Kai Frazier thought of the place she would sleep, not concerning the future, when she was unhoused in highschool. The idea of sooner or later 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 residing 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,” mentioned Frazier, who in 2008 earned her historical past diploma from Virginia Commonwealth College’s School of Humanities and Sciences. “I turned 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 mentioned. “It was a dream to interview him.”
Excessive-value visits and low-cost alternatives
Throughout her years on the museums, Frazier started serious about how digital or digital discipline journeys could possibly be distributed to varsities. As a trainer, she labored in faculties that lacked the cash and sources to take journeys, and in consequence, her college students would fall behind.
She acknowledged that many faculties, particularly these in low-income areas or digital deserts, have the identical concern. A examine by the U.S. Journey Affiliation discovered that kids who take faculty journeys are 95% extra prone to graduate from highschool.
“College journeys dramatically change their outlook on life,” mentioned Frazier, whose mission is to bridge the expertise hole for underserved faculties.
Her answer was to movie the museums in digital actuality and provide digital discipline journeys to extend entry for college students.
“With cellular 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 answer for faculties,” Frazier mentioned.
However she needed to take the idea additional, and he or she based Kai XR, a studying platform that additionally introduces college students to in-demand applied sciences at an early age. It presents participating classes that includes digital discipline journeys, metaverse makerspaces and extra, and the corporate works with faculties, STEAM packages and organizations reminiscent of T-Cell. Lots of Kai XR’s purchasers are within the East and Southeast, notably in Georgia and Alabama.
Kai XR presents sources that may meet a college district’s tutorial requirements in addition to all kinds of matters that enable college students to study in an immersive means. Via the platform, college students achieve 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 mentioned.
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 enhancing.
“Many college students have by no means seen the within of a science lab,” Frazier mentioned. “We created this digital discipline journey to show college students to a brand new profession whereas empowering them to make a distinction on this planet of science.”
Typically, she is going to go to lecture rooms that use Kai XR. On some visits, she is going to co-teach a category.
“As a trainer, I’m very a lot curious about studying methods to assist different lecturers,” Frazier mentioned. “I wish to see how college students are responding to the product, in addition to find out about alternatives to enhance our choices.”
Turning into a part of the group at VCU
Frazier didn’t have aspirations to go to varsity till a household buddy took her in whereas she was unhoused in highschool.
“They had been very variety to present me a shot,” she mentioned. “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 ambiance, and after struggling initially to make connections, she turned a resident adviser and expanded her community.
“I additionally went on to develop into president of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority,” she mentioned. “I loved having 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 mentioned, and her ongoing purpose is “to present college students the instruments they should know they will accomplish something in life.”
Subscribe to VCU Information
Subscribe to VCU Information at publication.vcu.edu and obtain a number of tales, movies, photographs, information clips and occasion listings in your inbox.
