A school as groundbreaking as University of the People deserves an equally groundbreaking store. We've already established Scholarshop as a world leader in sustainability, student empowerment, and philanthropy — and we haven't even opened yet.
The UoPeople Scholarshop is the student-founded and student-run authorized (well, not yet - we're waiting for UoPeople to approve) virtual retailer for all Official University of the People merchandise and swag, offering a robust selection of apparel, home and lifestyle accessories, and school and office supplies to customers all over the world. The best part: as UoPeople’s newest corporate partner, we pledge to donate our net proceeds to help support the Education Revolution.
And we're not stopping there... Scholarshop is scalable, and we'll grow to support educators of all kinds to help them raise money to further their missions. We're in this together, to make the world a better place through quality education. We're here to give visibility to under-resourced educators; to foster school pride among students, alumni, faculty, and staff; and to turn proceeds into donations—at zero cost to the educators.
And here's why the world needs Scholarshop:
There are 1 billion 40 thousand illiterate adults in the world today.
Read that number again, and really think about it this time.
One billion 40 thousand adult human beings cannot read or write.
I nearly fell out of my chair when I heard that this past summer. In fact, I didn’t believe the person that told me, so I pulled my phone out to verify this ridiculous claim and found this article, which cited a staggering 87% global literacy rate among adults ages 15 and over (original data sourced from Our World in Data and the World Bank). 13% of the human population alive today. In a population that reached 8 billion just last week, that means 1,000,040,000 of us lack the practical skills required to understand words and numbers to effectively discuss ideas, solve problems, and function within our global community.
There are more illiterate adults in the world than left-handed adults (~13% compared to ~10%). I know exactly 0 illiterate adults, so as a lefty myself, this puts it into personal perspective.
I’m actually ashamed I didn’t know the literacy rate until so recently. I’m certainly no stranger to education activism, either. I created curricula that have been taught for nearly 17 years at the Shanti Bhavan school in Baliganapalli, India, a full-time residential school for children born into their lowest socioeconomic class. I’ve also helped to create and permanently implement a fine arts program at Shanti Bhavan, along with a two-week summer arts intensive called the Shanti Bhavan Children’s Project. I’ve led efforts in a partnership with Arts India toward the creation and debut of The Maya Musical in India, which empowers children both on and offstage to discover their voices and true potential.
I have served on the Board of Directors of the Kristin Chenoweth Arts and Education Fund, a nonprofit for which I created an educational program called “Places! The Kristin Chenoweth Tour Experience.” “Places!” made its debut on stage at the Hollywood Bowl and was honored by The Recording Academy and the United States Government the evening Kristin Chenoweth accepted the GRAMMY® On the Hill® Award for Philanthropy on behalf of the nonprofit in 2019.
How in the world was I unaware that over a billion adults are illiterate in the world?
This past January as I was preparing for an interview on education reform in New York City, I stumbled upon a website for University of the People, a nonprofit, accredited American online university that claimed to offer tuition-free education to anybody with a high school diploma and an internet connection. I recalled seeing something about this before featuring Olympic goddess and UoPeople alum Simone Biles, sometime closer to the 2020 Olympics, and the website instantly piqued my interest again.
“This is nuts, there has to be a catch.” I had just done some research on the $13.7 billion higher education industry and I knew college simply had to cost money and there was no way tuition-free degrees from an accredited university could possibly exist.
Eager to prove myself right, I clicked “Apply Now,” entered my name, email, and education, ticked the box for “Master of Business Administration” (why not?). When I clicked “Next,” I was greeted with a friendly little pop-up congratulating me on my enrollment and leaving me with the words, "Class starts in three weeks - see you then!"
Once I picked myself up from the floor again, I thought, “Well, what the heck. I’m in.” After all, this experience will only further inform my educational activism, learning alongside students from all over the world from different cultures and socioeconomic backgrounds will be an adventure, and, assuming it’s not a complete waste of time, I’ll earn an MBA. Tuition-free.
