The Remake Learning team is always evolving to meet the needs and goals of the network. As Remake Learning develops new advocacy strategies and levels up the Personalized Learning Working Group, we’ve been thrilled to welcome a new team member to support these efforts: Vishnu Maddipatla.
Vishnu is a senior at the University of Pittsburgh pursuing a degree in Neuroscience with minors in Economics and Chemistry. His work with Remake Learning is made possible by the Elsie Hillman Honors Scholars Program, which connects entrepreneurial and creative students with regional community partners to join an existing project or develop a student and agency-led project that addresses issues important to the organization and reflects the social commitment of Elsie Hillman.
We asked Vishnu five questions to get to know him more and learn about what he’ll be doing to support Remake Learning.
Tell us about your fellowship and how it relates to your studies.
I became an Elsie Hillman Honors Scholar because I am passionate about creating a long-lasting impact within my community and learning more about policymaking and political advocacy. I chose to work with Remake Learning because I have been passionate about STEAM education since I began participating in robotics competitions when I was in high school. Back then, my team and I created a low-cost robotics kit and distributed it to students to increase accessibility to STEAM education. Luckily, I was able to reignite this passion through my work at Remake Learning.
In the future, I intend on becoming a physician and I believe this fellowship beautifully complements my studies because it provides me with numerous unique perspectives. Specifically, education has been classified as a key social determinant of health in communities, so having the opportunity to impact this field that molds the next generation of thinkers provides me with an opportunity that I wouldn’t get with a conventional premedical experience. Furthermore, the skills I receive from this experience like leadership, project planning, and implementation in professional settings alongside working on projects that directly impact thousands of individuals is reflective of the responsibilities I will bear as a physician.
What is your role with Remake Learning? What are you working on?
I am spearheading the development of a legislator profile database that can be utilized by the network to optimize their political advocacy efforts for transforming education at the Pennsylvania state level. The intent of these profiles is to familiarize network members with their legislators and representatives and develop relationships by facilitating discussions about education.
I am also working with the Personalized Learning Working Group to create some stories that capture the personalized learning work being done in Pennsylvania. The goal of this storytelling is to increase awareness about personalized learning amongst educators and the general public, which could eventually lead to substantive alterations to the structure of education in modern classrooms.
What do you hope to learn and/or accomplish over the course of your fellowship?
I hope this fellowship will allow me to generate a concrete product that will have a tangible benefit for the organization and its use will outlast the tenure of my fellowship. Furthermore, I hope this fellowship will teach me proper methodologies for long-term project planning and implementation, which aren’t often experienced within classroom settings.
What are you looking forward to most?
I am looking forward to getting an alternative perspective towards education by conversing with educators and legislators. I believe as a current student I can provide an unique viewpoint to some of the organization’s initiatives, which could be extremely interesting. Furthermore, I am really excited to learn about the trajectory of education as the world becomes more digitized and dependent upon technology.
What would you like the network to know about you?
I am extremely passionate about education innovation and I foresee myself staying involved with academia and education in all of my future endeavors. I am always open to new opportunities and learning new things about this field and would love to connect with any network members to learn more about their interests and goals for reshaping modern education!