Dan Gonzalez’s Bio
Dan Gonzalez is the co-founder and CEO of District C, a non-profit working to reimagine the internship by forming diverse teams of high school students who work together on real-world business problems.
He studied engineering at Dartmouth College before becoming a high school physics teacher. After teaching, Dan joined Manhattan Prep, a global leader in test preparation. He became president of the company in 2011 shortly after it was acquired by Kaplan.
Over the next 4+ years, Dan led the company as its 185-member team achieved over 50% revenue growth and market leadership as the world’s largest GMAT test prep provider.
After Manhattan Prep, Dan joined Kaplan Test Prep’s leadership team where he oversaw an operations division that worked to deliver education services at scale.
Our guest for this episode of College & Career Readiness Radio is Dan Gonzalez from District C.
Dan starts with the need for students to come together to solve real world problems through District C’s Teamship process.
Dan says that students are motivated by solving real problems for real people that add value to organizations and the lives of others. This moves from individual compliance to adding value to the world.
He says that too many students graduate from high school without having solved “real,” “meaningful, or “urgent” problems.
Industry partners are eager to use District C to help solve problems because they often bring forward problems that they can’t solve internally, and students bring creativity and new thinking to problems that organizations are struggling to solve.
Don’t miss the story that Dan tells about a solution that students came up with that was totally unexpected by the business owner.
Dan says that they intentionally don’t allow students to pick their project because they want the purest outcomes from team-based problem solving skills that can be transferable to other projects.
Don’t miss what Dan says about helping students get better at the work. Just by being on a team doesn’t mean that their skills improve. Students need a coach.
Dan tells listeners that students need tools that they can use to facilitate their teamwork. He explains two tools–questioning and take-five–that any educator can use in WBL or classroom instruction.
Mitch Weather’s focus on durable skills, in particular executive functioning skill, came up on the show in terms of the skills-based movement versus knowledge acquisition.
Team internships follow a process that includes individual research and the strategy is very close to what a jigsaw does when it comes together well.
It’s important to understand the work of the coach in teamships. Dan explains how that has evolved, and how they train their coaches.
Dan ends with a sense of urgency around the need for work-based learning for all students in every school.
If you want to learn more about supporting internships and other work-based learning experiences, book a time to see a demo of the MaiaLearning.
If you want to talk to the host of the show about college and career readiness, book a time to meet.
