2883: AI in the Great Outdoors: Best Parents' Tech Approach to Summer Learning

[00:00:00] Is there a secret formula for setting teenagers on the path to academic and personal success?

[00:00:08] Well in today's episode I want to dive into a conversation with the visionary co-founder

[00:00:13] of a company called Best Parents, which is an innovative education technology platform that's

[00:00:20] revolutionising the way that parents can discover educational opportunities for their teenagers.

[00:00:26] And Best Parents is not just about finding the nearest summer camp, it's about unlocking the

[00:00:32] full potential of our future leaders through inspiring programs in camps across 68 countries.

[00:00:40] And these opportunities are meticulously designed to give teenagers the edge that they need

[00:00:45] for admission into prestigious universities from Harvard and Yale in the US to

[00:00:50] Oxford over here in the UK, all with the aim to prepare them for a future career,

[00:00:57] whether that be in medicine, business, tech or any field that they're passionate about.

[00:01:02] And this is the beauty of what they do at Best Parents, it's not about parents saying

[00:01:07] I want you to be a doctor, it is about allowing them to find out what are they

[00:01:12] interested about, what are they passionate about and then allowing them to unlock that

[00:01:17] passion and turn it into a career. So today we're going to learn all about that,

[00:01:21] the role of technology and discuss how Best Parents is leveraging AI to empower both parents and

[00:01:28] their teenagers alike with the freedom and flexibility to passionately follow their own

[00:01:34] unique paths. That's got to be so much better than a one-size-fits-all approach

[00:01:40] to education hasn't it? So buckle up and hold on tight as I beam your ears all the way

[00:01:46] to the US where today's guest is waiting to join me. So a massive warm welcome to the show,

[00:01:53] can you just tell the listeners a little about who you are and what you do?

[00:01:57] Aditya Advani Sure, my name is Aditya Advani and I'm a seasoned technology

[00:02:01] executive and AI engineer in San Francisco. I've had 15 years of experience mostly as

[00:02:07] like a technology executive also as a lead engineer. As the lead engineer at two Y

[00:02:12] Combinator startups and I've been the lead engineer at like one Unicorn as well.

[00:02:16] Experience is my current startup and it's my first foray as a business owner.

[00:02:20] Rupert Spira And I absolutely love what you're doing here. Before we started recording the

[00:02:25] podcast, we were talking about the technical skills gap and the amount of opportunities there

[00:02:30] and this is one of the things that put you on my radar because Best Parents has become a

[00:02:35] crucial platform for parents seeking educational camps and programs around the world. So

[00:02:40] can you share the journey and the story behind all this that led to Best Parents becoming this

[00:02:46] go-to resource for educational opportunities in something like 68 countries, is that right?

[00:02:51] Aditya Advani Yeah, definitely. The number of

[00:02:53] count of countries exact count it just keeps climbing. The international young learners world

[00:02:58] is very interesting. They also have 50 plus countries, 60 plus countries, 70 plus countries,

[00:03:04] 125 plus countries. And I think like Best Parents will be reaching those heights like

[00:03:08] every few months we look at it and we're like, wow, you know, students from like 10 more countries

[00:03:12] or whatever. So it's really fun to see everybody coming all over the world.

[00:03:16] The genesis of Best Parents actually is like during the pandemic.

[00:03:20] So it's actually like when everything went online that Birchin and I sat down together.

[00:03:25] She's the founder and I'm the co-founder of Best Parents and realized like how important

[00:03:30] in person experiences, travel, personal development and exploration really are.

[00:03:37] We studied like the landscape of online education. We realized that online education is fabulous.

[00:03:42] AI tutors will get you very far. But at the end of the day, if you really want to learn something,

[00:03:47] doing it immersive, whether it's in person or through some sort of structured digital

[00:03:52] experience is really the best way to go. Like it's a very vital and critical part of

[00:03:57] education that's, you know, we feel undervalued generally. So a classic example would be

[00:04:04] language immersion. No matter how much you learn on Duolingo, at the end of the day,

[00:04:09] most people don't actually learn to speak or read another language until they actually

[00:04:15] immerse themselves completely for two to four weeks in that environment. That's just how it is.

[00:04:21] And we actually believe that's true of all kinds of learning.

