EdTech: Clay Colarusso Of American Student Assistance On How Their Technology Will Make An Important Positive Impact On Education
An Interview With Jake Frankel
Start Early: Students need consistent and unfettered access to information and experiences, beginning as early as middle school, to identify what’s right for them (and what’s not). In the middle school years, beyond exploring careers using digital experiences like ASA Futurescape, opportunities include job shadows, worksite visits, career fairs and “meet a professional” experiences. These opportunities allow a young person to begin to uncover the wide variety of career possibilities in front of them and begin to think about what might align with their interests.
In recent years, Big Tech has gotten a bad rep. But of course, many tech companies are doing important work making monumental positive changes to society, health, and the environment. To highlight these, we started a new interview series about “Technology Making An Important Positive Social Impact”. We are interviewing leaders of tech companies who are creating or have created a tech product that is helping to make a positive change in people’s lives or the environment. In this particular installment, we are talking to leaders of Education Technology companies, who share how their tech is helping to improve our educational system. As a part of this series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Clay Colarusso.
Clay Colarusso is CMO and SVP Digital Strategy of American Student Assistance® (ASA), a nonprofit changing the way kids learn about careers and prepare for their futures. Clay is the driving force behind the creation of ASA’s suite of free digital-first experiences, including Futurescape®, Next Voice™ and EvolveMe®, directly to more than 15 million teens.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series. Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a bit about your childhood backstory and how you grew up?
I grew up in a town about 10 miles north of Boston, MA and, for all intents and purposes, have never really left. I attended both college and graduate school within a 30-mile radius of my childhood home, have worked almost exclusively in downtown Boston over the course of my career, and now live with my wonderful family in a quiet community about 15 minutes from my hometown. Growing up, my parents always stressed the value of education and hard work with my older brother and I, and they made countless personal sacrifices to ensure that we both had opportunities, and experiences, in life that they never did. We were also very much a sports family, and I spent the better part of my youth on various courts and fields learning how to work with, and as part of, a high performing team, something I enjoy doing to this very day.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
Some 20 odd years ago I worked for a large Boston advertising agency that was located on the 21st floor of a building in Boston’s Financial District. I’ll never forget my first day of work at that agency, being dropped off at my cube without even so much as a chair and basically left to fend for myself (I did get eventually get a chair, three days later). Needless to say, this particular job didn’t turn out being the best professional experience of my life and I eventually left for another opportunity. Fast forward a number of years — American Student Assistance is moving its offices and it turns out to be the same building, in fact the same exact floor on which I worked for that big agency. From my workspace today, I can see the very cube in which I started down this career path two plus decades ago. It’s a constant reminder to stay humble, and never forget where you came from. So, in that sense, I appreciate this full circle journey. However, for those with a drier sense of humor, one could suggest that it has taken me over 20 years to travel exactly 20 feet and they wouldn’t be wrong!
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
This one is easy — Jean Eddy, CEO and President of American Student Assistance. Six years ago, I approached her with a hypothesis and rough framework of an idea to deliver free digital resources directly to kids primarily through their mobile devices. Jean pressed on the idea, asked tough questions, and challenged me to validate my underlying assumptions at every turn. When we had refined and improved upon the initial thinking, she told me to “go do it.” For the past six plus years, literally every step of the way, Jean has been equal parts advocate, evangelist, constructive critic, and champion. Jean has extraordinarily high standards. You have to see the big picture and you must be willing to continue refining concepts and constructs until they truly make sense within the broader context of ASA’s mission — but if you’re willing to accept that challenge, there is no better person to have in your corner than Jean Eddy.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” — Wayne Gretzky
I’m not a hockey guy myself. I’ll watch a game on TV here and there, but I never actually played it at any level — in fact, I don’t even know how to skate — but there has always been something behind this Wayne Gretzky quote that I just love. The notion that if you’re not willing to take your shot when the opportunity presents itself then there’s no chance you’ll ever find the back of the net, rings so very true to me.
You are a successful business leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?
- Curiosity
- Perseverance
- Critical thinking
The digital work I’ve led at ASA best exemplifies these three character traits and the net result of what happens when it all comes together. It’s a willingness to ask “why” — why can’t we consider delivering these services in a different way and putting kids at the center of everything we do — a refusal to let challenges or headwinds knock us off the path of fully realizing the vision for our digital ecosystem of free resources, and a willingness to continuously revisit and revalidate the underlying assumptions in which the work is anchored to ensure that we’re responding to the evolving preferences and realities of the world around us. All of this played a part in bringing this work to life.
