Education in XR: Innovative Approach to Tech Education - Juan Rodriguez

Juan Rodriguez is the Founder and Executive Director of Winners Circle XR Academy, Inc. He and his organization are dedicated to empowering students in marginalized communities by providing them access to state-of-the-art technology and comprehensive educational programs. In addition to his primary role, Juan serves as an Advisor at The Metropolitan Regional Career and Technical Center (The MET) in Providence, RI. In 2020, Juan's significant contributions to technology in the Ocean State earned him the prestigious Digit Tech10 Award from RI Monthly

Learn more about Winners' Circle XR Academy: https://www.winnerscirclexr.com/

Learn about the MINDBLASTXR - Hackathon happening April 15-19, 2024: https://www.mindblastxr.org/2024

Learn more about Upward Bound: https://www2.ed.gov/programs/trioupbound/index.html

Find you Local Upward Bound program: https://ope.ed.gov/programs/trio/UBUBMSMap/

Summary:

Have you ever wondered how a guy from marginalized communities takes a leap to become an award-winning founder and executive director of an innovative academy? Get ready to meet Juan Rodriguez, a friend of mine who’s journey is filled with perseverance, creativity, and the drive to uplift students from similar backgrounds. Juan’s story is a testament to not only his resilience but his dedication to use technology to give a voice to the voiceless.

Journey along with us as we chart Juan's course from his struggles as a first-generation college student to his transition into the world of video production. Hear him recount the challenges he faced and the creativity he nurtured in this new field. But that’s not where it ends, as we delve into his bold foray into the world of virtual reality. Glean insights from his trials as he developed a curriculum aimed to empower students to tell their stories through XR technology, particularly focusing on Black and Brown students, and young girls.

Lastly, we address the daunting task of integrating technology into classrooms and the role of grants, donations and sustainable partnerships in facilitating this change. Hear Juan's unique perspective on increasing diversity in IT departments and his call to action for us to play our part in building an inclusive future. This conversation is a feast of inspiration, determination and tech-savvy innovation, served to you by an extraordinary man on a mission to empower the marginalized. Don't wait around, come join the conversation with Juan Rodriguez!

Transcript

Raul Lopez: 0:04

This is Raul Lopez, and you're listening to. How Do you Save Success in Spanglish? The path to success isn't easy For minorities and people of color. Many attempt to journey with little to no guidance. Join me as I sit down with individuals who share their stories of perseverance so that together, we can learn how to save success in Spanglish. What's good, me Hinted, it's your boy, raul. Today we got my buddy, juan Rodriguez. How's it going, juan?

Juan Rodriguez: 0:37

Doing good. I'm doing good, man. What's going on, Raul?

Raul Lopez: 0:39

Good, I'm just hanging out. Man, I'm ready to talk to you. I'm glad you got a chance to be here today. I've known Juan for quite some time now, so I'm excited to share his story with everyone. Let's just kind of get back around to Juan. Juan Rodriguez is the founder and executive director of Winner Circles XR Academy. He and his organizations are dedicated to empowering students in marginalized communities by providing them access to state-of-the-art technology and comprehensive educational programs. In addition to his primary role, juan serves as an advisor at the Metropolitan Regional Career and Technical Center, the Met in Providence, rhode Island. In 2020, juan's significant contributions to technology in the Ocean State earned him the prestigious Digital Tech 10 Award from Rhode Island monthly. Welcome, juan.

Raul Lopez: 1:24

Sounds like you're having me. Yeah, man, it sounds like you do some amazing work helping the kids out. I'm excited to kind of get into everything. I guess to start off, let's ask that big question who is Juan Rodriguez?

Juan Rodriguez: 1:40

Yeah, man, I mean again, thank you for having me. This is exciting, right? Who's Juan Rodriguez? So I would consider myself like a real humble person, right? A humble person that I like to serve on my community. Most importantly, I make sure that I like to give back to the youth, empowering them and equipping them so that they can be successful. I always consider myself like the underdog and it's kind of like being the kind of the most slept on, the one who doesn't get invited to the table all the time. But I work hard and I'm diligent, I'm resilient and I do kind of like what it takes so that I can be successful with my own eyes.

Raul Lopez: 2:22

Oh nice. Yeah, I mean I think we've known each other since high school so I've known and I've seen the growth for you. And I remember even going back when we were in a program of it bound and it was a program where it takes first generation college kids, puts them in Rhode Island College but they're different colleges throughout the country gives them kind of extra classes they take through the year and in the summer they take classes on campus, live in a dorm and stuff like that. And I remember for me it was a big stepping stone and helped me get together. But I remember how challenging it was for you when you started about that. So tell me a little bit about how Oberbaum affected your life.

Juan Rodriguez: 3:03

Yeah, I mean Oberbaum was amazing. I mean I love Oberbaum. I mean just starting off right is that extra education, sacrificing your Saturdays and sacrificing six weeks out of your summer so that you can continue learning and it was a challenge. That kind of like was a challenge within itself. I also had some challenges at home, but I remember just being there, not wanting to be there and doing everything that I could to just get kicked out of Oberbaum, and the director at the time was Marion Boryage, who I would say like brought me into her arms and she worked with me right After receiving several demerits.

