Student-Created Education App Takes Innovate@BU Prize
Albert Jimenez, Yasmin Morais, and Abhishek Valivarthi
Student-Created Education App Takes Innovate@BU Prize
A mobile educational platform co-created by a recent BU Wheelock graduate took home this year’s first place Social Impact Prize at Innovate@BU’s annual New Venture Competition. Called RefEd, the app was designed to improve access to education for refugee children. It was co-developed by BU Wheelock’s Albert Jimenez (CAS’18, Wheelock’21), Yasmin Morais CAS’18 and Abhishek Valivarthi SGT’21.
The RefEd team is one of more than 700 teams of BU Terriers that have competed in the New Venture Competition since it began 21 years ago. These teams have represented every BU school and college and ideas have spanned almost every industry in the forms of new technology, for-profit ventures, and nonprofits.
We caught up with Jimenez, who is also an academic resource counselor at BU Wheelock’s Upward Bound and Upward Bound Math Science programs, to learn more about RefEd and the inspiration behind the app.
RefEd helps refugee children get better access to education. How does it work and why is it important?
Jimenez: We believe every refugee student deserves access to personalized curriculum. RefEd is a mobile, innovative, and culturally relevant app tailored to refugee students aged 9–15. It curates animated content specifically for the different resettlement camps we work with. We do this by conducting a needs assessment of the local population, and then we outfit our curriculum with names, interests, accents, and backgrounds of the camp’s demographics.
What inspired you to create RefEd?
Jimenez: As a senior undergraduate at BU, I took CAS IR453: Forced Migration and Human Trafficking Virtual Policy Incubator, and I met like-minded students with a vision to make real change. My fellow cofounders Yasmin and Abhishek, and I are all first-generation people of color from families who prioritized education.
Personally, I use my family’s path as inspiration for all my work. My grandparents and parents did not have the educational opportunities I have been afforded so it is my responsibility to use my privilege to help as many students as possible achieve their dreams.
What does winning the Innovate@BU Social Impact Prize mean to you?
Jimenez: The win means everything to us. Since 2017, we have worked on researching, imagining, and ultimately bringing this dream to fruition. To have Innovate@BU validate that work and endorse our future is just the support we need to scale up and expand. This win proves to us that the doubts, labor, and frustrations are all worth it. RefEd’s impact will increase exponentially in the coming years, and we have Innovate@BU to thank for that.
How has working on RefEd impacted you professionally?
Jimenez: RefEd both humbles and inspires me on a daily basis, as does my work with Upward Bound. Though I have a background in education, I am constantly reminded of how much I don’t know. Any given lesson can fail with students and always requires editing. Education by nature is ever-changing and those that work within it should be constantly seeking to adapt. This work gives me the opportunity to stretch and expand my pedagogy and practice in ways I could never imagine.
What does the future look like for RefEd?
Jimenez: Currently, we are working with 350 students in Uganda. We plan to reach 1,000 students in the next two years. Long term, we hope to have RefEd available to any refugee student anywhere in the world.