During my summer at Parlay Ideas, I had the opportunity to work on several enriching projects and campaigns, including a teacher feedback campaign, the launch of a new content library, a website redesign, and the launch of more accessible licensing options. In addition, I was able to take part in fundraising research and conversations on executive strategy. From a teacher relations standpoint, I built out a campaign to collect and showcase hundreds of teacher testimonials that demonstrate Parlay’s value in the classroom and reinforce through social proof the countless ways teachers use Parlay to enhance their students’ voices in the classroom. This culminated in a new webpage highlighting these teacher experiences. Another pivotal experience was working with users and the product team to launch more inclusive licensing options, such as the individual teacher license, and a plan to launch a completely free version of the tool. The projects and campaigns I worked on throughout the summer align strongly with Parlay’s mission of empowering student voices. I was able to build out the teacher tool by expanding the tool’s accessibility to teachers and schools, and raise awareness within these communities of the ways in which Parlay can help engage all students in the classroom, especially in the new era of remote learning.

During my time at SIPA, I took a strong interest in courses that highlighted entrepreneurship and leveraging technology for social good. In the Launch Your Startup course, I learned key strategic planning skills and gained significant knowledge about the early-stage startup space, as well as fundraising that proved indispensable during my internship and enabled me to contribute in an informed manner to higher level strategic conversations. In addition, I was able to leverage the skills and I’d learned in classes like Crowdsourced Storytelling to weave together teacher narratives in a way that appealed to the broader community. Finally, the Quantitative Methods class prepared me to be methodical and data-driven in analyzing the information and teacher feedback that I collected, and from which I extracted actionable insights.

The major challenge I faced during was the in flux social landscape due to COVID-19. My responsibilities were both altered and expanded as the education industry adapted to the pandemic, and it was challenging at times to prepare for the weeks or even days ahead as the circumstances continued to shift. Parlay, as many other educational technologies, reacted to K-12 schools moving online in the wake of COVID-19 by offering its tool completely free for the remainder of the academic year. However, this generous offering caused an exponential growth in users and at times, we were so overwhelmed with the influx of demand, even over the summer, that it was difficult to prioritize any other initiatives.

I am very grateful for my experience working at Parlay Ideas. It has invigorated my entrepreneurial aspirations and been a highly engaging and informative experience. It has been invaluable to work at a small-stage startup, especially at such a pivotal growth moment, and learn the day-to-day decisions they’re faced with. It has also been especially motivating to be part of a team at a socially-oriented startup that lives and breathes its mission of improving classroom conversations and empowering student voices. Hearing the numerous positive stories of students gaining confidence in expressing themselves and learning to navigate difficult conversations with each other because of Parlay was heartening. I am inspired to build an enterprise that positively impacts society in a similar way one day.