Juan Rodriguez: 3:48

One day I thought I'd be kicked out and I'd go about my summer right, enjoy my summer, hanging out with my friends, with my family. Mariam didn't want not that she didn't want me to do that, but she wanted me to commit to that organization and complete it till the end. And I say, if it wasn't for Mariam, she's kind of like one of the pillars in my life who helped me understand the value of education. So, yeah, I mean Oberbaum being there. It was tough because, again, at times you didn't want to be there, you didn't want to wake up early on Saturday mornings or you didn't want to spend your whole six weeks learning new things, but it's definitely something that's beneficial. Now that I see back, looking at my life and thinking about the organization, it's definitely something that's beneficial and helped me along the way.

Raul Lopez: 4:43

Nice and I mean you're from Rhode Island, same as me, and we kind of all kind of grew up in pretty rough neighborhoods. It was very easy to kind of get caught up and end up doing stupid stuff on the streets and I think Oberbaum kind of kept us out of that summer trouble that a lot of us can get into and we used, instead of being out in the streets, so one in the morning we were doing homework and doing math and doing chemistry till nine before we had to go to bed and stuff like that. So I really appreciated what Oberbaum kind of kept us focused and also, I think, built a family. That kind of kept us motivated to keep going further. I think we had a little reunion just recently and to see our family from the same class come together and the successes we did, and I you know like I credit that a lot to you know the motivation and what Oberbaum brings to the thing.

Raul Lopez: 5:36

So do you think nowadays programs like Oberbaum still have a place for kids to succeed?

Juan Rodriguez: 5:43

Of course, yeah, of course. I mean Oberbaum recruits students first generation students who are entering college and it's just kind of like you touched upon a lot of good points is that it was one of those programs that made you like dive into those books and made you focus on your education right, where you were thinking about other stuff, you didn't get caught up in the streets, you wasn't making stupid decisions that affected your life. I mean, eventually, outside of that you, you kind of do. But again, about one of those programs, like some of the losses, like a real thing, right, there's a lot of students that if you're not committed to something that's related to education, you'll lose about like 50% of what you learned throughout the school year.

Juan Rodriguez: 6:32

And with upper bound, I mean, you was there kind of like learning the courses that you was going to take prior to you entering the school year. So it gave you like a head start before you entered the school in September. So it's kind of like equipped to do right. It gave you kind of like the extra knowledge that you needed so that you was prepared and you was ready to enter the school year in September and you'd be successful throughout that whole school year Because you had that support, you had the tutors, you had that additional work that you was working on on Saturdays so that you wouldn't fall behind.

Raul Lopez: 7:09

Yeah, I mean, I remember just coming into school at the beginning of the year and being like no, we did this already in upper bound. I think that was the excuse for that was oh, we did this in upper bound was kind of what we did. And I know we're talking about upper bound a lot just because we, you know it's a big part of, I think, both of our lives and the family and friends were getting there. But you know, just kind of go back. You know, tell me a little bit about who we were and where you grew up. Talk to you later on.

Juan Rodriguez: 7:36

Yeah, I mean I originally am from New York. I love to give credit to New York City. I grew up in Washington Heights, 180 and Broadway, but I moved here about like sixth grade Fast forward. I'm in high school now. I grew up in South Providence in the Washington Park area At the time, I mean it was is a low income family.

Juan Rodriguez: 8:00

It's not one of the best neighborhoods in Rhode Island, but growing up there it was a challenge right, trying to find my way, especially transitioning from a new city. It's a lot different than New York. I remember kind of like Trying to navigate through these different spaces, whether it be school, whether it be in my community, and not understanding everything to full capacity. Right, like in New York we travel like in small groups, just kind of like with the friends that we have in that building. And in here Rhode Island is different, right, because here in Rhode Island you have your community centers, you have your sports teams.

Juan Rodriguez: 8:36

It was definitely hard for me to understand that, but I was thankful for our upper bond because, like, what you just mentioned is something that touched my heart. Real big is that we became family there and we remain like. I mean, we still communicate with each other, we invite each other over to our houses, and I mean we meet with each other. I think 2001 is the biggest class where we're constantly representing all the reunions, supporting each other in every way that we can.

Raul Lopez: 9:04

Yeah, no it's. We're pretty awesome. We'll put it out that way. You know we do a good job and I think a lot of us had big hearts and big hopes and big dreams and I think you know we show it and I think we like to give back as well, and so obviously one of the big aspects of our bond is trying to get us prepared for college, and I think we all end up a lot of us end up going to college from upper, from high school, and we realize we're not that prepared. You know we try to be prepared as possible and as successful, and I think it kind of gives us some guidance, but ultimately we still struggle. What were some of the challenges you felt when you went to college?

Juan Rodriguez: 9:43

I mean when I got to college. I mean one thing that I say about did did supporters with, like the time management, Yep, Making sure that we hold ourselves accountable with certain stuff. But one of the things that I struggled with, like, once I got to college I had all this freedom right like no, I didn't have my parents waking me up every every morning for class.

Raul Lopez: 10:07

There's no, no demerits if you're late.

Juan Rodriguez: 10:09

No dementia on late, right like, but just kind of like on the educational aspect. I mean, I was slack and right To this day.

