Kai Frazier considered the place she would sleep, not concerning the future, when she was unhoused in highschool. The idea of in the future main a metaverse platform that engages college students nationwide by means of digital actuality wasn’t even a consideration.
Frazier, a local of Chesapeake now dwelling in California, began her firm, Kai XR after instructing historical past in Manassas Park after which working in digital content material and technique on the Smithsonian’s Nationwide Museum of African American Historical past and Tradition and america Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Within the shift from instructing historical past to working with eyewitnesses to historical past, she interviewed a variety of individuals, from survivors of the genocide in Rwanda to actor and producer Samuel L. Jackson.
“It was a pleasure to stretch my diploma and to take a seat with tradition makers of the world and take heed to their tales,” stated Frazier, who in 2008 earned her historical past diploma from Virginia Commonwealth College’s Faculty of Humanities and Sciences. “I grew to become a historical past storyteller for digital consumption.”
She had the chance to interview certainly one of her heroes, the late Congressman John Lewis of Georgia, a number of instances. She had learn his autobiography, “Strolling with the Wind: A Memoir of the Motion,” in highschool.
“That was a full-circle second for me,” Frazier stated. “It was a dream to interview him.”
Excessive-value visits and low-cost alternatives
Throughout her years on the museums, Frazier started desirous about how digital or digital area journeys could possibly be distributed to varsities. As a instructor, she labored in faculties that lacked the cash and sources to take journeys, and because of this, her college students would fall behind.
She acknowledged that many colleges, particularly these in low-income areas or digital deserts, have the identical concern. A research by the U.S. Journey Affiliation discovered that kids who take college journeys are 95% extra more likely to graduate from highschool.
“College journeys dramatically change their outlook on life,” stated Frazier, whose mission is to bridge the expertise hole for underserved faculties.
Her resolution was to movie the museums in digital actuality and provide digital area journeys to extend entry for college students.
“With cell VR, college students can put a smartphone right into a cardboard VR headset. College students may use the telephones they’ve. It’s a low-cost or no-cost resolution for faculties,” Frazier stated.
However she needed to take the idea additional, and she or he based Kai XR, a studying platform that additionally introduces college students to in-demand applied sciences at an early age. It affords partaking classes that includes digital area journeys, metaverse makerspaces and extra, and the corporate works with faculties, STEAM packages and organizations corresponding to T-Cell. A lot of Kai XR’s shoppers are within the East and Southeast, notably in Georgia and Alabama.
Kai XR affords sources that may meet a faculty district’s tutorial requirements in addition to all kinds of matters that enable college students to be taught in an immersive means. By means of the platform, college students acquire a deeper understanding of their classes, leading to elevated classroom engagement.
“Kai XR improves digital literacy by introducing college students eighth-grade and youthful to metaverse applied sciences. This early introduction offers college students historically caught within the digital divide a head begin for the longer term,” Frazier stated.
One digital journey takes college students into the lab of biochemist Jennifer Doudna, co-winner of the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for her work on the CRISPR system of gene modifying.
“Many college students have by no means seen the within of a science lab,” Frazier stated. “We created this digital area journey to reveal college students to a brand new profession whereas empowering them to make a distinction on this planet of science.”
Usually, she’s going to go to school rooms that use Kai XR. On some visits, she’s going to co-teach a category.
“As a instructor, I’m very a lot focused on studying how one can help different lecturers,” Frazier stated. “I prefer to see how college students are responding to the product, in addition to find out about alternatives to enhance our choices.”
Changing into a part of the neighborhood at VCU
Frazier didn’t have aspirations to go to school till a household pal took her in whereas she was unhoused in highschool.
“They have been very sort to present me a shot,” she stated. “I credit score them for placing me on a path to keep away from being a sufferer of my circumstances.”
Frazier selected VCU due to its metropolis environment, and after struggling initially to make connections, she grew to become a resident adviser and expanded her community.
“I additionally went on to turn into president of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority,” she stated. “I loved with the ability to give again whereas working with numerous communities.”
Frazier settled on historical past as her main, which additionally guided her to a profession path that started within the classroom.
“I needed to show so I may assist out college students with tough or difficult backgrounds like myself,” Frazier stated, and her ongoing purpose is “to present college students the instruments they should know they’ll accomplish something in life.”
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