Kim Mahan, Founder and CEO of MAXX Potential, joined an amazing panel of individuals at the ASU+GSV Summit to discuss “New Tech Pathways and the Expanding Role of Intermediaries” and the future of work. 

Moderator Shawnee Caruthers, Vice President of Advocacy at Getting Smart, opened the event with the question, “What do you feel is your role as an intermediary?”

Lynn Moody, Vice President of Innovation at SparkNC; Danny Martin, Co-Founder and CEO at ESPOSURE INC.; and Kim Mahan shared their vision and solutions. The three professionals played off of each other, sharing their different perspectives and insights to paving the way for students and young professionals to be successful in the technology industry. 

“When we created our program, our heart and our mind were on students who were disengaged with the learning process.” Lynn Moody of SparkNC shared, “I think of children who are in poverty. They have a lack of access to information, how to figure things out, and they have lack of access to networks…we wanted to give that to all students. We want students to see themselves in these careers.”

They each demonstrated a lot of heart for new tech pathways and expanding their support of people via their different companies and initiatives. Across the board, there was a lot of agreement about creating a space where students and adults can safely fail, explore, and learn.

Kim Mahan shared what sets MAXX Potential apart as a intermediary into technology, “Our environment is different because we’re trying to create a safe place for people to fail and fail again and fail again because I feel like that’s what it takes to be successful in the industry is one the ability to teach yourself because it is going to keep changing every day. You have to love that. If you don’t love that, it’s probably not a good choice.”

All eyes are on how technology continues to evolve with automation and artificial intelligence, and there continues to be opportunities to challenge learners to explore and follow their interests.

“We can expose these actual students to opportunities that they can do right now and create portfolios.” Danny Martin of ESPOSURE said, “The students that want to be successful but they didn’t quite have the actual people that knew the actual things that they wanted to be good at, but now they have someone they can be able to speak to them in their language and now we can teach educators how to do the exact same thing.”

A resounding moment from moderator Shawnee Caruthers was when she said, “The world of work continues to evolve, and we have to ensure that our students are ready for it, that they have universal access to get to it, that they understand who they need to know in order to truly achieve it. There are so many levels. And it’s our role, not just in the schools but in the workforce and industry as well, to make sure, how do we make these dreams a reality?”

Watch the full video to listen to the conversation, and if you’re interested in partnering with MAXX Potential, reach out to tell us about your project.