Juan Rodriguez: 10:20

I mean I'm not. I'm not a good reader, like I didn't comprehend stuff as I should. It takes some time for me to process some information. But those were some of my personal struggles. When I got to college my first year, I mean, I entered talent development and just being there, being there, was difficult. I eventually made it through the talent development program, but a couple of years afterwards, I mean when I entered, you arrived for the whole school year. I was falling behind just because I wasn't used to kind of like the workload I wasn't used to. I think it was just that right. I think it was just kind of like the heavy workload that you have to prepare yourself for. I mean in public schools it doesn't prepare you for that kind of like that. That fielded doesn't prepare you for that sort of education. There's a lot of stuff that you kind of get pushed along and it's not as rigorous to help you get through it into college.

Raul Lopez: 11:24

Yeah it's. I mean, it's a situation where the schools are just so low income sometimes that they can't keep up with some of the bigger schools. And even though you go to your school I mean my school is the same you go and you think you're top of the class of this school and then you go to college and you talk to people and you're like, yeah, I got 1150 on my SAT. He's like, oh my God, were you drinking the night before?

Juan Rodriguez: 11:44

Because you know I got like a 1400.

Raul Lopez: 11:46

And I'm like no, my dad was really excited that I got that cheap to that SAT. And so you know there's different levels and you don't realize it to. You know, when you go to college everyone's the best of their best, but there's different. You know paths and different ways of determining. You know which path to take, especially when it comes to college, and I think for you you ended up going to a slightly different path for college eventually, outside of your eye, right.

Juan Rodriguez: 12:12

I did, I did. I mean, I mean, one of the struggles, even in high school, right, is that we're there in high school and I feel like, though we go to like these public schools. Being a first generation student in America, I mean our parents are not to say they're not fully supportive, but like they don't understand the education system here, right, and they solely depend on the education system to see us become successful, and so they can't. They can't support us when it comes to, like certain academics right, I know that when it came to like science or English, trying to catch up on new vocabulary words, it was a challenge because my parents didn't know any of that stuff. Um, some format to start to next step.

Juan Rodriguez: 13:00

But like, trying to kind of like navigate and understand everything on my own was really difficult, right. My parents didn't know how to look for tutors or how to get the additional resources to help me become successful in high school. So I feel like I just got by and when I did get to college, I mean I flunked out and I did how to pivot into, kind of like finding my own lane, right, after flunking out of URI. I had to take some time off, right, but I kind of like how to kind of like think about my own life, reflect a lot and think about where is it that I, what is it that I want to do? And kind of like, how can I find a way to be successful and to work with things that I think will benefit me the most?

Raul Lopez: 13:50

Yeah, I think for a lot of people we get pushed across the whole, especially in our generation I think it was college, college, college, college, college, go be a lawyer, go be a doctor, go be an engineer. You know we were always pushed to this really high level, high standards of you got to go this way and a lot of us don't think of our strength. I'm a horrible reader. I read so slow that I hate reading. You know, I'm not a. I read really slow. I was never really good at it. My grammar is fine. I mean, I've written 25 page essays in college and got an A's in them with no problem. But if you ask me to point which one's the pronoun, which one's the adjective, I'd fail that first grade class, that first grade exam I would fail. I could write you a college, a grad level essay, but I would fail that basic grammar class you know because of the things or whatever.

Raul Lopez: 14:39

And so I always wonder sometimes like, oh, you know if I had gone to a different school, you know. And so what, what, what, what did you have to do to pivot yourself?

Juan Rodriguez: 14:48

I mean I had to reflect, like I said, is I had to start thinking about what is it in my life that I want to work on and take away that weight for my family?

Juan Rodriguez: 14:56

Because you brought another good point up is, like our family set that bar up coming overseas from a different country.

Juan Rodriguez: 15:04

Like your family wants you to be successful and the only thing that they that they know is that, hey, you got to come to America and become a doctor, become a lawyer and engineer, right.

Juan Rodriguez: 15:13

So it took a lot of time for me to kind of like have that talk with my parents, specifically with my father at the time, because my father was the biggest supportive, to kind of like the one that guided my life and make sure that I was always doing the right thing, but just kind of like letting him know, like, hey, like I want to enter a new school, understanding myself and understanding what's the best way that I can learn, which was like, hands on, I decided to enroll into a technical school right is New England Tech and pursue a degree in video and audio production, and it was really exciting, right, because now I'm at this new school and as soon as you enter the school, the first thing that they do is that they give you access to equipment and you're learning through that right, you're learning through experimenting and practicing and trying to build these projects and kind of like moving along on that aspect.

Juan Rodriguez: 16:12

But it was good, man. I mean I was excited to kind of like work on that level and moving forward. I think that kind of like that's what really helped me the most.

Raul Lopez: 16:24

Yeah, I think reflecting, being able to reflect, is brave. I think a lot of people don't do it and not just taking the. This isn't working for me, everything's shit, let me give up on myself. But you know, saying back and saying, oh shit, this isn't working for me. What can I do to get something to work? That's, you know, it's very brave and it's hard for a lot of us. I mean, especially, like you said, there's this immigrant guilt. Sometimes we feel where your parents sacrifice so much for you to come to this country that you kind of feel you owe them to do the best and the brightest. I was supposed to be a heart surgeon, you know, and it's like I failed.

Raul Lopez: 17:03

I failed chemistry by you know, our freshman year. I'm never going to be a doctor. I fucked it up in within a month of college. I was never going to be a doctor and so you have to kind of build that up. And so when you got to this tech school doing the tech, how did that, how did that benefit you more and how did that help improve, help you create that focus to what you wanted to do for your career?

