Academy of Geniuses
Social entrepreneurship in action. “Academy of Geniuses” is a club where children learn modern technologies in a playful way.
Social projects are always good, but, alas, not always profitable. Especially in Russia. Today we will tell you the amazing story of Kaliningrad businesswoman Julia Taranova. In just two years, she managed to organize a network of circles in which children from 6 to 18 years old are enthusiastically studying robotics, programming and system administration.
Julia’s special approach is so successful that it skillfully balances between benefits for numerous students and profit. And without Lenovo here, of course, did not do. Although our computers in this story are just a small, but very practical addition.
')
Julia Taranova - Director of the Academy of Geniuses
Julia Taranova has been in business for a long time. In 1996, she founded the company "DRV", which became the first franchisee, and then distributor of software 1C.
Julia regularly held free seminars for clients and competitions for students. One of them - “Professional competition for the use of“ 1C: Accounting ”- became All-Russian: its awards to the winners are now awarded in the Kremlin. Julia’s company has automated many large enterprises - Lukoil, Eldorado, Baucenter. So far they are working on the accounting systems "DRV". And after “DRV” - entered the largest federal network engaged in automation and accounting, Julia began to build another important business.
As well as any person engaged in business, Julia often faced with the problem of recruitment. She always lacked people who could think, were well versed in information technologies, and were ready to work. Most often, experts had to grow from scratch.
However, there is a problem. If professional skills can be taught at almost any age, then diligence, pride in achieving results, interest in development, a desire to improve everything around you, honesty and decency can only be instilled in childhood. This is how the idea of creating the “Academy of Geniuses” appeared: a club for children of junior, middle and senior school age, in which they could develop all the above qualities, at the same time studying robotics, programming, system administration and other modern technologies.
In the "Academy of Geniuses" two main directions. Children from 6 to 11 years old are invited to join the club of entertaining robotics "ROBIT", and for older students (from 11 to 18 years old) there is "1C: Programmers Club".
Training is modular. For example, a full course in robotics consists of five modules, during which the guys work on the same materials on robotics ROBIT with the designer LegoWeDo, then with Lego Mindstorms, and then the children move on to mastering the Arduino board using the materials from “1C: Programmers Club”. Programming courses include the development of web applications and mobile applications for Android, as well as programming on Scratch, Java and 1C. Plus there are separate modules dedicated to system administration, development management and preparation for the exam on computer science. In fact, it is a model of continuous additional education, which develops a child from preschool age to the upper classes.
The topics are complex, but Yulia Taranova and her team managed to develop a unique approach, which is to generate interest from students. The meaning of the lessons is not just to follow a specific instruction on the pattern. The teacher helps children answer meaningful questions for them: “How does it work?”, “Why is it needed?”, “How will this help people?” “How can this be improved?”.
Very important club format classes. Children do not feel as if they are sitting in a boring school classroom. The teachers here are friends and mentors, new knowledge is presented in a playful way, it is possible and necessary to communicate with other students on an equal footing. As a result, children open up, are not afraid to ask questions and together find solutions to any problems! And of course, everyone in the team of the “Academy of Geniuses” is confident that “Every Child is Genius,” and you just need to create conditions for the disclosure of the talents of children, which is done by every employee of the company.
Plus, of course, the very topic of gadgets and new technologies is by default interesting to every modern child. "The Academy of Geniuses" provides an opportunity not just to fluently explore interesting areas, but to dive deep enough into the topic, to create something new with your own hands.
At the end of each module, students show what they have learned during this time: they represent and defend their own projects. Demonstrating standard decisions in the “Academy of Geniuses” is not accepted, the guys always add something to each basic project that they invented themselves. And parents will certainly be present at the defense - children are especially willing to tell them about their successes at that age.
The “Academy of Geniuses” opened last year, and everything began modestly: from 20 students. To date, the number of children involved has already exceeded 300. About one hundred of them are new students, and the remaining 200 are children who have already completed several modules.
Conversion from module to module reaches an impressive 80-100%, and this is precisely what shows that with maintaining interest in the "Academy" everything is very healthy. Each case when the child did not engage in further, carefully analyzed. The most common causes are family relocation to another region or illness.
In addition to the main classes in the “Academy of Geniuses” there are project shifts that are held with the support of the strategic partner of the Central Library System of the city of Kaliningrad. For example, this summer, children studied the development of the solar system, and then created a thematic game in Java. At the robotic change in the fall, the guys made a robot boxer, a smart home for special children, and came up with the concept of small bio-robots that change sick cells into healthy ones in the human body. And the authors of these projects are only six to ten years old!
