{"id":1843,"date":"2014-07-16t17:42:20","date_gmt":"2014-07-17t00:42:20","guid":{"rendered":"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/?p=1843"},"modified":"2014-07-16t17:42:20","modified_gmt":"2014-07-17t00:42:20","slug":"company-kudos-ideo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/blog\/company-kudos-ideo\/","title":{"rendered":"company kudos: how ideo is putting some of our favorite values to work in peru"},"content":{"rendered":"
greetings from the new pr and editorial intern! i\u2019m new to the whole magoosh blogging scene, so before i dive in, let me start with a brief introduction.<\/p>\n
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\nhi! my name is maizie. i\u2019m a senior studying journalism at the university of arizona, i\u2019m 5\u20194\u201d, pretty fond of cookies (all kinds), and i love all things education. in fact, i also work as a tutor for student athletes at the u of a, and<\/i> i just returned from a trip to peru where i taught english for six weeks!<\/br>\n<\/p>\n
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ah, peru. that\u2019s part of what caught my attention about this recent article<\/a> from the new york times. it\u2019s called \u201cshaping a school system, from the ground up,\u201d and it profiles ideo<\/a>, a san francisco\u2013based design company that has been working for the past three years to improve the education system in peru.<\/p>\n \n \n as i mentioned earlier, ideo is a design firm based right across the bay from us. hey, neighbors! what have they designed, you ask? well, the first laptop, for one, and the first mouse for apple computers. nice.<\/p>\n \n \n we\u2019ll get back to ideo in just a second. but first, a little background on peru and its education system:<\/p>\n \n \n \n
\nbut what really caught my attention was this: ideo\u2019s mission in peru lined up perfectly with some of magoosh\u2019s most important core values<\/a>\u2014the values that first compelled me to apply to magoosh.
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\nbut before we get into those core values, let me first answer\u2026
\n<\/br>\n<\/p>\nwho\u2019s ideo?<\/h2>\n
\nbut for years now, people have been coming to companies like ideo and asking them to redesign some out-of-the-ordinary stuff, such as \u201ccomplex systems for businesses, governments, and nonprofits,\u201d according to the article. recently, they even redesigned the cafeteria system<\/a> for schools in the san francisco unified school district\u2014see ya later, lunch lines\u2014among some other pretty amazing projects.
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\ni\u2019m guessing that\u2019s why peruvian businessman carlos rodriguez-pastor came to them for a solution to the problems in peru\u2019s education system.
\n<\/br>\n<\/p>\nwhat\u2019s going on in peru?<\/h2>\n
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\nthe country may have an endless supply of hilarious llama antics (i got spit on probably three times), but the state of its education is no laughing matter. peru has again and again scored alarmingly low on the global education survey<\/a> by the organization for economic cooperation and development. and i speak from experience when i say peru\u2019s public school system needs work.
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\nthe kids i taught in trujillo (a city up in the north) were consistently uninterested, unmotivated, and too distracted to learn. and who could blame them? the classrooms we used were ramshackle and cluttered, with no windows\u2014not one. it was too stuffy to close the doors so we left them open, only to turn around and see students from every other classroom huddled, gazing through the entrance. not an ideal learning space. here\u2019s a picture of one of my classrooms so you have an idea:
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