ROANOKE, Va. – Students at the Strokes of Genius in Roanoke are learning in a different way. For them – old-fashioned textbooks may not be the best way to uptake information. Entrepreneur Doug Pitzer specializes in reaching students who don’t respond well to traditional educational techniques.
“So instead of the traditional style of reading, where you have a book which is still amazing. We’re going to transition it to where you’ll be in an immersive space,” said Douglas Pitzer who founded the organization.
Pitzer is equal parts community ambassador, teacher and entrepreneur. You might add fearless to the list too. Consider how he found space for his program on Shenandoah Avenue.
“I saw there was a lot of factories on Shenandoah, and I knew nothing about Shenandoah, so I literally walked up that street and knocked on every door just asking people, What are y’all doing in here? There was an amazing individual named Adam Moore. He showed me his space, and he said, what could you do with this area? And I’ve been there for the past two years doing robotics coding,” Pitzer said.
Pitzer is now working on a PhD at Virginia Tech, searching in part for what triggers a response in student’s brains.
“What we’re currently attempting to do is through Virginia Tech, we’re using EEG devices and seeing what spaces or what parts of the brain are being activated when you’re doing traditional reading, versus what part of the brains will be activated as you’re doing these immersive spaces.”
Pitzer took time off before college to teach in The Dominican Republic, where six months turned into two years because he felt the need from his students.
Now he’s filling a similar need in Roanoke, where he understands some of the reasons students – most often African American males who are behind in their schooling, are not eager for more traditional learning.
“And we always know just self-preservation or just maintaining your reputation, or just how you feel about yourself, that self-efficacy is important. So we’ve learned, we saw it was lowering because people didn’t want to read out in public spaces or read out loud,” Pitzer explained.
So he works on non-traditional approaches. He’s measuring the results and working on ever-new models.
“So it’s intensive one-on-one tutoring. But we’re now taking it a step further with the incorporation of prior to the immersive spaces. We’re now incorporating GPT in a positive way, creating critical thinking.”
NOTE: The video portion of this story was recorded and edited by high school students at the Burton Center in Roanoke County as part of a cooperative venture with Junior Achievement of Southwest Virginia.