I sat down before my meeting with Jasmitha and Joanna debating on dying my hair darker and giving myself bangs like a chaotic teenager. Yet, when I clicked ‘start meeting for all’ on Zoom and Jasmitha, 15, and then Joanna’s, 16, faces popped up on my screen my brain rolled not into interviewer mode, but into a mindset of nostalgia. We live in an age where youth is both glorified and yet ignored. No matter how brilliant your ideas are, if your age ends with ‘teen’ then oftentimes you’ll be asked to step aside for someone older and supposedly wiser to take charge.

Thankfully, this wasn’t the case with Joanna and Jasmitha. Despite the fact that both of them are young, they’ve succeeded in finding people to listen to the talent behind their voices. Based in the state of New York, the two met through an online community based around the Youth Entrepreneurship competition created by the Dignity of Children. It was here that the entrepreneur mindset took over both of them and they created the idea of PhoenixEd. This idea would propel the two of them to not only win a grant through the Dignity of Children to fund their idea but would also connect them with Entrepreneurs of Tomorrow (EOT). Through this connection they would hone in on their business idea, further developing the educational website, PhoenixEd, to help the students of today.

The participants of the EOT Gala (November 2022). In order, from the left: Joanna, Jasmitha, Haiyli, *Daniel Calderon* (President of EOT), and *Emmanuel*.

Explaining the foundation behind their idea, Joanna said, “With many students, including us, struggling academically, we were inspired to start PhoenixEd, a platform designed to connect students with the right resources they need to unlock their full potential.” As the pandemic impacted students' grades, along with mental health all over the country and the world, no one would be able to correct these problems quite as well as the students that experienced them. As Jasmitha explained, the easiest way to imagine this platform is as a cross between Bumble and Khan Academy. However, instead of finding the right person for you to date, the algorithm will help you find the perfect tutor for you. PhoenixED will feature four different study options that include professional tutors, a study mode that creates a calmer atmosphere for homework, group tutoring, and peer-to-peer tutoring, which will be the primary focus of the site.

Over time, both hope to incorporate other features within the platform. Mental health is a major example. Currently, the focus rests on fully developing the website as it’s only in the seedling stage right now. With the two grants they have won from both the Dignity of Children and EOT they are planning to work with experienced web developers. At the moment the subscription-based business is only in a prototype form. In the future, the goal is to create a yearly subscription fee for schools to pay so that there is access for everyone no matter their financial background.

Within the next year, we can start looking forward to seeing Joanna and Jasmitha working towards growing an online community of students and educators to help increase excitement about the debut of their platform.

Both plan to continue working with EOT, going to school, and applying for college in the coming years–all while continuing to grow their startup. Now, do you see what I mean about nostalgia over wasted youth? What were we doing when we were their age, spreading rumors about our peers or helping them study?

If you want to reach out, their emails are below and they are more than happy to hear from you!

Jasmitha: jasmithakeesara@gmail.com

Joanna: joannazhu06@gmail.com

A peek into the future of online education

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