Well, my enthusiasm for the formal student experience was right where I left it 15 years ago. I devoured the material in both of my classes, (Organizational Theory & Behavior and Marketing), both of my professors happened to be teaching from India (very cool, I have history there), and my peers in class represented a smorgasbord of nationalities and perspectives that provided just as much enlightenment as the lessons themselves. I have a lot to say about the education experience at UoPeople, but I need to save some material for future blog posts... For now, I’ll say this:
I have never been so aware of the privilege I was born into until I began learning alongside my peers at UoPeople. The university's self-proclaimed “mission-critical Education Revolution” works, and it works very well. They have officially changed the game with this model of tuition-free education, and never before has it been more of a possibility to grant all people of the world their fundamental human right to free, quality education than this very moment. I'm in, whatever it takes, let's do it.
The day my first-term grades were finalized, I decided that I deserved a trophy of sorts to celebrate my achievements (all A’s, thank you very much). I wanted an Official University of the People t-shirt. It would become my “focus shirt” when I needed a token of encouragement to get me through writing a difficult paper; it would be an ice breaker to tell strangers in passing about the Education Revolution; I could see myself as an ambassador of sorts for the school by posting on social media in my shirt… The more I thought about it, the more I just had to get my hands on a UoPeople t-shirt.
I logged onto the UoPeople website and searched for that store I was dreaming of.
(What color shirt was I going to get? Probably a black option, I like black.)
…Nothing.
I logged into the student portal, thinking, “Oh, it’s a more exclusive, students-only store, probably just need my student id to have access to it.”
(I’m definitely getting a bumper sticker while I’m at it, maybe a keychain too – I’ll go “all in” on the school experience.)
…Nothing.
I opened Google and searched “Official University of the People merchandise.”
(Surely they wouldn’t miss out on all the revenue generated from school store sales; I’ve never heard of a nonprofit this massive that didn’t have these measures in place.)
…Nothing except a few bootleg operations illegally poaching college assets and sticking them onto shirts. I will not support that.
Again, I had to pick myself up off the floor. I couldn’t believe it. I even repeated my search process to make sure I didn’t miss something. There is nothing.
I emailed my advisor who called me a couple days later to say they simply didn’t have the resources to set up and maintain a school store. I actually laughed when he said that, not because it was funny, but because I knew at that very moment why I was called to enroll in their MBA program. This is what I do. In my industry, no one does this better than me. I'm in a situation where I can make a difference by creating an initiative or program to benefit a cause I believe in, and there’s a huge perk if I can make it a source of significant revenue for them? (Did you read the part about the GRAMMY® from earlier?).
I told my advisor, “Hi, I’m Joseph. Your resource. I’ll have it ready in a couple months.”
Since then, I’ve thought of nothing but Scholarshop, building this business brick-by-brick (virtually, of course – a brick-and-mortar location would go against our “world’s first” sustainability practices). I have constructed a business plan to provide University of the People with an online store worthy of its revolutionary model of tuition-free education, and the best part is this: it will cost them 0 resources, financial or otherwise, and 100% of net proceeds will be collected and donated quarterly to support UoPeople’s mission of providing accessible higher education to any qualified student in the world with an internet connection. And I’ll run it, too! "Student-founded and Student-operated" sounds better anyway. This is my gift of thanks for providing me with the opportunity to receive an MBA, tuition-free, from the comfort of my own home.
I've even built Scholarshop to be scalable so one day when Scholarshop is ready, we can grow to benefit educators of all ages in our shared missions to promote education for all.
All I need is for UoPeople to give me the thumbs up to use their name and images to make this a reality. I've got the rest, and will make them proud every step of the way. So that’s why I’ve built this website and blog, to show them their vision is paying off: the business tools they provide to the students enrolled in their classes are being put to good use, to help change the world, aligned with their mission.
There's so much more, but I have an Ethics paper to write.
More Soon,
Joseph
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