Juan Rodriguez: 17:26

I mean so, like I said, is that being in that school, it allowed me to work with, allow me to work hands on, right. That's kind of like my best learning style. So I was able to, instead of kind of like learning through theory, I was able to kind of like learn through, like working on different projects, and that alone got me excited, right, that's what built my curiosity. So I was always like licking up different ways to like build up all my skills and make my projects a lot better than up my peers. But there were those challenges, right, because I mean I enter that industry and I enter that kind of like that, that major, that field, with no prior experience, right. There's a lot of students who were in my class who had the resources when they went high school, had the resources in their community, so they were creating like these dynamic projects where I was still struggling, right, I was still falling behind and asking them questions like hey, how did you create that? How do you make this happen? And it does become intimidating when you're looking at your own stuff and it's not up to par. But I always kind of like worked hard, right, I was always asking questions and always like looking up videos as to like what is some additional stuff that I can add to my projects to make them a lot better. And sure enough, I mean at that time, like I mentioned before, that I was going to kind of like going through my own personal struggles at home within myself. I eventually got kicked out of New England Tech because of some stupid decisions that I made in my life. I had my financial aid taken away and it's something that affected me long term. But eventually I overcame that. I eventually got my financial aid back and I reenrolled into New England Tech.

Juan Rodriguez: 19:14

But then that time then, like kind of that period where I was a hey, I want to say it was about like a year or so when I was not in school I bought a camera, right, and that's what kind of like when YouTube first started to emerge, a lot of my friends were excited. They started becoming rappers and that's the biggest reason why I bought a camera is like, hey, it's going to start ripping, right, I'll buy a camera, I'll record all your music videos. So, having my own personal equipment, I was able to shoot music videos. I was able to record commercials for small businesses. In addition to the commercial, I was able to record promo videos for local organizations. So now my resume reel was more elaborate. So when I re-enter that New England Tech, when I put together all my videos, it wasn't just my school projects, it was kind of like an addition to all the other projects that I've worked with in the past.

Raul Lopez: 20:13

Yeah, it's great because now a lot of people have easier access to cameras and to technology, where before you wanted to edit video, you needed a big ass machine in a room to edit video and edit film, yeah. And now it's like, oh, I'm going to my daughter's creating YouTube videos upstairs in her bedroom. You know what I mean it's like on her iPad. It's such a different world. I think people get that opportunity now to kind of build that, and sometimes I think it's good for people to realize that too, that you don't always have to build your career behind a breaking order school. Sometimes you can do stuff outside of that and even if you stumble, you can build up and make something work out of your stumbles. And I think I bring it up all the time with that whole Batman quote why do we fall? So we can teach ourselves to stand back up.

Juan Rodriguez: 21:10

I remember when YouTube first came out, learning different codecs. I mean, at that time I want to say HD wasn't even a thing, so it was kind of like the frame rate. I mean the frame rate was the same, but like that aspect was like it was in 1080, right, it was like 720 by 480. And it started slowly to evolve to the quality of videos with trash. And then kind of like seeing that from that time to where we are today, like you could record 4k on your phone, which is like really dope, and even kind of like seeing everything, all the content that's available on YouTube and on Google that will help you advance, is like really exciting. And kind of like showing students. I mean, that's kind of like what I love doing now is just showing students how to value those resources and how to use those resources to help them advance, whatever they're doing.

Raul Lopez: 22:03

Yeah, and it's funny you mentioned that, because I think you told me before that it was around this time, when you were doing stuff with video, that you started kind of dipping your toes and being an educator. Tell me about that.

Juan Rodriguez: 22:17

Yeah, I mean so. I mean right after leaving New England Tech it became. It was quite some time until I became an educator, but I want to say my last quarter at New England Tech I was hired by a local affiliate television station, the CW28 at the time and I mean I was really excited to be there. Man, that's kind of like why I felt like really successful. I want to say I made it out the hood. Not working at a TV station.

Juan Rodriguez: 22:48

I was always bragging about myself, but on the same token, I was always being supportive of my community and providing different organizations and different businesses small businesses with low cost videos, producing small commercials for them, finding different ways so that they can be on TV and promoting their businesses as well. And I was also providing workshops for young students so that they can learn the technology, they can learn the industry and learn how to produce videos themselves. Most importantly, what I felt was big is that I wanted students to be able to tell their stories right through video production, through audio production. But I always worked hard while I was there, right, and the biggest thing that I was working hard on was this award called the CW, the Model Affiliate Award, where I'd spent numerous hours kind of like working off the clock with a short super early leave. Hours after, kind of like, when I clocked out, I mean continued working hours after I was supposed to clock out.

Juan Rodriguez: 23:55

But then I eventually received that award, and not kind of like being excited to receive that award because I lost my brother at the same time, but shortly after losing my brother. That's when I decided I wanted to become an educator. That's when a friend kind of like encouraged me like hey, you should dive into this. You can definitely become a teacher and show students digital media and creating like graphic design, recording videos and recording audio. And that's kind of like when I decided to dive in and go back into the same school district where I was once a student. So yeah, man, it was a hard pivot. It definitely changed my life, but I mean I'm super excited to make that decision.

