Darden Alumnus Offers Insight on Why Silicon Valley Is Excited About EdTech
By Jay Hodgkins
UVA Today recently explored why tech giants like Facebook, Apple and Google are turning their attention to education, and turned to University of Virginia Darden School of Business alumnus Larry Lenhart (MBA ’90) as one of their key sources to discuss what Silicon Valley-style innovation can do for public education.
Lenhart is CEO of HotChalk, a software and services company partnering with nonprofit colleges and universities to deliver online education programs for lifelong learning. HotChalk uses data analytics to ensure high student graduation rates and outcomes through online graduate degrees. For example, the company recently partnered with New York University on a one-year master’s program allowing aspiring teachers to apprentice in urban schools nationwide while taking online classes with NYU faculty.
Lenhart stressed that entrepreneurs and investors need to be in it for the long haul, recognizing that immediate and widespread change is unlikely.
“This is not a business you get into just to make money,” Lenhart said. “You have to have a passion for education and learning, and take a long-term view of the change you want to see.”
Read the full story on UVA Today.
The University of Virginia Darden School of Business prepares responsible global leaders through unparalleled transformational learning experiences. Darden’s graduate degree programs (MBA, MSBA and Ph.D.) and Executive Education & Lifelong Learning programs offered by the Darden School Foundation set the stage for a lifetime of career advancement and impact. Darden’s top-ranked faculty, renowned for teaching excellence, inspires and shapes modern business leadership worldwide through research, thought leadership and business publishing. Darden has Grounds in Charlottesville, Virginia, and the Washington, D.C., area and a global community that includes 18,000 alumni in 90 countries. Darden was established in 1955 at the University of Virginia, a top public university founded by Thomas Jefferson in 1819 in Charlottesville, Virginia.
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