The Serial Entrepreneur: Ana Gabriela Pessoa
A
na Gabriela Pessoa,
team of teachers produces
Ed.M.’07, has no
new content daily, personal-
patience for the status
ized to each student, to keep
quo. Since long before graduating
the users engaged. Pessoa is
from the International Education
particularly proud that Ezlearn
Policy Program at the Ed School,
uses a learner-focused model. “‘Learner-focused’ means
she has searched for a way to
the student is in command,”
education to the greatest number
says Pessoa. “We do that
of people in her home country of
by creating an algorithm that
Brazil. And in her experience —
personalizes each and every
which includes working at Senac
course based on each user’s
Rio, the largest professional
needs and his own goals. A
education network in Brazil, and
student can learn alone on
at Universidade Estácio de Sá,
the platform, although there is
the largest university in Brazil — there is only one way to accomplish this: through technology. Her latest venture, Ezlearn Educacional, is an education technology company based in Rio
courtesy of Ana gabriela pessoa
bring high-quality, affordable
user interaction and interaction with teachers as well.” Since its inception in 2009, Ezlearn has grown its subscriber list to more than 100,000 and shows no signs of slowing down, she says.
de Janeiro that helps people who have a high need for English language training but who have not
Pessoa is working on expanding the site’s services, including
previously had access. Through the company, Pessoa continues
adding several more skills-based courses, and hopes that its
to study how technology can be used in learning, particularly
subscriber list continues to grow, eventually reaching her goal
through adaptive learning platforms and social networking.
of 1 million users.
“The main goals,” Pessoa says, “are to democratize access
Similarly, Pessoa also has no plans to slow down. Despite a
to high-quality content, create a cheap and easy way to learn,
busy schedule that, in addition to her CEO duties at Ezlearn,
and create great usability on the site for people with little or no
includes being on the board of Ensina (Brazil’s Teach For Amer-
technology background.” The latter two goals, she hopes, help
ica equivalent) and starting the organization Women Entrepre-
Ezlearn reach the lower middle class, a segment of the popula-
neurs in Technology in Brazil, Pessoa plans on developing even
tion whose education has been particularly neglected.
more new businesses.
Currently, Ezlearn’s main product is Meuinglês, a website
“I’m a serial entrepreneur in education,” she says.
that helps Brazilians learn English through video lessons, social networks, and other learning technologies. The site’s
— Marin Jorgensen
She is currently teaching Spanish to grades 1–8 at a Waldorfinspired charter school. She recently published her first Spanish-language children’s book, Sana, Sana.
Cahn Oxelson, Ed.M., was recently named director of college counseling at the Horace Mann School in the Bronx, N.Y.
guished Award in Teaching to study immigrant and language education in Finland.
Amy Stephens Sudmyer, Ed.M., and Jeff Sudmyer, Ed.M., welcomed their daughter, Elizabeth Stephens Sudmyer, on June 6, 2011. She joins big brother Charlie, who is now four.
2002
Min (Chon) Kim, Ed.M., lives in Houston with her husband, John, and their two kids, Ji-Oh and AJ. Jamie (Kornberg ) Phillips, Ed.M., lives in Los Angeles
with her husband, Josh, and their two kids, Hudson, 3, and Olivia, 4.5. She continues to run the educational enrichment company she founded in 2004. She recently had a mini-reunion with Indi (Avila) Lombardo, Ed.M., and Min (Chon) Kim, Ed.M., and their families. “Although we have spread around the country, we are so happy to be able to get together once in a while,” she writes.
Kate Yocum, Ed.M., recently received the Fulbright Distin-
Diane Michalowski Freedland, Ed.M., is a director of community development at the PJ Library, an award-winning Jewish family engagement and literacy program under the Harold Grinspoon Foundation Harvard Graduate School of Education
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