[00:04:25] And so another component to this is actually, you know, today's parents,

[00:04:29] supervised their children very closely. And in the pandemic, they became even more close than ever.

[00:04:35] And this is partially because of like the actual nature of today's technology itself.

[00:04:40] And so we thought it's really, really important for both the parents and the children

[00:04:44] to have these safe spaces where the parents know that the children will be safe,

[00:04:49] but the children get the chance to actually be independent and explore subjects and topics

[00:04:56] without their parents nearby. And that way they can really, you know, become more independent

[00:05:02] and discover themselves and become more aligned with their educational outcomes.

[00:05:06] Because another thing that we discovered is that the minute you motivate a child by showing them

[00:05:12] themselves like what they can be in the future, they instantly transform. So all the time at

[00:05:17] Best Parents, we see C students who become A students because they actually connect with

[00:05:22] a subject that's close to their heart, or they visit a university, or they meet a person who

[00:05:28] really inspires them. And once they realize like, oh, I can be like that, or I would like

[00:05:33] to be there, or this is something I can see myself doing 10 years from now, the entire

[00:05:37] outlook and motivation changes completely. And the main thing you need in today's world honestly

[00:05:42] is motivation. 100% with you. And with that belief that these educational opportunities

[00:05:49] can provide a competitive edge for university admissions, including prestigious institutions,

[00:05:54] I might add, such as Harvard to Oxford here in the UK. How do you at Best Parents ensure that

[00:06:01] these programs align with some of those expectations and some of those requirements

[00:06:06] of the top universities around the world? Well, the top universities around the world,

[00:06:11] they, you know, as the number of students has with more and more international students

[00:06:16] entering the situation, like 10 years ago, there weren't 10s of millions of students from Asia,

[00:06:22] who were in Africa, who were aiming at the same Western universities in the numbers that they are

[00:06:26] today. Right? So universities now more than ever have more than enough qualified students

[00:06:32] and are dealing with like, how do we choose amongst students who all have excellent grades,

[00:06:37] right? Or largely have excellent grades. And so they've gone beyond that. And they've started

[00:06:42] to look to like, what really makes the difference there? And what really makes the

[00:06:46] difference is universities are looking for students who are very prepared, who know how

[00:06:51] to be students. So something that's very important to them is that these students

[00:06:56] have already connected with the subject that they really want to explore for the next few

[00:07:02] years. Because the universities know that what makes the difference between like a very good

[00:07:05] student and a great student is the passion. Like, are they actually connected to this subject?

[00:07:10] Do they know people in this subject? And even beyond that, universities are looking for students

[00:07:16] who already have the meta skill of exploration. So you know, in school, you go to school,

[00:07:21] you pick a subject, there's exams and everything is like set up. Right? But in real life,

[00:07:27] especially with the technological change we're all now experiencing, every two to five to

[00:07:31] 10 years, we all have to completely retrain ourselves. And that's the very arduous process.

[00:07:36] Universities are looking for students who already know how to explore the world in a structured

[00:07:42] way. Like I tried this, I spent two years doing it, six months doing it. I realized it's not

[00:07:46] for me. I decided to try this instead. And I did everything in a structured, managed and

[00:07:51] balanced way, taking the best of what I've learned and taking it to the next part if

[00:07:55] it can be transported, or just taking that experience and incorporating it into my worldview

[00:08:00] of myself. So universities are really looking for those two things, connecting with the

[00:08:04] subject and being able to explore. And so what Best Parents offers is exactly experience in that

[00:08:11] very precious extra element that's not offered in school.

[00:08:14] And the evolution of CalBS from purely recreational to educational and

[00:08:20] and enrichment focused is, is so significant, I think, especially in this technological age.

[00:08:26] So how does Best Parents curate and vet these programs to guarantee that they

[00:08:31] meet the high standards of quality and enrichment for teenagers? Because as you said at the very

[00:08:35] beginning of our conversation, it's all about getting kids interested in something and unlocking

[00:08:40] something that they're passionate about and directing that passion towards the topic.

[00:08:46] But how do you do this?

[00:08:48] This is a fascinating and appropriate question. So Gurchin was the founder of the startup.

[00:08:52] She's been in international education for 15 years. And we have several members of our team

[00:08:57] who have a decade or so or more individual of experience in this field.

