Today, the Getting Smart team is bringing you an episode with an innovative leader and celebrated education disrupter for more than two decades, Julie Young! Julie is the CEO of ASU Prep Digital and Deputy Vice President of ASU Educational Outreach. Before leading ASU Prep Digital, Julie was the founding CEO and President of Florida Virtual School, the world’s first statewide virtual school and one of the nation’s largest K-12 online education providers.

 

ASU Prep Digital is a part of the ASU Preparatory Academy (a network of a dozen PreK-12 schools sponsored by Arizona State University.) ASU Prep Digital is now in its 3rd year and has grown to over 20,000 enrollments both nationally and internationally, which includes 600 fulltime students across the country! The school is striving to equip all students with the knowledge and training needed to graduate high school and be successful in college.

 

In today’s episode, you will get to hear directly from Julie and learn more about ASU Prep Digital’s history, features, and how they’re serving learners worldwide!

 

Key Takeaways:

[:15] About today’s episode.

[1:28] Tom welcomes Julie Young to the podcast!

[2:02] What interested Julie about online, digital learning 25 years ago?

[4:29] In the early years of Florida Virtual School, what does Julie think they got right?

[8:22] Julie speaks about her legislature during these early years and some of the unique incentives that ended up driving major change in her work.

[13:07] Does Julie agree that partnering with other school districts led to major success for Florida Virtual School?

[16:57] Julie provides some background on ASU Prep Digital and her current role with them.

[20:00] In addition to supporting the ASU Prep Academy, Julie offers full and part-time learning opportunities to kids in Arizona across the country and even around the world. Julie elaborates about this work she does (on a part-time basis) for both high school and college courses.

[23:40] How does ASU balance its offering of more than 100 college courses?

[27:30] How do students enroll and gain college credit through ASU Prep Digital?

[28:55] Do the online course offerings give ASU a leg-up in admissions?

[30:48] Julie describes what their fulltime program is like at ASU Prep Digital.

[35:13] Julie speaks about their course roadmap!

[40:40] Is Julie encouraged by the way high school innovators and innovative programs are helping to inform or transform higher ed?

[44:26] After 24 years of teaching and leading online, is Julie optimistic about the future of online learning?

[46:15] Tom and Jessica thank Julie for joining the podcast!

 

Mentioned in This Episode:

ASU Prep Digital

ASU Educational Outreach

Florida Virtual School

ASU Preparatory Academy

Arizona State University (ASU)

Getting Smart Ep. 123: “Julie Young on Providing Online College Prep”

iPrep Academy

Broward County Public Schools

District Franchises of Florida Virtual School (FLVS)

President Michael Crow of ASU Prep Digital

ASU Prep Digital Course: BioBeyond

“ASU Prep: Blended College Prep with a Little Extra Kick,” by Getting Smart Staff

“Arizona State Accelerates Progress with Adaptive Active Courses,” by Tom Vander Ark

 

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