A Fellowship for Global Entrepreneurs
Rethinking How We Educate and Employ Our Planet

The systems that educate our planet — from K-12 to higher education to job training and placement programs — have been flipped on their collective heads. Never before have we seen such barriers to education — from the digital divide in K-12; to a rapid and unplanned shift to online teaching and learning at Universities; to job training programs grappling with managing their organizations remotely while struggling to keep up with growing unemployment and a shifting skills marketplace. 

To support the rapidly evolving field of education and its immediate need for support and rethinking, Sarah Holloway and Fernando Fabre, faculty from Columbia University’s School of International & Public Affairs (SIPA), developed E Lab, an online fellowship aimed at bringing together cohorts of problem-solvers, entrepreneurs and executives in K-12, higher education and workforce development to rethink how we educate and employ our ever-changing planet and help to ensure equality and equity of access

E Lab’s online program spans five weeks and brings together entrepreneurs from across the globe to network, learn new skills, connect with investors, and receive support from experts in the field. By the program’s end, fellows have formed strategic relationships and partnerships across borders and think on a scale 100x bigger than when they came in.

The E Lab curriculum is divided into five major themes, one per week. For each theme there is an expert, a faculty member, a moderator, and a cohort of entrepreneurs in your group debating, sharing, and learning together. Keynote speakers include Joseph Sitglitz, Columbia Business School Economist and Nobel Prize Winner; Fred Wilson, Founder & Partner at Union Square Ventures; Matt Greenfield, Partner at ReThink Education; Charles Best, Founder of DonorsChoose; and Shalinee Sharma, CEO of Zearn.

Cohort I Launches in October 2020 serving 25 founders and Executive Directors innovating in PreK-12. Participants include Founders of Wonderschool, Hapara, Knotion, Spark Schools, Bee Readers, Sora Schools, and MIT’s Scratch — joining us from the US, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Spain, Lebanon, Jordan, Kenya, South Africa and Uganda.

For more information, please contact e.labcolumbia@gmail.com.