Ok super. Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion about the tech tools that you are helping to create that can make a positive social impact on our educational systems. To begin, what problems are you aiming to solve?
The problem we are working to solve is the fact that too many students are graduating from high school without an informed plan for their future. For decades, college has historically served as the default option for students graduating from high school and as a proximate measure of someone’s career readiness. Times have changed. Now, just 59 percent of students plan to go to a four-year college and the majority of those who do enter are undecided about their major or what career they envision for themselves. Research shows that two out of three high school students and recent high school graduates say they would have benefited from more career exploration in middle and/or high school. Additionally, most high school graduates (75 percent) do not feel prepared to make college or career decisions after graduation.
As kids’ behaviors, preferences and needs evolve, so too must the depth and breadth of postsecondary educational pathways to good paying careers and rewarding lives.
How do you think your technology can address this?
We know technology can address this! Students today can’t get the information they need about career exploration solely in the classroom. We believe, and our success in doing so has proven, that the best way to reach them is where they already are — on their phones and other digital devices. Nearly all young people today have smart phones that can help them open up a world of career possibilities through free, engaging, self-directed digital resources. We believe that this career exploration needs to start as early as middle school when kids are the most open to new possibilities and under less stress than their older counterparts. Then, in high school, they can use these digital resources to gain access to invaluable career exploration and skill-building opportunities.
Can you tell us the backstory about what inspired you to originally feel passionate about education?
ASA is rapidly approaching its seventh decade, and our mission has expanded over the past five years to place more of a focus on providing free digital career readiness resources to middle school and high school aged students. Why? Time and time again we had too many conversations with young people that included phrases like “I wish I had known,” “I wish I had completed what I started,” or “I wish I hadn’t borrowed so much.” As a result of statements like these and other factors, ASA has changed our mission (since 2018) to focus more time and resources on helping kids, at a much earlier stage in their education journey, make more informed choices about their postsecondary education path and the career they may want to pursue.
We believe we can leverage the mediums and platforms kids spend countless hours each day engaging with for good by encouraging teens to explore careers that match their strengths and passions and take actions that advance their career interests. That’s why we’ve created digital experiences designed for kids to access on their mobile devices. These resources are intended to provide support and guidance along the “journey” students take on their path to a rewarding career — and they really seem to be resonating with our end users. We’ve already engaged millions of kids to date. Why is this working? Largely because these digital tools were co-created with input from thousands of young people. And when I say “co-created,” I mean they literally helped us build the tools! Everything from the design, UX, images and illustrations, fonts and color palette, to the features and functionality, the content, and even the name of our latest digital resource, EvolveMe®.
How do you think your technology might change the world?
We’ve already begun creating a future where people love what they do and are earning a living by doing it. Now we just need to do more of it. By helping teens tap into what they love at an early age and giving them guidance to get hands-on experiences, we’re fostering a generation of confident, crisis-proof young people who are ready for whatever path comes next after high school. Another really important aspect of ed tech is how it creates equity that allows all students to get off to a great start in knowing what they want to do before they graduate. Today we have a cohort of over 15 million kids that continuously tell us what matters to them and how our technology is helping them achieve inspired, productive futures.
Keeping the “Law of Unintended Consequences” in mind, can you see any potential drawbacks about this technology that people should think more deeply about?
We believe the best way to combat the negative content on social media platforms is to introduce constructive activities, such as career exploration. As a parent of teens myself, I know kids spend a lot of time on their phones. We’re meeting them where they are so they can use some of this time productively — to engage with content that enables them to explore career possibilities.
We work to instill positive, healthy digital behaviors as part of our free suite of career readiness platforms for teens. So, for instance, when a young person is on our platforms, there are measures built for them to take a break and come back later to explore careers again.
How do you envision the landscape of education evolving over the next decade, and how does your technology fit into that future?
Today’s youth are negatively impacted by inequitable access to the tools, information, and experiences needed to plan for the future. ASA believes that technology is the great equalizer in terms of reaching kids from all backgrounds, and this is the best way to engage millions more kids with their future planning. Student-led, digital experiences beyond the classroom are the best way to scale equitable access and give millions of kids agency in the decisions that will ultimately impact their futures.
