In this episode of the EdUp Edge podcast I speak with Ben Nelson, the Chairman and CEO of Minerva. Ben holds a Bachelor of Science in Economics and Marketing from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He is an education reformer and a product of the dot.com boom where he held a couple of roles, most notably as the President of Snapfish an innovative platform founded in the late 90’s responsible for bringing photos to life. 

Minerva, the focus of our conversation is building a global network of forward-looking high schools, universities, corporations, non-profit organizations, and governments to equip individuals at multiple levels with the cognitive skills needed to make decisions of consequence, formulate effective solutions, and manage rapid change. 

Ben is dynamic, innovative and humble - we touch all kinds of interesting topics in our conversation including rote learning versus the contextual application of learning, far transfer and modalities enabling better learning. He explains what the word education means to Minerva University and his thoughts on the Minerva recipe as a scalable and replicable model. 

We touch on the issue of student fees, Minerva’s extended product offering and plans for the future. As you will hear, I’m an unashamedly big fan of Ben’s and of Minerva. I hope that you enjoy the conversation as much as I did.  

This episode is sponsored by the wonderful team at CONNECTed | Crowdsourced Education - check out their innovative short course in EdTech & Strategy for Higher Ed professionals seeking to level-up and lead reform. 

Connect with the host Warren Kennard and the extended EdUp team Elvin Freytes, Elizabeth Leiba, and Dr. Joe Sallustio

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