Make School has Applied for Independent Accreditation
We are establishing a non-profit college with a mission to make technology more equitable and ethical.
We are proud to announce that Make School has taken the first step towards independent accreditation as a non-profit college.
On December 3rd, after a comprehensive review of our academics, governance structures, and student success, Make School was granted Eligibility Status by WSCUC — the regional accreditor that accredits Stanford, UC Berkeley, and other top California colleges. We will be working with WSCUC through the additional steps towards accreditation over the next year.
The path to independent accreditation is an exciting milestone for our organization and will open up new opportunities to drive innovation. We will begin working directly with WSCUC to further rethink and redesign higher education in a post-pandemic world. We plan to explore flexible degree pathways for diverse learners (online, part-time, and employer-integrated), modular credentials (vocational certificates that stack into associates, bachelors, and masters degrees), and transfer credits from bootcamps.
The non-profit structure will ensure that Make School continues to be governed for the sole benefit of our students. Our EIBR tuition protection plan will be housed and administered by the non-profit, protecting our commitment to only having graduates pay if they are employed. As a non-profit, we will also be able to seek grants and donations to help low-income students cover living expenses.
To guide Make School’s growth, impact, and accreditation we have recruited three new board members to govern the college alongside our existing leadership team. Each board member carries unique expertise and experiences giving them insight into the future of education and technology.
We’re excited to introduce our new board and our leadership team who will shape the future of our college:
Board of Directors
Lisa Gelobter
Lisa Gelobter is the CEO and Co-founder of tEQuitable. Using technology to make workplaces more equitable, tEQuitable provides an independent, confidential platform to address issues of bias, harassment, and discrimination. Lisa has pioneered Internet technologies that have been used by billions of people including Shockwave and the ascent of online video. Most recently, she worked at the Obama White House, serving as the Chief Digital Service Officer for the Department of Education. Previously, Lisa acted as the Chief Digital Officer for BET Networks and was also a member of the senior management team for the launch of Hulu. Lisa is one of the first 40 Black women ever to have raised over $1mm in VC funding and is proud to be a Black woman with a degree in Computer Science.
Nicole Alston
Nicole Alston is a Vice President of Legal at Google and has led YouTube Legal for 9 years. In this role, Nicole faces many of YouTube’s toughest legal challenges, from copyright conundrums to tough freedom of expression calls. She is an executive sponsor of YouTube’s Black Affinity Group and a member of Google’s Black Leadership Advisory Group. She previously served on the Board of Trustees of The Carey School.
Dr. Mallory Dwinal
Mallory is the founder of Oxford Day Academy & Oxford Teacher’s Academy. Mallory has long been committed to public school leadership, as she owes much of her own success to our nation’s public school system. Her experience with the Oxford tutorial system as a graduate student, as well as her instructional design background as a high school Spanish teacher and Department Chair provide her foundation for this work. Mallory holds a Ph.D. in Education from Oxford University, which she attended as a U.S. Rhodes Scholar, and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.
Jeremy Rossmann and Ashutosh Desai
Founders of Make School.
Leadership Team
Dr. Anne Spalding — Dean and Interim President
Anne holds a PhD in Applied Mathematics and has a wealth of experience in both the academic and educational startup worlds. Anne started her career as a CS Professor at Colorado Mesa University. After years of teaching at a traditional college, she moved to San Francisco to work as a software engineer, then help start Dev Bootcamp, and build internal technical training for software engineers at Uber. Anne is passionate about empowering students to build the software of today and change the world of tomorrow.
Matthew Jasie — Chief Financial Officer
Matthew is an experienced finance executive, having spent more than a decade managing financial and operational functions for global organizations with annual operating budgets over $2B. Prior to joining Make School, Matthew was a Partner with a New York City based management consulting firm and has held senior finance roles with organizations including The College Board and Success Academy Charter Schools, the largest and highest performing charter school network in New York City. He started his career in business operations at Tulane University and worked in residence life at Columbia University. Matthew holds a Masters in Higher Education Administration from Teachers College, Columbia University and a Bachelors in Finance from Tulane University.
Dr. Michelle Blackburn — Director of Student and Academic Affairs
Michelle holds a PhD in Law and Public Policy and an MA in Higher Education Admin. She has worked in higher education for 10+ years, specializing in student affairs and education policy at Abilene Christian University, Pepperdine University, and recently at MIT. She is inspired that Make School is dedicated to developing highly-skilled software engineers who can change tech.