With that said, it’s one thing to co-create a digital experience for kids and an entirely different one to encourage them to regularly use it. We know that no single entity can do that alone. That’s why we’ve developed more than 45 partnerships with like-minded organizations that give kids access to more than 120 discreet career readiness experiences, such as virtual career mentoring, AI-powered career coaching, mock-job interviews, virtual internships, coding courses, and other invaluable opportunities that help them develop real-world skills by completing tasks within our EvolveMe platform. We continuously invite teens into the conversation to evaluate and validate our platform, which is part of our free suite of digital experiences for their career readiness journey.
Based on your experience and success, can you please share “Five things you need to know to successfully create technology that can make a positive social impact”?
1.Start Early: Students need consistent and unfettered access to information and experiences, beginning as early as middle school, to identify what’s right for them (and what’s not). In the middle school years, beyond exploring careers using digital experiences like ASA Futurescape, opportunities include job shadows, worksite visits, career fairs and “meet a professional” experiences. These opportunities allow a young person to begin to uncover the wide variety of career possibilities in front of them and begin to think about what might align with their interests.
2. Meet kids where they are: Based on our research, we’ve determined that the best approach is to connect with kids with the right piece of information at the right time, as part of their journey along middle school, to high school, and then to that point before they have to make that all-important choice about what to do upon high school graduation. To this end, we meet kids where they are — on their mobile devices — with high-quality content that helps them explore career possibilities based on their strengths and interests.
3. Put kids at the center of the product roadmap: To develop our roadmap for our suite of free digital experiences, we explored the journey from middle school to high school. As part of this process, we looked at where the pain points were, where the gaps were, and where kids felt unsupported.
4. Ensure that youth have a voice in the product development research, ideation, and development process: Sadly, it seems as if not enough organizations in the EdTech or informal learning space (and industries in general) actively engage kids in the product and solution ideation processes, and then actually deliver what it is the kids said they wanted. We believe it is critically important to ensure that students have a voice in those decisions that are being made about their futures. So, how do you help young people become part of a solution? The only way to do that is to bring them into the process. Build an experience that’s catered to the kids’ needs, wants, and behaviors.
5. Keep the co-creation collaboration going: It’s important to underscore that the collaborative engagement with co-creators doesn’t end with the creation of the digital experience. Even once the product is created and launched, we continue to seek out and incorporate user feedback as part of ongoing product maintenance and upkeep, as well as for planning for future enhancements.
In the realm of EdTech, there’s often data collection involved. How do you ensure the ethical handling of user data, especially when it concerns students?
ASA takes our users’ privacy very seriously. We have constructed our experience in such a way that does not allow access to any individual user data from our ecosystem of digital resources. Additionally, we NEVER share or sell individual user data. Finally, in compliance with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection (COPPA) Rule and regulations, we’ve made it possible for kids under 13 to explore careers via our free career exploration platform, Futurescape®. While this customized version of the platform collects no data and therefore doesn’t provide the same personalized experience as the full version of Futurescape, younger kids can still get the benefit of exploring careers that match their interests and strengths.
If you could tell other young people one thing about why they should consider making a positive impact on our environment or society, like you, what would you tell them?
I would tell them to dig deep to figure out what they are passionate about early on and get the information and experience they will need to make it their life’s work. What if we made students aware of all of the many options available to them early on, starting in middle school (or even sooner)? This will enable them to find the real-life experiences in high school that will either confirm or show that it’s not right for them. These include job shadows, worksite visits, career fairs and “meet a professional” experiences, mentorships, internships, apprenticeships, and entrepreneurial experiences. These opportunities allow a young person to build skills and a career identity, as well as the social capital that can lead to long-term career success. With 50 percent of jobs still coming from someone you know, the ability to tap into your social and professional network for career opportunity is vital. When young people have exposure to real-world experiences, they can begin to build these professional networks and the durable skills that employers are looking for. How can they find these opportunities? With free digital resources that open a world of possibilities, guidance, and skills attainment. I’d say why not figure out what you want to do before you graduate from high school, and why not have it be something that you already love to do.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
Visit ASA.org
Thank you so much for joining us. This was very inspirational, and we wish you continued success in your important work.
EdTech: Clay Colarusso Of American Student Assistance On How Their Technology Will Make An… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.