Alexandra Bernadotte struggled to complete her Dartmouth education,
which she nonetheless did in four years. She wondered how she could help first-generation
college students like her be better prepared to handle the experience. The
Bostonian via Port-au-Prince founded Beyond 12 in 2009 (https://beyond12.org), determined to help
students succeed in college and beyond.
Beyond 12 uses a longitudinal
student-tracking system coupled with personalized, differentiated coaching
services to help first-generation students successfully transition to and
through college. As important, however, the entrepreneur in Bernadotte also understood
the need to use the intelligence provided by her student-tracking technology to
advise high schools on how to improve their college-preparatory approaches. Indeed, Bernadotte wrote the Beyond 12 business plan while serving as an Entrepreneur
in Residence at the NewSchools Venture Fund (https://www.newschools.org).
Bernadotte brings out
the humility in any of us who like to think we’re paying it forward, reminding
us that we may still have a very long way to go.
Image courtesy of LinkedIn