Raul Lopez: 24:38

And what is the process that you had to do to become a teacher? Because you were obviously didn't go to school to become a teacher.

Juan Rodriguez: 24:46

I did not, man. It was a challenge man. I mean so many different things went on in my life at that time, from 2014 to like 2017, because I became an educator in 2017. I lost my brother in 2014. I mean, that's the time when I was married. That's the time when my first son was born.

Juan Rodriguez: 25:08

But I remember I also received my bachelor's degree in communications, focusing on public relations and, sure enough, in the Rhode Island Department of Education, all you need is a bachelor's degree to become an educator with no prior background in education, so you didn't need any courses for that. For that, I mean and not to discredit any educators out there and I just kind of wish that I had some prior, some prior knowledge and some prior training or education, but something that I just simply just applied and just for me having that experience as a film producer, as a TV producer, I was able to become a CTE educator at a middle school. So all I needed was that background five years of experience in that industry to become a career and technical educator. But there's so many different challenges. To becoming an educator is not as easy as I thought.

Raul Lopez: 26:12

What were some of those challenges?

Juan Rodriguez: 26:15

I mean you're jumping into the education field right now, you're learning all these new jargons, iep 504s, and you're signing your life away, right, because you're signing for all these adjustments that you need to make for students, especially education, making adjustments for students who have high needs, and I didn't understand that. I didn't understand, like some of the stuff that second, like their needs and how to make those adjustments for those students. I didn't understand how to differentiate and understand scaffolding. So that alone was difficult. It was a challenge, kind of like understanding that and being in those spaces with the students and trying to do my best to provide them with the best education and help them become successful.

Raul Lopez: 27:04

Did you come in thinking that you're going to be like standing to live or just be like I got this? These kids are going to.

Juan Rodriguez: 27:11

Yeah, like I said, I provided these workshops in the past and like I thought it was going to be the same thing. Like, hey, yeah, all my students are going to be good. Like I got some experience doing this. But, being in the school setting, you have like I was like a good five or six students who have IEPs and additional five or six students who have 504s and each of them have their own accommodation needs, right, and trying to find out and trying to like assess your class and making sure that, from the beginning to the end, that they're learning something through those different assessments While providing those different adjustments for them. It was a challenge, is something that that I kind of like how to learn and learn the hard way, right, but it is something that I kind of I'm grateful for right, because I mean, over the time, that you kind of like put your head down and you fight through all that stuff, all those tough situations.

Raul Lopez: 28:08

And is this when you started working at the Met?

Juan Rodriguez: 28:11

No, I mean my first school I was working at West Broadway. Middle school was a middle school and Providence and middle school Middle school is tough man. Middle school is like students are going through their own stuff. I mean they're growing personally. Middle school and Providence, I mean they're going through their own personal stuff at home, they're going through their own challenges. So just kind of like navigating through all that stuff. It was difficult, but I think the most important thing for me was making sure first and foremost was making a connection with the students on a deeper level prior to me, like making sure that that they can learn right, because once I had that connection with them they started building that trust in me and things become a lot smoother afterwards.

Raul Lopez: 28:56

And you were incorporating technology in your classroom and your career technical educator, but where you started to do just the camera stuff or when did you start branching off into some of the more like VR stuff that you do now?

Juan Rodriguez: 29:10

So I mean that all took some time Right. That I mean after was Broadway. I went to Hope High School. After Hope High School, I took a year off and that's when I kind of started diving into virtual reality. Well, I wanted to provide students with a safe space where they can compete in eSports, specifically focusing on VR, and that was like in, I want to say, in the August of 2019. And then March of 2020 came. We got hit with the pandemic and that was a blow within itself. I mean, I remember thinking to myself, like damn, I just invested $10,000 on, like all this equipment. What am I going to do with this? Like I can't even bring students in the same spaces. So I decided that I want to provide a curriculum where, again, focusing and empowering students to tell their stories, and that's when I slowly started building this curriculum where students are able to learn how to how to design XR video games and create XR content.

Raul Lopez: 30:13

What is XR content?

Juan Rodriguez: 30:16

So XR. Xr is an umbrella term for virtual reality, augmented reality and mixed reality, so it's kind of like our focus at the Winner Circle XR Academy, where students are not only now they're gaining access to these different technologies, but now they're able to build up skills, where they're learning how to design and code their own content using these technologies.

Raul Lopez: 30:38

Yeah, I mean I think coding is something that's been, I think, introduced to kid at an early age nowadays. I mean I think people see the importance of the possibilities for a lot of these kids to get successful with I know my daughter they were doing that early, early age coding, coding program.

Raul Lopez: 30:57

I forget the name of it in her like in second grade or third grade. You know they couldn't even write, but she was already working with algorithms and stuff like that and so it's great. I mean I was a kid that my dad bought me a computer at the age of 13 and I've been doing it ever since. You know that's been my whole life, my whole career, and so I know the impact that that can give kids and so the what is the type of curriculum that you guys do with with this XR stuff?

Juan Rodriguez: 31:28

So, like I said, I mean students are learning how to design. So they're learning the whole design process that professionals take. There's a lot of critical thinking, a lot of teamwork, where they're working together. I mean they're also learning how to design 3D models and how to integrate those 3D models into their virtual environment. So, in addition to that, they bring everything to life through, like basic coding.

