Michael Beeler

2015 - 2016

Alumni

Legatum Fellow

From:

Canada

Sector:

Education

Location:

Kenya

Degree:

PhD, Operations Research Center

RARE delivers secondary education and vocational training to underserved populations in East Africa through a network of affordable personalized learning centers. The centers use creative commons digital content and tablets to offer students flexible learning programs that accommodate their schedules. By substituting individual study for class-based lectures, the model makes secondary schooling accessible for part-time students, and for communities with populations that are too small to support traditional high schools.

While volunteering in rural Kenya over the summers of 2008-2010, Michael met many youth who could not afford high school fees, and many others who, though enrolled in high school, received disappointing exam results. With an eye towards financially sustainable and scalable solutions, he designed an education model that serves students from families earning under $4 per day.

Michael is developing artificial intelligence applications for large-scale learning platforms and education software as part of his doctoral thesis. Parallel to his studies, Michael founded and led Students for International Development, a Canadian volunteer organization that has organized over 150 summer internships and $250,000 CAD for service projects in Kenya, Peru, and Tanzania.

Michael holds a Bachelor’s in Peace and Conflict Studies and a Master’s in Industrial Engineering from the University of Toronto. Michael is a doctoral candidate at MIT’s Operations Research Center.