Emily Sheldon — Director of Admissions
Throughout her 14 years in higher education, Emily has been driven by a desire to create more just and equitable spaces for learners of all backgrounds. She previously served as Director of Selection in the Office of Admissions at MIT, where she led all aspects of undergraduate first-year, transfer, and international application processes and evaluation. Emily holds a BA in English from Seattle Pacific University and an M.Ed in Higher Education Administration from Northeastern University.
Near term impact on students
This milestone does not carry any immediate changes for our students, though the impact of our new board’s leadership will begin to be felt over the coming year. Make School will continue to operate the Bachelor’s in Applied Computer Science program in partnership with the Dominican University of California until we are independently accredited.
Once accredited, students will transfer into the newly accredited non-profit college without losing any academic progress and with continued access to Title IV (Pell, Stafford, Direct) funding.
Our non-profit college will be supported by Make School PBC
Make School was founded in 2012 as a YC-incubated, venture backed edtech startup. In 2018, we became a Public Benefit Corporation (PBC), a form of for-profit that is allowed to prioritize impact alongside profit.
Once independently accredited Make School will operate under a tandem structure, with the for-profit PBC supporting the non-profit college to serve students. To explain the mechanics, let us recap Make School’s accreditation journey so far:
Two years ago we received accreditor approval to offer a cutting-edge Bachelor’s Degree in Applied Computer Science (BACS) through an incubation partnership with the Dominican University of California. The partnership enabled us to drive much needed innovation in higher ed by offering the first undergraduate degree that combined project-based active learning, downside protection for student financing, and close relationships with employers.
Under the incubation policy, a new program operates within an existing university for a few years while it prepares to spin off and become independent. As a result, all Make School students have been enrolled in the Make School program at the Dominican University of California, a non-profit university, and our first graduates’ degrees are issued by Dominican.
Make School PBC — the YC-incubated, venture backed startup — isn’t a college itself. It provides marketing, curriculum, and R&D to Dominican, a non-profit college that enrolls students into the program Make School created. Two organizations, one non-profit and the other a PBC, work together to offer an accredited program.
The organization that applied for accreditation is a new non-profit called MakeSchool.org. We’re planning to rename one or both entities once accredited to reduce confusion between MakeSchool.org — the new non-profit college — and Make School PBC — the for-profit ed-tech company.
Once MakeSchool.org is independently accredited, the same structure we have today will continue with a simple difference — students will be enrolled at MakeSchool.org instead of at Dominican University. Make School PBC will then provide marketing, curriculum, and R&D support to MakeSchool.org instead of Dominican University.
Independent leadership in service of our students
The board of the non-profit college (MakeSchool.org) will be majority independent of Make School PBC, as will its President and CFO. In this context, ‘independent’ means not owning equity in Make School PBC. Ashu and Jeremy, founders of Make School PBC, will sit on MakeSchool.org’s board but will always be outnumbered by independent board members.
All decisions made by MakeSchool.org’s leadership will solely fulfill MakeSchool.org’s charitable purpose of serving students and can not be influenced by any desire to benefit Make School PBC. Meanwhile the PBC can prioritize rapid innovation and scale to serve more institutions of higher ed around the world. In other words, the PBC can take operate more like a tech startup without risking the stability of the college, while the college can only make decisions for the benefit of the non-profit mission.
Most of our existing staff — in particular, those who directly serve students and sit in academic functions — will become employees of MakeSchool.org. Make School PBC will focus on content and technology R&D for MakeSchool.org and may also develop educational products for other universities and employers.
Looking ahead
While the leadership teams for each entity will be distinct, for the foreseeable future all staff across both Make Schools will operate as a single team, sharing resources, organizational tools, and holding joint all hands meetings.
Ultimately, organizational structures are simply containers for the incredible people that drive the decisions and culture of the institution.
We are deeply proud of the resilience our students and staff have shown throughout a very difficult year. Our instructors have delivered an incredible remote learning experience with a focus on continuous improvement. Our staff and students have stepped up to provide community and emotional support for each other during a tough year. Unbelievably, our student feedback surveys show student satisfaction with Make School is higher today than it was a year ago.
This gives us reason to be optimistic about the future, even as the world — and higher ed in particular — continues to battle the challenges brought forth by COVID. This year was by no means easy for our organization and for our students, but we’ve shown strong resolve to continue fighting for our mission to increase equity and upward mobility through careers in technology.
We are thankful to the entire team at Dominican University of California — especially president Dr. Mary Marcy and incoming president Dr. Nicola Pitchford — for believing in us and helping shepherd us to this incredible milestone.
We’ll keep our community posted as we undertake the next steps towards independent accreditation and share more of our plans for the future.
Warmly,
Ashu and Jeremy