Juan Rodriguez: 31:53

I think what's most importantly is that we're introducing this to students of color Black and brown students who are entering a field, right the video game, design field, or even the technology industry that's predominantly white. We also focus on young girls, right. We try to get young girls excited about the technology and let them know like hey, you could definitely be successful in this industry. And we're proud to say like right, we hosted a hackathon last year and this is our first hackathon. It was a statewide hackathon where about like eight different schools participated, over 35 different students were involved and the winning team was an all girl team from an all girl high school. So that was exciting to see. I mean, the name of the hackathon is mind blast XR Students sacrificed their whole Saturday to participate in this and at the end, we had, like, this big celebration where students presented their projects. So I mean, that's a whole another realm of it.

Juan Rodriguez: 32:53

Right with now they're working on a public speaking. They're standing up in front of a crowd. I'm expressing themselves, expressing their ideas, and they were able to do that. And this young group of girls they made this amazing virtual reality exhibit that talked about health disparities and it was really exciting to see. So they took home the grand prize and it's really dope to see that now we have a group of girls that are how should I say they represent us. I mean, they're going to be there. They always going to remember that and I'm hoping that some of them, kind of like, come back and let me know they. Hey, like, because of Winner Circle, I decided to continue pursuing a career in technology.

Raul Lopez: 33:39

That's awesome. That's awesome and it's I think that's one of the things, as an educator, you know is your dream to have some kids come back and say hey, you know, if I didn't do this, I would never have gotten to where I'm at. And you know you don't expect that, thank you. But you just like the idea of being told you hey, this was an impact and so you're creating curriculums now for regular classrooms to use beer as well.

Juan Rodriguez: 34:07

I mean at the Met, is a lot different. The Met every student has their own curriculum. I mean, that's part of it. I'm also creating curriculums for my own organization, windows Circle XR. So we're finding different ways to to for that students can learn these different technologies and how to create their own programs for virtual reality, augmented reality or mixed reality. In addition, we're creating curriculum so that students can become drone aviators. We just making sure that students can I mean one have access to these technologies but also learn to kind of like what are the best ways to use this technology to support them with whatever it is that they're learning.

Raul Lopez: 34:46

Yeah, the unfortunate thing about technology is it costs money, and a lot of the kids don't have money to do that technology, so just being able to get their hands on it. The same way, like you said when you went to New England Tech, these kids who had access to these technologies beforehand were doing much better initially than you were, so it's good to be able to hand that into them. Definitely. What are some of the projects that some of these kids have done with your programming and VR?

Juan Rodriguez: 35:14

Yeah, I mean so over the years. I mean students. I mean students were learning, kind of like the basics of coding, the basics of like designing. But, like we've definitely made some changes, like we're being more intentional as to like how we provide these programs, we're making sure that when we form these partnerships with the schools, that we're not just kind of like your typical after-school program, but a lot of our stuff are aligned with different standards, whether it's ISTE, whether it's next generation standards, whether it's the common core standards. So it is a rigorous curriculum, right, but we'll also tie it into the students' curricula, right.

Juan Rodriguez: 35:57

We're asking the students to let us know what is it that they're learning in schools, whether it be ELA, what is it that? What book have they read? What have they learned in their social studies class or their history class, or something that they've learned in science, so that they can create these virtual exhibits based on all that stuff? Right, I always talk about the student who went to Cambodia with his family and then afterwards decided to participate in our program, where he learned the whole design process. He learned how to design in code and then he created an exhibit of Cambodia. Right, it's really exciting because he had the temples, he had the animals, he had all these images that he took in Cambodia and he incorporated that into his environment and what's neat about it is that he brought all the characters to life to talk about the history of Cambodia. So now he's able to share that with his peers and his peers are able to like learn about the history of Cambodia from that student's perspective. So that's really excited within itself.

Juan Rodriguez: 37:00

Means students are creating exhibits like alternative endings to like some of their favorite books or some of the comics that they've read. They're creating exhibits based on like different times in social studies or in history that they've learned about. I like to focus on students culture so they can learn how to celebrate their identity and celebrate themselves. Or so I say, hey, like, try to find something about your family, try to find something about where your family's from, let's create an exhibit based on that. So they're creating virtual museums, kind of like Puerto Rico, on Cuba, dominican Republic, cambodia, all these different countries that resemble the student population in the cities that we serve, specifically Central Falls, patuk and Providence. But it's really neat for them to express themselves in that way, right, because now they feel excited. They get excited about representing who they are and showing it off to their friends.

Raul Lopez: 38:01

Now and it's cool that I mean, are the schools accepting having that type of technology part into their classroom, or do you get some little hesitation from some of the school districts?

Juan Rodriguez: 38:13

I mean it is a challenge within itself forming these partnerships with the schools. There's so many different factors, right. There's so many different reasons why we have these different challenges. Sometimes it could be the budget that schools have. I mean, schools have different needs and those needs can change at any time, so it's hard for them to, kind of like, pay for this after school program. And it's hard for us, right, because now we're really dependent on grants and donations for that our organization can be successful. But at the same time we have to also find a way to be sustainable, right. So we do have to charge the school, we have to let them know that there's a cost associated with it. So I mean, that's one of the challenges.

