David and I met at an Edtech event in Austin during 2018 SXSW EDU. He had a big smile and I was fascinated by his story; David started in Finance, as an account manager of mutual funds in Boston then spent 20+ years in Asia as a finance and technology leader. He came back to US and become a math teacher in NYC. Later, David co-found a public charter school, Inwood Academy for Leadership, to bring blended-learning (online & classroom) to inner city students.
Recently, we had a catch up. He is now working at a British School in Sri Lanka implementing BYOL, bring your own (device) learning, and supporting teacher training. Meanwhile he is starting “Teach for Sri Lanka” to recruit and train “fellows”, recent college graduates to teach in rural area as well as up-skilling existing teachers. David’s eyes lighted up when he talked about sending first fellows to school in 2023 in spite of tremendous works and uncertainties ahead. I asked David “Why Asia?” as he has no family tie there and could live comfortably wherever he chooses. “I see optimism everywhere, people feel “the future is bright”… 21 century is an Asian century”, David said. “Sky is the limit. I only need to decide, people will show up to help…”
The attitude explains David’s success and how he attracts like-minded people to Teach for a brighter future!