Older Academy students regularly participate in contests. For the contest "Amber Sparks" they made the Parental Committee mobile app with a financial accounting system and alerts. There was also a project of a “smart” fridge, and this year children are developing a social and communication network.
For children with cerebral palsy, who are also successfully engaged in the "Academy of Geniuses", they came up with a robot assistant. The machine fixes the parts so that it is easier to work with them with disobedient hands due to illness. This project took one of the top places in the Skolkovo start-up tour.
Another interesting story is connected with the first in Russia beach with the "Blue Flag" in the village of Yantarny - this is the way in the world they mark water recreation places specially equipped for people with disabilities. At the request of Meteostend, an inclusive team of guys from the Academy of Geniuses developed the entire software for the weather stand, which is installed on this beach: it shows the date, time, and air and water temperature. In fact, it is a product ready for serial production, which operates 24/7 without problems in the open air. Moreover, according to the plan, the money from the sales of weather gates will be directed to the development of inclusive education in Russia.
There is no separate building or some huge room for classes at the Academy of Geniuses. The idea of learning here is also to organize classes as close as possible to children's homes. Today, children can study at any of the 14 points of choice available in Kaliningrad, and soon they will surely become even more.
The Academy has a mobile class consisting of six Lego sets and six Lenovo laptops. A router, a projector or a TV is now practically on any site, so you can organize exit classes almost anywhere in the city.
Julia and her team chose Lenovo G50-30 laptops with Celeron N3540 dual-core processors, 2 GB of RAM, an AMD Radeon R5 video card, 250 GB of HDR and 15.6-inch screens. In 2015, 32 such vehicles were purchased by Academy of Geniuses in the Kaliningrad chain of SOHO stores, in addition to the six already existing ones.
Julia Taranova:
“Academy of Geniuses” is a social project, but at the same time, it is also a business. Yulia Taranova succeeds in successfully combining an interesting idea and practical benefit for society with income generation.
On average, the cost of one module out of 12 lessons at the Academy is 6-8 thousand rubles. Business profitability with equipment depreciation is 26 percent. All funds received are immediately invested in development, which allows you to grow by 300% per year. It turns out that even a social project can be made profitable, but of course, there is no talk about any super-profits and space revenues. The goal - to grow a generation of professionals who own information technology and are in demand in any field of activity requires serious investments.
Julia is already selling franchises. The first franchisee recently successfully launched its club using the technology of the “Academy of Geniuses” in Smolensk, and there they also use inexpensive and reliable Lenovo laptops in their work.
At first glance it seems that here it is, the ideal teaching system, fully ready for integration into the school curriculum. Yulia Taranova says that she would very much like this, but not everything is so simple. The founder of the "Academy of Geniuses" even tried to open a club in one of the schools, but the attempt was unsuccessful. The children treated the extra classes as optional and regularly missed them. Unfortunately, modern schools cannot provide an open club format. Nevertheless, Julia is ready to work with the education system: to provide materials on the interesting robotics ROBIT, to train teachers, that even in the school format of training, high-quality, proven domestic modern tools are used, but, of course, there must be a counter movement from the educational system itself.
Julia admits that at first she didn’t really believe that government support for such social projects as hers really exists. However, in 2015, the Academy of Geniuses successfully received a subsidy from the Ministry of Industry and the Business Support Fund. Thus, we managed to compensate 80% of our costs. In 2016, we managed to get another subsidy, which went to buy additional sets of Lego and computers.
Further plans are even more interesting. First of all, Julia really wants to participate in the creation of the Center for Youth Innovative Creativity in Kaliningrad. This is a great opportunity to teach children how to work with new equipment: machines, scanners and 3D printers.
Secondly, after receiving the subsidy, “Academy of Geniuses” bought an old German school located near Kaliningrad with a large adjacent territory. Now you need to find money for repairs, and over time this place should turn into a rehabilitation and training and engineering center for all children from 6 to 18 years old, including those with disabilities. The idea is that the children themselves or with their parents come here for a weekend or a week, do interesting projects and learn something new away from the city rush.
We hope that these plans will be realized, and we will tell you about the new achievements of Julia Taranova and her mega-cool team "Academy of Geniuses" on the pages of Geektimes. Thanks for attention!
Social projects are always good, but, alas, not always profitable. Especially in Russia. Today we will tell you the amazing story of Kaliningrad businesswoman Julia Taranova. In just two years, she managed to organize a network of circles in which children from 6 to 18 years old are enthusiastically studying robotics, programming and system administration.
