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ENSPIRE MAGAZINE WS20
Beacon For Progress
MICHAEL KADISHA , FOUNDER OF TREEDOM , IS BRIDGING THE GAP FOR STUDENTS WITHOUT TECH AND ACADEMIC TOOLS DURING AN UNPRECENDENTED TIME - WRITTEN BY LOGAN FLOYD
Michael Kadisha is supporting struggling students
through the aid of technology . The 26-year-old entrepreneur is the owner of Treedom , a service-learning software designed to empower students through hands-on work and volunteerism with their communities . With the COVID-19 pandemic forcing schools around the country to close , Treedom has become more popular than ever before as education increasingly moves to an online setting . However , the pandemic has also revealed a technology gap between students , a problem which Kadisha has been working to rectify .
Kadisha originally developed Treedom as part of a capstone project in his entrepreneurship program at university . Having always been passionate about finding ways to make learning self-directed and engaging , Kadisha created the business plan that would eventually form Treedom , a platform that provides an alternative to the “ one-size-fitsall ” approach that currently defines America ’ s school system .
“ It began when I realized we need a better way of learning ,” Kadisha recalled . “ I was never a good student . I had trouble maintaining my excitement for learning and was disappointed by that fact . I thought learning should be fun . I should have been excited to learn something new and take it with me into my life .”
For Kadisha , making learning more exciting meant going beyond the classroom and using his community as a teaching guide . With Treedom , Kadisha has made this approach more widely available to students by granting them online access to service-learning opportunities within their own communities . Through a mobile application , students are able to select hands-on learning and volunteer opportunities they are interested in , while school administrators can keep track of their engagement via a centralized web portal .
Unfortunately , not every student has internet access at home . More than 9 million school children in the United States are not able to access the internet , leaving them unable to connect with their teacher , course content , and peers . Kadisha set out to remedy this problem in the city of LA , where he made a generous donation and personally delivered tablet computers to students who did not have internet access .
“ When we first decided to invest in [ the donation ] at the start of the pandemic ,” Kadisha said , “ we had no idea how dire of a need it was . Only after speaking to students did we realize the scale of the problem that undermines so many of our students ’ success . We learned that a $ 150 Chromebook is a big part of keeping them from engaging meaningfully with their coursework .”
With this in mind , Kadisha intends to move forward with his company ’ s goal of connecting students to real-world learning opportunities . Although the pandemic has forced Treedom to move away from in-person service-learning , Kadisha simply sees this as a chance to create even more new models of learning .
“ Having to move away from in-person opportunities ,” Kadisha said , “ has pushed us to imagine a model that relies less on outside institutions like non-profit organizations . We are now looking to design a more self-directed approach . We lived by the saying , ‘ amid every crisis , lies great opportunity .’”
Kadisha ’ s aid has proven invaluable to students in LA and beyond . As schools begin to turn more towards remote means of education , Treedom has been supplying students all over the country with online means of expanding their learning and becoming more involved in their communities . Thanks to Kadisha ’ s generous donation , even more children will now have the chance to empower themselves through online education .