[00:09:02] If you go to our website now and you go to like a landing page, like let's say medicine camps

[00:09:07] or any subject based camp like that, and you scroll through the listings, you'll see that

[00:09:11] under each listing, we actually put a little summary about the provider. And if you go

[00:09:16] through the summaries, the answer to your question will hopefully, I hope you should try

[00:09:20] it become quite obvious because all of our providers have typically more than 25 years

[00:09:26] of experience. All of them have welcomed thousands of students from all over the

[00:09:31] world and have really high satisfaction rating. And almost all of them are accredited by

[00:09:37] really reputable organizations like the British Council, Swiss Learning,

[00:09:41] ACA and other university related organizations in their respective countries. So we offer camps in

[00:09:48] the USA, UK and Europe and Australia right now, as well as a few other countries like

[00:09:53] Costa Rica, but those are experiences taken abroad from within the other countries.

[00:09:58] So all of these are accredited by the top education associations within those countries.

[00:10:03] And all of them like the oldest one has 140 years of experience, for example,

[00:10:09] in the Swiss apps. So these are institutions where you can really trust that the outcome

[00:10:14] for every student will be excellent. And that's what we want best parents to be. We want best

[00:10:19] parents to be a place where parents can find the most trustworthy suppliers. And that's the whole

[00:10:25] point, that parents can just say like, go teenager, find something on this website and

[00:10:29] whatever you find there, we acknowledge that it's probably a great choice.

[00:10:34] Mason O'Brien I love that. I love the way that the kids

[00:10:36] can almost direct their own future straight from their passion and then find that path

[00:10:41] because it is so overwhelming at that age. And what I would say one of the biggest improvements

[00:10:46] I've seen in my lifetime is the realization that there is no one size fits all to education

[00:10:52] and personalization is key to everything. So on that side of things, can you tell me more about

[00:10:58] how best parents you tailor camp experiences to suit those individual interests and developmental

[00:11:04] stages, ensuring that perfect match for every team once they're signed up?

[00:11:09] Yeah, so how best parents does this is through using a really great AI quiz. We have really

[00:11:16] powerful counselors and the counselors are often the ones that are using the AI tools on behalf

[00:11:21] of the students to help them. But it's true, in today's world, there's so many different options

[00:11:26] and it's very hard to discern among them. For instance, like the difference between,

[00:11:31] we both seem to be like in the business or adjacent space or in business like me,

[00:11:36] but the difference between let's say like accounting and entrepreneurship is actually so huge.

[00:11:41] But to kids and their families who may not be familiar with these domains,

[00:11:44] they can sound like the same like, oh, I just want to study business. But actually,

[00:11:48] in reality, the world is very complicated and there's so many different specializations.

[00:11:53] In health sciences, you have genetics, molecular biology, computational biology,

[00:11:58] veterinary science, being an actual physician, being a researcher, there's just such a wide

[00:12:04] range. Kids are just kind of like, oh, I like biology or oh, I want to be a doctor. But the

[00:12:08] truth is, the closer they get to the subdomain that they love within all those choices,

[00:12:13] the happier and more motivated they are likely to be about their choices going forward.

[00:12:17] And so we have a really powerful AI-powered recommendation engine that you can try yourself

[00:12:22] as well. It works really well or just book an appointment with our experienced counselors

[00:12:27] and they will use that recommendation engine in order to find the best matches for each

[00:12:32] child. And then in terms of personalization, the majority of our academic offerings offer

[00:12:38] three things that are all incredibly important and very different from your regular school

[00:12:42] education in most places. And what are those three things? Those three things are a

[00:12:47] individualized feedback. So your teenager will go away from home, participate in a small group

[00:12:56] with tutors who are usually university graduates or sometimes even university professors from

[00:13:01] famous universities or exceptional in sports or whatever activity the student is following.

[00:13:07] And they will get individualized feedback on their actual performance. They will also get

[00:13:13] small group tutoring. And the third thing that's really, really important is the actual

[00:13:18] two to four-week curriculum of the course will be personalized with a capstone project

[00:13:23] that the student themselves pick. And that's actually one of the most fantastic and most

[00:13:28] interesting things about like best parents programs that's different even from like going

[00:13:32] to a regular university pre-college program. If you go to a regular university pre-college

[00:13:36] program, you pick university level classes and it's exactly what you know there's like 20 or

[00:13:40] 30 kids in the classroom sitting in the back of the class following the material.