Julia’s special approach is so successful that it skillfully balances between benefits for numerous students and profit. And without Lenovo here, of course, did not do. Although our computers in this story are just a small, but very practical addition.
')
From accounting and automation to children's education
Julia Taranova - Director of the Academy of GeniusesJulia Taranova has been in business for a long time. In 1996, she founded the company "DRV", which became the first franchisee, and then distributor of software 1C.
Julia regularly held free seminars for clients and competitions for students. One of them - “Professional competition for the use of“ 1C: Accounting ”- became All-Russian: its awards to the winners are now awarded in the Kremlin. Julia’s company has automated many large enterprises - Lukoil, Eldorado, Baucenter. So far they are working on the accounting systems "DRV". And after “DRV” - entered the largest federal network engaged in automation and accounting, Julia began to build another important business.
As well as any person engaged in business, Julia often faced with the problem of recruitment. She always lacked people who could think, were well versed in information technologies, and were ready to work. Most often, experts had to grow from scratch.
However, there is a problem. If professional skills can be taught at almost any age, then diligence, pride in achieving results, interest in development, a desire to improve everything around you, honesty and decency can only be instilled in childhood. This is how the idea of creating the “Academy of Geniuses” appeared: a club for children of junior, middle and senior school age, in which they could develop all the above qualities, at the same time studying robotics, programming, system administration and other modern technologies.
Club format and maintain interest
In the "Academy of Geniuses" two main directions. Children from 6 to 11 years old are invited to join the club of entertaining robotics "ROBIT", and for older students (from 11 to 18 years old) there is "1C: Programmers Club".
Training is modular. For example, a full course in robotics consists of five modules, during which the guys work on the same materials on robotics ROBIT with the designer LegoWeDo, then with Lego Mindstorms, and then the children move on to mastering the Arduino board using the materials from “1C: Programmers Club”. Programming courses include the development of web applications and mobile applications for Android, as well as programming on Scratch, Java and 1C. Plus there are separate modules dedicated to system administration, development management and preparation for the exam on computer science. In fact, it is a model of continuous additional education, which develops a child from preschool age to the upper classes.
The topics are complex, but Yulia Taranova and her team managed to develop a unique approach, which is to generate interest from students. The meaning of the lessons is not just to follow a specific instruction on the pattern. The teacher helps children answer meaningful questions for them: “How does it work?”, “Why is it needed?”, “How will this help people?” “How can this be improved?”.
Very important club format classes. Children do not feel as if they are sitting in a boring school classroom. The teachers here are friends and mentors, new knowledge is presented in a playful way, it is possible and necessary to communicate with other students on an equal footing. As a result, children open up, are not afraid to ask questions and together find solutions to any problems! And of course, everyone in the team of the “Academy of Geniuses” is confident that “Every Child is Genius,” and you just need to create conditions for the disclosure of the talents of children, which is done by every employee of the company.
Plus, of course, the very topic of gadgets and new technologies is by default interesting to every modern child. "The Academy of Geniuses" provides an opportunity not just to fluently explore interesting areas, but to dive deep enough into the topic, to create something new with your own hands.
At the end of each module, students show what they have learned during this time: they represent and defend their own projects. Demonstrating standard decisions in the “Academy of Geniuses” is not accepted, the guys always add something to each basic project that they invented themselves. And parents will certainly be present at the defense - children are especially willing to tell them about their successes at that age.
Impressive growth and child developers
The “Academy of Geniuses” opened last year, and everything began modestly: from 20 students. To date, the number of children involved has already exceeded 300. About one hundred of them are new students, and the remaining 200 are children who have already completed several modules.
Conversion from module to module reaches an impressive 80-100%, and this is precisely what shows that with maintaining interest in the "Academy" everything is very healthy. Each case when the child did not engage in further, carefully analyzed. The most common causes are family relocation to another region or illness.
In addition to the main classes in the “Academy of Geniuses” there are project shifts that are held with the support of the strategic partner of the Central Library System of the city of Kaliningrad. For example, this summer, children studied the development of the solar system, and then created a thematic game in Java. At the robotic change in the fall, the guys made a robot boxer, a smart home for special children, and came up with the concept of small bio-robots that change sick cells into healthy ones in the human body. And the authors of these projects are only six to ten years old!
Older Academy students regularly participate in contests. For the contest "Amber Sparks" they made the Parental Committee mobile app with a financial accounting system and alerts. There was also a project of a “smart” fridge, and this year children are developing a social and communication network.