Juan Rodriguez: 38:56

We try to make sure that we can support the schools in every way that we can and we try to let them know like, hey, we're here to support the students. So some schools have been receptive. They brought us in with open arms and they're willing to work with us. There's other schools that has brought us in and allows to provide our program as part of their curriculum now, where we're in school during school hours with students that actually receive in credit to participate in our program. But over the years, what we try to do is that we try to build this plan where we can work with schools to integrate any technology right, whether it's AI, whether it's VR, whether it's AR, and how can we support the educators right Along the way. And one of the things that we've done is that we work with these educators. We worked with the schools and let them know, like, hey, you focus on the content while we focus on the technology.

Juan Rodriguez: 39:53

Right, it is a challenge because when you're integrating technology, teachers have to learn that the technology themselves and that's a learning curve. They have to attend all these trainings, all these professor developments for that. Then they have to make another turn and think about how they're gonna integrate this into the curriculum, how they're gonna teach this to the students. So it does become discouraging for them. They already have enough on their plate where they don't wanna add additional stuff, so they tend to push some stuff away.

Juan Rodriguez: 40:27

But with our organization, that's our motto, right, it's like, hey, again, let us focus on this technology and you focus on the curriculum. Where it's funny enough. That I like to say is, if you think about the 90s and I'm sure not aged right now right when they used to bring out the VCR and the TV. It allows us to watch a movie. That kind of like supported whatever it is that we learned in addition to the lesson that was taught. So what we wanna do is that we're gonna bring out the VR card and support that lesson, support the curriculum, and so it'd be another way for students to experiment and experience different ways to learn whatever content is being taught in the classrooms.

Raul Lopez: 41:12

Yeah, and one of the things you mentioned too is you are running a business that needs to be sustainable, and so, while it's nice talking about all the great things you're accomplishing, running a business has its own challenges. What were some of the challenges just getting yourself, especially during COVID? What were some of the challenges you had to deal with?

Juan Rodriguez: 41:33

So I mean my background is video production right, I went to school for that. I received both my undergrads in that right, my associates and my my bestlers. So, like, all I would really know is like how to produce videos. Right, I knew the business of the video, the TV industry, the film industry, but making that pivot into education was a challenge, right, because now I have to learn about curriculums, I have to learn about standards, those different jargons that I mentioned IEP 504s, and now I'm diving into nonprofit. Right, like I didn't.

Juan Rodriguez: 42:10

I didn't know what nonprofit is. I like I didn't know tax exempt status, dealing with the IRS, budgeting for that is a whole different ballgame than budgeting for, like, film and TV. I mean budgeting in general might seem kind of like very similar. I mean you're playing around with numbers and making sure that you meet those numbers, but at the end, like this, there's some grants that you have to kind of like report out and show them. Like how did you use their funds? And a lot of that stuff was a challenge.

Juan Rodriguez: 42:41

Like I didn't understand nonprofit to its full capacity. I mean I'm still struggling today, I'm trying to have a full grasp of it, but I mean I use all the resources that I have. I mean I at first, when COVID first started and I dove into nonprofit, I was using like nonprofit for dummies for dummies to read on those books. I had a really good mentor, Jeff Shoes, who was like really supportive of everything that I did and he helped guide me along the way and I give him so much credit and so much love because he was somebody that definitely could lean on whether it be an email text carrier, whatever it was. If I had a question he'd answer right away and he helped me kind of like go through that whole process and get my nonprofit exempt status, taught me the ropes and helped me kind of be where I'm at today, which I'm really grateful for.

Raul Lopez: 43:38

Yeah, and with all of that, you still decided to kind of go back to school and get your masters as well, right?

Juan Rodriguez: 43:47

Yeah, yeah. So that's one thing that I'm really proud of. Right is that I never want to add my peer educators to. I want them to understand that I value education. I value, kind of like, what they do. There's a lot of educators that are really so good at what they do and I look up to them because, like they've been in the field for so long, a lot of them enter the field like right after college, and being in this industry can become intimidating sometimes because you want to kind of like do your best and you're not making that connection. You don't think you're the best educator that you can be. So I did pursue a grad degree specifically in education and so that way I could get the training and the knowledge that I need so that I can be successful in this industry as well.

Raul Lopez: 44:49

Yeah, and what was the obviously going to college, going grad school now, compared to going to college right out of high school and then going to New England Tech? How was that evolution for you? How do you feel the difference between who you are and how you end up studying and doing your education has evolved for you.

Juan Rodriguez: 45:11

I mean one of the good things was that now I value my education right now. I had time management that worked really well under my belt. I knew how to kind of like how to set and like have my own space whenever I needed to study or anything. But I mean that's another thing that has its own challenges. Now I'm a little older.

Juan Rodriguez: 45:34

Prior to like grad school I didn't have all these grades Like, but I mean I had two children, I was working at a school, I was working and I had two jobs. I was working the nonprofit full time as well, also trying to balance all of that in addition to like going to grad school. It was tough, man. I mean there was times that I didn't sleep, I mean waking up the next morning to have to go to work and then, after being in the school, I have to like work on some grants or work on like workshops for the after school program or hiring someone, and then right after that, like catching up on my reading or, if not, attending my child's sports practices.