[00:13:45] In the case of best parents courses, you can actually pick the exact subject or thing in your

[00:13:50] mind that interests you like your curiosity guides you. So for example, I just helped a kid,

[00:13:56] one of them taking an AI course but their interest is business. So they're taking an AI course where

[00:14:02] their personal project is how do we improve business management through AI? Or there's

[00:14:08] another one whose interest was actually cyber security and again I put them in an AI course

[00:14:13] but the capstone project they've created for themselves within that AI course is related to

[00:14:19] cyber security. And now along with the AI PhD, they're actually exploring like what does AI

[00:14:24] cyber security even mean? I know that you had a fascinating podcast on this topic yourself,

[00:14:29] like it's a huge huge topic in two weeks you can only pick like one thing. So now they're

[00:14:33] actually going to pick that one thing, study the fundamentals of AI and the student themselves

[00:14:37] along with the PhD researcher is going to come up with a smaller research project where they're

[00:14:41] going to pick one of those things. So that's a really remarkable way to study it. It just

[00:14:47] like lights fire like in people who are you know anyway curious and that's really what we

[00:14:53] give that makes the big difference. A, we help you find the right domain, the right expert through

[00:14:58] AI and then we help you create those plans and projects through AI. We actually have another AI

[00:15:04] tool website that's really cool which helps you write your personal statements or the short

[00:15:08] courses and that also guides you into better knowing how to ask these questions. So it's

[00:15:14] like you know a lot of students today want to do like a research project with a professor

[00:15:17] but they don't even know how to ask right or like I need to improve my swing at golf but

[00:15:23] there's so many things about my own golf game or what a perfect golf swing is that I don't know

[00:15:28] right. So how do I write about that and talk about that? Yeah I can help you with that too.

[00:15:33] And I think we should also highlight that we're in this time of digital convenience where it's

[00:15:38] completely paramount in almost everything that we do and search for and watch and how we

[00:15:43] entertain, shop and everything in between. So how does the Best Parents platform streamline

[00:15:49] the entire booking process and what additional support do you offer to parents of their teens

[00:15:54] before, during and after the camp because it's all about that entire journey isn't it especially

[00:16:00] when making such a big decision around your child's education and future.

[00:16:05] Yeah this is quite interesting so you know we are involved with a lot of academics

[00:16:09] ourselves on like the importance of this kind of education and as of yet it's an

[00:16:15] understudied topic it's not like early childhood education which is very well studied everybody

[00:16:20] knows now they didn't know this 15 years ago or 20 years ago but now they all know that

[00:16:24] you know interventions in early childhood yield these amazing results. So similarly there's a

[00:16:29] very strong intuition and some research in terms of you know extracurricular programs of the

[00:16:35] format that we've that we're promoting on Best Parents that they lead to these

[00:16:38] transformational outcomes but there's not as much academic research on this as we would like

[00:16:43] but there is a lot going on right now and we are immersed in the world of it.

[00:16:47] So one of the most interesting things is they did a study of like why summer camp actually helps

[00:16:52] children from disadvantaged backgrounds and one of the most interesting things that was shown

[00:16:57] is that actually it helps them remarkably much more if I'm quoting this correctly when they

[00:17:03] are then asked to recontextualize the experience a few weeks or months later after

[00:17:09] they've gone back to school. So not only does education give you a boost actually thinking about

[00:17:15] it later like how did it affect me am I applying the skills now what do I want to do next

[00:17:20] this gives you another level of boost so one of the big things about Best Parents is we're

[00:17:25] not helping your child find one camp we're helping them create a curriculum over the years

[00:17:32] that takes them on a journey from where they are today to where they want to go and actually

[00:17:38] in the future we're building AI tools so that the kids themselves can start to explore all of this

[00:17:44] and when they finally come up with a plan or a few plans they can take it to their counselors

[00:17:48] and their parents and ask them for their feedback and we're trying to create a whole

[00:17:52] AI system around that kind of exploration right because the kid should be able to come

[00:17:56] in and be like oh I really want to become a famous piano player or oh I want to be

[00:18:00] more like Elon Musk or whatever it is and the you know AI system and then the humans who review

[00:18:06] it later should be able to help the kid come up with a personalized plan like oh did you know

