St. Thomas University (STU) and Genius Plaza have engaged in a novel education collaboration and will work together to provide students with enhanced learning experiences, summer programs, travel and internship opportunities.
As part of a new partnership, the two South Florida based organizations will be collaborating to:
- Enhance current STU study abroad offerings by incorporating a new service learning trips in select countries where Genius Plaza operates
- Promote in student exchange and international student summer programs
- Host joint workshops and seminars
- Create opportunities for faculty and staff across organizations
- Provide STU students with key internship opportunities within Genius Plaza, particularly in key high-growth areas such as education, EdTech, software engineering, and data management.
One aspect of the student exchange program will include STU students working with classes in Africa and Spain beginning early next year. Overseas, students will be able to showcase and apply their theoretical knowledge while learning practical skills from local professionals.
“At STU, our focus is providing our students with a high-quality opportunities for experiential learning, helping our students enhance their knowledge and develop key skills,” said Jeremy Moreland, provost and chief academic officer at St. Thomas University. “Through partnerships we are able to leverage the expertise of well-established and highly regarded organizations, like Genius Plaza, to provide our students with more opportunities and resources that will help them in their future careers.”
In addition, both STU and Genius Plaza have agreed to engage in joint research projects that will address key questions for Genius Plaza and will also allow doctoral students to address pedagogy-related research questions as part of their dissertations. Their findings will be added to Genius Plaza literature and resources.
“The St. Thomas University partnership is a perfect fit,” said Ana Roca Castro, CEO of Genius Plaza. “Together we will provide multiple educational, research and career pathways that will help STU students and post-graduates transition into employment in a competitive global economy on equal footing.”
Genius Plaza’s award-winning cloud-based educational platform provides culturally relevant and personalized learning content to communities around the world. Since its founding by Roca Castro in 2013, Genius Plaza has grown from 60 employees to its current 150 employees in the United States, and more than 200 employees worldwide.
STU is Genius Plaza’s first South Florida university partnership. Genius Plaza’s other educational partners include Harvard, Yale and Columbia University. The partnership between STU and Genius Plaza will kick-off this coming Spring 2020.
