How our founder brought silicon valley into the classroom
It all started when our founder was trying to book a full roster of guest speakers for her four courses at UCLA Extension. As an award-winning, multilingual UCLAx lecturer, TEDx speaker, Nutritionist and Digital Marketing Expert with expertise in Social Impact and Sustainability across three continents, Misha Kouzeh is no stranger to networking and coordinating guest lectures for her classes as well as being a speaker for other educators.
Misha has been inviting Digital Marketing experts from Facebook, Google and LinkedIn to share their knowledge and career journeys with students from diverse industries and 15+ countries to support her students. She started out with zero connections in the United States.
Misha states: “I was an international UCLA Extension student myself and transitioned into a fulfilling career throughout the program. As a student, I found a lot of value in the certificate program and embraced the diversity in the classroom. My instructors were supportive and brought in guest speakers who helped me kickstart my career in Los Angeles. This valuable experience triggered my interest in giving back and becoming an instructor in the program. My classroom is the first place where many of my students jumpstart their careers.”
Every quarter, Misha reached out to connections in- and outside of her network to invite guest speakers who’d like to share their expertise and personal career journeys in the digital marketing space. That's when challenges started to arise.
Her usual guest speakers started to massively move to other companies, roles and countries, and their availability changed from one quarter to the next. Misha had to start creating a rotating database of guest speakers who are subject matter experts in the field but also relatable, authentic and willing to dedicate their busy evenings or weekends away from their families to her students. To represent the international student population, Misha's preference goes to inviting women and experts from the BIPOC community to the classroom, often paying these speakers out of her own pocket as appreciation for their time and expertise.
She identified a need to develop a simple, convenient and mutually beneficial platform that matches educators and speakers to ultimately benefit classroom learning, one student at a time. That's why she founded SpeakToTeach to expand her impact in the future of education. We invite you to join our mission!
FOUNDER BIO
A double master’s graduate in Business Administration, Marketing Management and Nutrition & Health, Misha Kouzeh moved to the US as an international student to pursue her Californian dream. Misha has worked with thousands of students, with wait-listed courses, and has brought in guest speakers from Facebook, Google, LinkedIn and million-dollar marketing agencies. Misha is an alumna from UCLA Extension’s Sustainability Certificate Program and Marketing Certificate, both completed with Distinction and became a Harvard-certified lecturer. She was recently awarded a Distinguished Instructor award from the Dean’s Office for her commitment and leadership as an educator and believes in leveraging the power of education with creativity, collaboration, and innovation to change the world, one student at a time. Due to her dedication to lifelong learning, she is also pursuing a Doctorate Program in Education at USC Rossier School of Education.