Juan Rodriguez: 46:24

But it's definitely something that was that was really hard to get through. I wouldn't say it was something that's easy, but that's kind of like what I like about it right Cause it was. If it's easy, everyone will be doing it, and I like that challenge, I like that. I kind of like pulled through and I worked hard to be where I'm at. So, yeah, man, I eventually got it done. So I'm here now, two, three weeks away from crossing that stage, to receive my degree.

Raul Lopez: 46:57

Nice. Yeah, it's crazy to go and think back in the day when you started college, how difficult it was to balance yourself and we had no responsibilities in the world. And now we're older, we have kids, we have families and we're handling multiple projects all at once stuff that would have put me to feel like we're going crazy when we were like 18, 19th, 20. And now we're just kind of like oh, it's just an average day.

Raul Lopez: 47:25

It's I'm going to work till four, wake up at seven, take my daughter to school, then we're going to work for another eight hours and then I'm going to assistant coach and then I'm going to go jump on a podcast, and it's like we're doing now and it's crazy to think how much we can handle, not compared to what we used to handle.

Raul Lopez: 47:41

But you know that's the life, that's what you gain from time and wisdom, you know the ability to handle stuff, and so one of the things is you know if you could go back in time and talk to yourself as a younger you and give yourself some advice. That's something you chose off.

Juan Rodriguez: 47:56

I mean one of the things I mean, one thing that I did touch upon is that like, hey, like I did have my, my own challenges at home. I mean my, I had one parent suffering from mental health issues. I had another parent who's chronically sick that led to like Pain medication addiction. So that was a chance for me. But I would tell myself like hey, you're gonna, you're gonna make it through, your be alright. But also, most importantly, it's kind of like learn to value your time right, because time is something that you're never going to get back right. And I feel like there was a lot of times that I was just kind of like joking around, parting around and not valuing time as much as I thought I should. But I think that's my biggest lesson is like, hey, like time management is good, but like learn to understand, like those times that was minutes. Learn to like use it at your best capacity and learn it to use it to move forward with everything that you're doing.

Raul Lopez: 49:06

Nice yeah. And I guess finally as part of the namesake of the show. You know how do you say success in Spanish.

Juan Rodriguez: 49:17

How do I say success in Spanish, man? I won't even know how to say it in Spanish. Oh man, what does success mean to me? So I think success is a subjective right. Everyone should have success as like their own thing. You should never compare success to anyone else. So what you see on social media, what you see out there, I mean you want, you do want to set the bar based on, like, different role models that you have and different people that you look up to.

Juan Rodriguez: 49:48

But I think success should come in increments, right, it's like you set a goal. Once you meet that goal, you're successful, right, and you just kind of keep raising that bar and raise it up to different levels and you keep working hard and you keep grinding, become resilient, keep doing what you got to do, man, to be where you want to be one day. Like a lot of things I always say I consider myself the underdog to this day. Over the over the years. Like you have those times where you have imposter syndrome and you feel like, hey, like I'm not good enough into, like you start meeting those goals. But once you meet those goals, give yourself time to follow small celebrations, man, like, do what you can to feel proud of yourself and, kind of like, enjoy that right. Enjoy it until like it's time to set the bar up for something else and set yourself up for another movement.

Raul Lopez: 50:56

Nice man. Well, thank you, Juan. I really appreciate you being on this episode with me and the podcast, and all the support you've given me throughout all this as well.

Juan Rodriguez: 51:08

And I know.

Raul Lopez: 51:09

I hope to have you back on for more and some more bigger and brighter things in your future.

Juan Rodriguez: 51:15

Yeah, thank you man. This is dope man. Like I said, I'm proud of you, man. I mean, I definitely hope that we can connect and maybe you have like a part two, I mean part three, part four.

Raul Lopez: 51:25

Yeah, well, well, well, well, definitely going to have more, so don't worry about that. And keep me, keep me involved in stuff you guys do too with your, your window circles. Stuff is always supportive of that. I'm going to try to get my daughter involved too, because she loves this whole technology stuff as well. So try to try to get her to get some programming.

Juan Rodriguez: 51:48

Yeah, I mean, if you don't mind, if I could throw a quick plug in.

Raul Lopez: 51:50

Yeah, go ahead.

Juan Rodriguez: 51:52

Yeah, so our organization you can please check us out on our website is wwwwinnerscirclexrcom, so that's winners circle XRcom. Our hackathon is mindablastxrorg, which is really exciting. You can see students projects on there. You see the first place, second place and third place project on that website and we're preparing for the 2024 hackathon. So I'd love to people, for folks to kind of like jump on our website, see what we have going on, check out some of the students projects and find different ways to support us because, again, we're a nonprofit organization. But what's most importantly is that we can get students in these marginalized communities access to these technologies to develop these, these skills so that they can be successful. So we're doing everything that we can meant to support them in schools and hopefully we can start seeing more students that look like us are creating content and seeing more content that reflect our student population.

Raul Lopez: 52:53

Yeah, awesome. Yeah, of course, 100%. As someone who worked IT, that was very one sided for a long time. Now, as you know, I'm seeing a lot more diversity in IT departments than I have in a long time and it's good to see, you know, a few more Zs and accents being thrown in the name fields. You know, so it's great, and you know anything to help build the community man. So same thing, haunt. I'm so proud of everything you've done, man, and once again, I'm glad you were here. So thank you. And to everyone else listening, you know, thank you for doing in and all the support, and I hope you join me again next time as we continue to learn how to say success in Spanish.