author of Moonshots in Education: Launching Blended Learning in the Classroom and How to Raise Successful People, Wojcicki has established herself as a leader in driving learning innovation with a focus on student agency. Through her work, she has helped countless parents, educators, and executives become more effective.
In her new role at Knack, the renowned educator, journalist, and founder joins education experts like Dr. George Kuh and ETS.org to support Knack’s peer-to-peer learning model by guiding strategies that enhance student retention and graduation rates for higher education institutions.
“Knack is fostering one of the most important parts of learning, especially in the college environment. Peer-to-peer is the most effective way to learn, regardless of the subject matter,” said Wojcicki. “People learn most effectively through relationships. And students learn best from each other because relationship-based learning is active. Knack’s technology-enabled model is empowering students to learn together at scale, in the best way possible.”
Esther’s pedagogical methodology known as “TRICK” explores the importance of trust, respect, independence, collaboration, and kindness to nurture lifelong success. This has encouraged many of her former students like American author Lisa Brennan-Jobs (daughter of Steve Jobs), Golden Globe Award-winning actor James Franco, Gady Epstein of the Economist, and Noah Sneider of the New York Times to pursue their grand ambitions. Along with her late husband Stan Wojcicki, former professor emeritus and chair of the physics department at Stanford University, Esther worked to foster creativity and critical thinking in their daughters, who have all gone on to have an outsized impact on the world themselves: Susan Wojcicki, former CEO of YouTube; Anne Wojcicki, CEO of 23andMe; and, Janet Wojcicki, Professor of Pediatrics at UCSF Medical School.
Among her first initiatives with Knack, Wojcicki has committed to providing 10 higher education institutions with three years of free unlimited peer tutoring for up to 5,000 Pell-eligible students. The Moonshot Campus Initiative will enable these select institutions to better support their high-need students through Knack’s evidence-backed, peer-to-peer learning platform, while also creating meaningful career-building work opportunities for pre-qualified students to serve as peer tutors.
“There’s a saying at Knack that resonated deeply with me when I connected with their CEO, Samyr, and it aligns perfectly with my personal mission, and that is ‘It takes a campus to raise a student.’,” said Wojcicki. “Learning isn’t a solitary endeavor, and oftentimes all it takes is one person to believe in a student to help them succeed in the classroom and beyond. But I would argue most students today don’t have that one person who’s there to consistently encourage and support them in a personalized manner. It’s a real tragedy and a problem in our society. That’s why I’m excited to announce that I’m teaming up with Knack to launch the Moonshot Campus Initiative.”
“We are thrilled to welcome Esther to Knack,” said Samyr Qureshi, Knack Co-Founder & CEO. “Our mutual dedication to empowering students to take control of their educational journey through peer-to-peer learning is a powerful synergy that will bring remarkable benefits for our partnered campuses and the entire higher education landscape. Our partnership in launching the Moonshot Campus Initiative has the potential to redefine the role educators play in shaping 21st-century technology-enhanced education, and we are excited to embark on this journey together.”
Visit MoonshotCampus.com to learn more about the initiative, and the criteria that will be used to select the awarded campuses, the deadline to apply is November 1, 2023.
Knack is the leading student success platform transforming tutoring in direct partnership with dozens of higher education institutions across the nation. Having rolled out on over 100+ campuses, Knack is on a mission to make education more accessible and equitable, ensuring every student has access to the peer support they need to succeed in the classroom, and the 21st-century workplace. Campuses that partner with Knack are able to reach, engage, and retain more of their underserved students, while also reinvesting directly back into their student body. Knack’s unparalleled model aligns the incentives for students and the institution, creating win-win partnerships proven through evidence-based outcomes.
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