For children with cerebral palsy, who are also successfully engaged in the "Academy of Geniuses", they came up with a robot assistant. The machine fixes the parts so that it is easier to work with them with disobedient hands due to illness. This project took one of the top places in the Skolkovo start-up tour.
Another interesting story is connected with the first in Russia beach with the "Blue Flag" in the village of Yantarny - this is the way in the world they mark water recreation places specially equipped for people with disabilities. At the request of Meteostend, an inclusive team of guys from the Academy of Geniuses developed the entire software for the weather stand, which is installed on this beach: it shows the date, time, and air and water temperature. In fact, it is a product ready for serial production, which operates 24/7 without problems in the open air. Moreover, according to the plan, the money from the sales of weather gates will be directed to the development of inclusive education in Russia.
Reliable computers for hundreds of students
There is no separate building or some huge room for classes at the Academy of Geniuses. The idea of learning here is also to organize classes as close as possible to children's homes. Today, children can study at any of the 14 points of choice available in Kaliningrad, and soon they will surely become even more.
The Academy has a mobile class consisting of six Lego sets and six Lenovo laptops. A router, a projector or a TV is now practically on any site, so you can organize exit classes almost anywhere in the city.
Julia and her team chose Lenovo G50-30 laptops with Celeron N3540 dual-core processors, 2 GB of RAM, an AMD Radeon R5 video card, 250 GB of HDR and 15.6-inch screens. In 2015, 32 such vehicles were purchased by Academy of Geniuses in the Kaliningrad chain of SOHO stores, in addition to the six already existing ones.
Julia Taranova:
“We chose computers primarily for the price - at the time of launch of the“ Academy of Geniuses ”there was very little money. The second decisive factor was the reliability of laptops, so first we took six cars and looked at how they cope with the load. It turned out great. Today we have almost 400 students and 50-60 regular groups, and for a year with such a whirl, none of the laptops let us down. ”
Social project as a successful business
“Academy of Geniuses” is a social project, but at the same time, it is also a business. Yulia Taranova succeeds in successfully combining an interesting idea and practical benefit for society with income generation.
On average, the cost of one module out of 12 lessons at the Academy is 6-8 thousand rubles. Business profitability with equipment depreciation is 26 percent. All funds received are immediately invested in development, which allows you to grow by 300% per year. It turns out that even a social project can be made profitable, but of course, there is no talk about any super-profits and space revenues. The goal - to grow a generation of professionals who own information technology and are in demand in any field of activity requires serious investments.
Julia is already selling franchises. The first franchisee recently successfully launched its club using the technology of the “Academy of Geniuses” in Smolensk, and there they also use inexpensive and reliable Lenovo laptops in their work.
At first glance it seems that here it is, the ideal teaching system, fully ready for integration into the school curriculum. Yulia Taranova says that she would very much like this, but not everything is so simple. The founder of the "Academy of Geniuses" even tried to open a club in one of the schools, but the attempt was unsuccessful. The children treated the extra classes as optional and regularly missed them. Unfortunately, modern schools cannot provide an open club format. Nevertheless, Julia is ready to work with the education system: to provide materials on the interesting robotics ROBIT, to train teachers, that even in the school format of training, high-quality, proven domestic modern tools are used, but, of course, there must be a counter movement from the educational system itself.
State support and future plans
Julia admits that at first she didn’t really believe that government support for such social projects as hers really exists. However, in 2015, the Academy of Geniuses successfully received a subsidy from the Ministry of Industry and the Business Support Fund. Thus, we managed to compensate 80% of our costs. In 2016, we managed to get another subsidy, which went to buy additional sets of Lego and computers.
Further plans are even more interesting. First of all, Julia really wants to participate in the creation of the Center for Youth Innovative Creativity in Kaliningrad. This is a great opportunity to teach children how to work with new equipment: machines, scanners and 3D printers.
Secondly, after receiving the subsidy, “Academy of Geniuses” bought an old German school located near Kaliningrad with a large adjacent territory. Now you need to find money for repairs, and over time this place should turn into a rehabilitation and training and engineering center for all children from 6 to 18 years old, including those with disabilities. The idea is that the children themselves or with their parents come here for a weekend or a week, do interesting projects and learn something new away from the city rush.
We hope that these plans will be realized, and we will tell you about the new achievements of Julia Taranova and her mega-cool team "Academy of Geniuses" on the pages of Geektimes. Thanks for attention!
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/317772/
All Articles