Nearly four years ago in a small office space about an hour south of Yellowstone National Park (in Idaho), the Stukent mission statement was born.
Our mission was:
[x_blockquote type=”center”]To help educators help students help the world.[/x_blockquote]Four years later and our mission statement remains the same.
I’ll be honest. The sound of us helping educators help students help the world was rather intimidating back in 2014. I wasn’t quite sure how we’d pull that off with just a textbook and a simulation.
When you are busy building a business it can be easy to lose sight of the big picture as you are laser-focused on the immediate tasks at hand. You quickly move from project to project and there is always another project for you to start cranking on. Before you know it, you’re a few years in and haven’t really taken the time to take yourself out of project mode to see just how far you’ve gone.
A couple of days ago, I had that moment while interviewing a potential hire. After sharing our mission statement with this individual, the question entered my mind – Trevor, how are we really helping the world? I started answering it…out loud to this individual.
I shared how we are helping instructors teach one of the most difficult topics to cover – how do you plan for something that is always changing (digital & social media marketing)? Recently while on a webinar, John Pliniussen messaged me and said, “My course wouldn’t be in such demand if it wasn’t for the work you guys have done.”
I then moved on to share how we are helping students help the world with this individual.
Our courseware arms college students with invaluable industry skills while still in college.
Take, for example, Xiang Tak.
“The Stukent experience was instrumental in me finding a job in my field. My current employers were impressed that I had any experience in digital marketing, even if it was simulation based. I was hired into paid search marketing before graduating college and my employers paid my tuition for my final semester. Today, I personally manage over $150k in monthly ad spend and have a successful digital marketing consulting on the side.”
After sharing Xiang’s experience with Stukent, it hit me.
We are helping the world.
We provided the courseware, platform, and resources for Xiang’s professor that increased Xiang’s digital marketing skills to a point that got her hired and her final semester of tuition paid for. Xiang is now excelling in her field and adding value to Build.com as a Pay Per Click Specialist who is also providing quality products to other customers around the world. Thus, this world is a better place because of Xiang, Xiang’s professor, and Stukent.
Matan Horenstein has a similar story. Check it out:
Once I finished up with this particular interview. I was able to take a second and digest what had just taken place.
Students are successfully learning digital marketing taught by awesome professors who are asked to teach a difficult topic.
Stukent alumni are proving that getting real-world experience while in college can help them drastically stand out in the competitive job market and add value to companies and customers immediately.
It is safe to say that Stukent is helping educators help students help the world.