[00:18:11] that Elon Musk was a graduate of physics from a great university like how are your math skills

[00:18:15] how are your physics skills do you have the language competency to actually participate in

[00:18:20] those or have you already won a bunch of prizes and maybe it's a better idea for you

[00:18:25] to go outdoors and reflect and that's the whole point is that you know we we are helping

[00:18:31] people do that when it comes to actually booking each camp I don't know if you have kids in

[00:18:36] asked at the beginning do you by any chance I do he's all grown up now he's 23 okay I see

[00:18:42] well you probably had this experience before but booking a short course outside of school

[00:18:48] for a kid or even enrolling them in a school I don't know if you've had that experience

[00:18:53] it's actually pretty arduous like you have to write down all this information about them you

[00:18:57] have to produce their passport you have to produce their vaccine cards in the case of

[00:19:01] dads you have to remember their birthdays right like it's actually like more more than you think

[00:19:07] so the great news about best parents is a our form is much simpler like we have a common

[00:19:12] application for almost all the programs on our website and the second thing is once you've

[00:19:16] filled it out you do not need to fill out again unless there's been a gap of more than

[00:19:21] two or three years and so as a result if you are in the business of exploring like this

[00:19:27] is not the only extracurricular experience you're going to participate in booking through best

[00:19:32] brands is extremely hassle-free versus trying to do it yourself and this is before the you know

[00:19:38] unending faq of answers that we answered that our ai answers better than the others like

[00:19:43] is the first day the arrival date do I need a visa you know do I need this kind of vaccination

[00:19:49] what kind of letter do I need to write we handle all of those details by reminding you

[00:19:54] and very often just doing them for you instead of like please produce a letter right and so

[00:20:00] that and that convenience saw delivered largely through software and of course at any time if

[00:20:05] you have any confusion you can just book an appointment with us and just speak to our experience

[00:20:09] devices so the whole process is through the one time and then if you have multiple children

[00:20:14] going multiple times it's just an incomparable difference many of our most loyal customers

[00:20:19] are parents who have our working parents who are executives who have you know two three four

[00:20:24] children and trying to manage all their travel through one lease and a question I've got to ask

[00:20:30] especially given the global reach of best parents and the diversity of programs offered

[00:20:36] how does the platform address some of the challenges around cultural differences and

[00:20:40] language barriers in creating that seamless and inclusive experience for everybody because I would

[00:20:46] imagine there were a few challenges there initially or have you overcome that now yes so

[00:20:53] so actually that's why the placement and the choice of supplier is you know part science but

[00:20:59] really an art and we are really great artists to be honest at at it right now so so one of

[00:21:05] the things that we do is like I said we construct that journey so at the top end of

[00:21:09] our catalog you know we have premier league coaches teaching kids how to play football

[00:21:14] or we have you know actual Cambridge professors like heads of departments

[00:21:18] you know prize winners mentoring students in small groups on very advanced topics

[00:21:22] but not every student is actually ready to be in that situation now right part of that is

[00:21:29] cultural differences part of that is language part of that is academics and so one of the

[00:21:33] things we do very well is we tell students like yes your goal is to be in this highly

[00:21:37] selective elite program but based on your background of what we know there's another

[00:21:42] program which is also excellent often at the same institution so like you can still visit

[00:21:48] Cambridge or you can still play football in a premier league stadium but that's actually

[00:21:52] targeted more for students like you who need to develop skill a skill b skill c where you know

[00:21:58] it's language or culture whatever it is and as a consequence we put kids on this pathway to

[00:22:04] success and they're much more able to so so when you go to the program yourself you're

[00:22:08] not going to have this meta conversation of is this the right program for me today

[00:22:13] right and we are the experts in that meta conversation and that conversation the follow-up

[00:22:17] really make like our outcomes much better than when going directly to the program which

[00:22:23] farther on the internet and I think another area that will unify parents listening all around

[00:22:29] the world is those priorities and concerns around safety and security so are you able

[00:22:35] to share any measures and practices that best parents have employees to

[00:22:40] ensure that safe and nurturing environment for teenagers in these programs yes so again one

[00:22:45] of the main things that we do is we vet all our suppliers really well and we study their

[00:22:50] outcomes and we interview each family our agents are also always available 24 by 7 during

[00:22:58] the camp to monitor the travel arrangements so all our suppliers will actually pick up the

[00:23:04] student from the airport directly and drop them off at the end so if they're traveling alone

[00:23:09] there's no period during which they'll be like unsupervised by the actual supplier

[00:23:14] another thing is you know all our suppliers have excellent policies about monitoring

[00:23:19] boys and girls are separated the facilities are always you know very well regulated so

[00:23:26] so you know the majority of them I would say are actually college dormitories so there's a

[00:23:30] very organized system of like you know boys on one level residents advisor shared bathrooms yes but

[00:23:36] at all times they have really taken security and monitoring and observability into account

[00:23:43] but at the same time they're very powerful and good institutions so there is a large

[00:23:47] amount of independence as well so for example if we're talking about Cambridge which honestly

[00:23:51] is one of my favorite destinations for teenagers because it's bucolic and during the day the

[00:23:57] kids can go to the town to the river by themselves but then come a few time evening time they are

[00:24:04] being supervised by adults so it's a really great balance of giving kids independence away

[00:24:10] from home in a safe environment like trustworthy environment so that's really how we it all comes

[00:24:17] down to like who are the suppliers and this is really something that even google you can't

[00:24:21] really trust the reviews right because because the ones who are not taking such good care of

[00:24:26] children will find a way to elevate those right so that's why you really need the experience

[00:24:34] of a human team who was following a rigorous system that uses both human evaluation and

[00:24:40] software evaluation to continuously monitor these institutions to understand what's happening

[00:24:48] because another thing that is happening is it's strange to describe but more and more these

[00:24:53] institutions are being sold to different groups especially after the pandemic and the standards

[00:24:59] are changing so institutions that used to be excellent now are a brand that is being

[00:25:05] you know used by someone else and so they're still good but are they good enough to really

[00:25:11] accommodate students from hundreds of countries in our case where the people we are that jury

[00:25:16] we are studying their progress we are evaluating everything as it's going on and we will keep our

[00:25:23] site up to date and we've made many changes because of issues like you know what i just

[00:25:28] mentioned and fortunately we actually never had any incidents at best parents themselves we've

[00:25:33] got everything preemptively but it's because we take so much trouble about the safety and

[00:25:37] security as we look into the future where do you go from here how do you at best parents

[00:25:43] and to maybe evolve and expand your offerings to continue meeting the changing needs for

[00:25:48] teenagers and families especially in the context of education and personal development

[00:25:53] anything you can share on what that future might look like for you yeah and you know how

[00:25:58] we think we're a technology start a technology platform more and more in the future education

[00:26:05] is becoming decentralized so people are learning from apps they're learning at home they're

[00:26:10] learning on their own schedule so in america we have these two big trends homeschooling and

[00:26:16] charter schools and both of them are going through the roof and everywhere you go you see this trend

[00:26:22] right in some places like in asia international schools are still developing so the central

[00:26:27] school is still very important in other places where schools are very developed schools are

[00:26:32] decentralizing and becoming like smaller pods parents are ganging up in groups and creating

[00:26:36] their own schools basically so the more and more that happens the more and more kids start to learn

[00:26:42] online and in in their different spaces the more and more they actually need to come together

[00:26:48] in person with the same cohort over the years and when i say come together it doesn't

[00:26:54] necessarily have to be in person but i mean engaging with other humans in a structured

[00:26:58] program repeatedly so as to get to know them and evolve with them right and that's really

[00:27:04] where best parents comes in in that as as the whole education system shifts more and more towards

[00:27:09] that best parents is the piece of it that will be guiding a like personal transformation of each

[00:27:15] student but be also managing a large part of their in-person activities outside of school

[00:27:22] absolutely love that a question i've got to ask before i'll let you go with someone

[00:27:26] that is helping parents and their teenagers to continuously learn and follow their own path

[00:27:33] i think for a lot of people listening a lot of parents listening all around the world that

[00:27:37] struggle personal struggle to keep up to speed with the pace of technological change is very

[00:27:42] real so i've got it on the flip side of everything we're talking about here today

[00:27:46] how do you self-educate how do you continuously learn to keep up to speed with everything

[00:27:51] yeah it's it's it's quite difficult i will say there's a there's a mix in terms of

[00:27:56] personal learning i find that ai tutoring is excellent whether you're using chat gpt to do

[00:28:02] it or whether you're using you know different subject-based tutors they're really good because

[00:28:07] they go at your own pace and you can ask whatever questions you want and now more and

[00:28:11] more tools are coming out where if you see a complicated article or a complicated video you

[00:28:15] can put it into the tutor and the tutor will break it up right but at this time humans are

[00:28:21] still by a mile the best teacher like the most inspired so definitely don't forget that in

[00:28:28] order to truly be inspired you need to connect with actual humans and actually also engage

[00:28:33] with the actual education content produced by humans because they are just amazing at it but

[00:28:40] if you need more time to absorb it then ai is a really good friend like it will actually do

[00:28:46] the road work of teaching it so that's that's really my my first point and my second point

[00:28:52] we get a lot of requests from adults right so this is not something we address at best parents

[00:28:58] right now but i think what we're offering to teenagers there's something fundamentally very

[00:29:03] true about it where if you take a two-week retreat that's based on a subject that you

[00:29:08] love and you're connecting with experts and other like-minded individuals you are likely

[00:29:12] to have a transformation in terms of like just that subject and personal development

[00:29:19] and i definitely encourage more and more for all adults myself included to look for those kind of

[00:29:25] opportunities in their own lives because i see them with teenagers they really work

[00:29:30] and i have a strong conviction that they're going to work for adults as well

[00:29:33] i completely agree with you i think there are so many people around the world that are

[00:29:37] looking to pivot into a career in technology or a completely different industry

[00:29:42] and they just need that extra bit of help and i think these kind of camps will be

[00:29:45] absolutely perfect for that but i suspect that's a conversation for another day but

[00:29:50] anyone listening just wants to find out more information about anything we talked about

[00:29:54] today where's the best place for listeners to find your team online or or just more

[00:29:59] information about the topics we covered where would you like to point everyone

[00:30:03] i definitely although i am available on linkedin i definitely would point them directly to the

[00:30:08] best parents website if you fill out the contact form there or book an appointment our

[00:30:13] whole team has all eyes on all those messages we share all the knowledge in house so definitely

[00:30:18] that's the best way to keep in touch with us well i will get that added to the show notes

[00:30:22] so people can find you know i see is it i always say at the end of every episode

[00:30:26] technology works best when it brings people together and what i love about what you're

[00:30:30] doing here is how you're using technology to empower teenagers parents and families with the

[00:30:35] freedom and flexibility to passionately follow their own path and i think as a result of

[00:30:42] that when they passionately follow that path these educational camps and programs can equip

[00:30:46] children with that competitive edge that they need to get accepted in so many top universities

[00:30:51] from harvard and yale in the us to oxford and cambridge over here in the uk and there

[00:30:56] are so many other examples i could reel off all around the world but just thank you for

[00:31:00] sharing your story today yeah thank you so much for appreciating it and yeah it's exciting

[00:31:06] wow what an inspiring conversation i think it's clear to me that the landscape of

[00:31:11] educational camps and enrichment programs is rapidly evolving and i love their approach

[00:31:17] at best parents to using technology to not only simplify the search for the right opportunities

[00:31:22] but also ensure that teenagers are well equipped for that journey ahead whether that's aiming

[00:31:27] for a spot at a top university or exploring their passions in depth and the insights from

[00:31:34] that conversation also prompted me to reflect on the broader implications of such educational

[00:31:40] innovations how can we all collectively leverage technology to bridge the gap between passion

[00:31:46] and education and how do we ensure that all these opportunities are accessible to everyone

[00:31:53] ensuring that nobody gets left behind and foster a more equitable educational landscape

[00:32:00] but as we all know that is a pretty big topic something we can't cover in a 30 minute

[00:32:05] podcast episode so share your thoughts on the conversation as we explore how technology

[00:32:10] and education will continue to converge and hopefully shape a brighter future for our

[00:32:16] teenagers so let me know email me techblogwriteroutlook.com, twitter, linkedin,

[00:32:22] instagram just at neil c hughes let me know your thoughts and we'll keep this

[00:32:27] conversation going the dialogue doesn't have to end here so let me know your take on the

[00:32:32] evolution of educational opportunities for au but that's it for today so thank you

[00:32:38] for listening as always and until next time don't be a stranger