Learning about space can ignite young students’ passion for learning, says Andrew Aldrin, Ph.D., president of the Aldrin Family Foundation.
Aldrin joined WorkingNation’s editor-in-chief Ramona Schindelheim for WorkingNation Overheard at SXSW EDU 2024 in Austin.
He notes, “One of the things we do is we’ve got these massive maps of Mars that we designed with the help of a NASA chief scientist. Anything you do on the earth – you can put it on Mars and it’s a lot more interesting.”
“One of the early districts we went into was in South Carolina… and we put it into fourth grade classes,” says Aldrin.
“What happened was remarkable because we didn’t give them a lot to go on. The teachers, the students with a little bit of shaping and nudging came up with a really incredible idea that each one of these schools picked a location on Mars.”
He continues, “They developed intercolonial relations – one would have water; one was mined for iron or whatever they’re looking at. They created something. And what we got out of it was some significant improvements against science standards for fourth grade kids. You put a little bit of space in there and remarkable things can happen.”
Speaking about learning on the other end of the education spectrum – graduate education, Aldrin says, “We do a great job in the United States and lots of other places of training engineers, of training electrical engineers, data scientists, all of those kinds of skills. What we don’t do is good a job of is training people to be leaders, to be program managers, to be entrepreneurs.”
Learn more about the Aldrin Family Foundation.
© Copyright 2025 by Structural Unemployment, LLC dba WorkingNation
Dana Beth Ardi, PhD, Executive Committee, is a thought leader and expert in the fields of executive search, talent management, organizational design, assessment, leadership and coaching. As an innovator in the human capital movement, Ardi creates enhanced value in companies by matching the most sought after talent with the best opportunities. Ardi coaches boards and investors on the art and science of building high caliber management teams. She provides them with the necessary skills to seek out and attract top-level management, to design the ideal organizational architectures and to deploy people against strategy. Ardi unearths the way a business works and the most effective way for people to work in them.
Ardi is an experienced business executive and senior consultant who leverages business organizational transformation through talent strategies. She uses her knowledge and experience to develop talent strategies to enhance revenue and profit contributions. She has a deep expertise in change management and organizational effectiveness and has designed and built high performance cultures. Ardi has significant experience in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, IPO’s and turnarounds.
Ardi is an expert on the multi-generational workforce. She understands the four intersecting generations of workers coming together in contemporary companies, each with their own mindsets, leadership and communications styles, values and motivations. Ardi is sought after to assist companies manage and thrive by bringing the generations together. Her book, Fall of the Alphas: How Beta Leaders Win Through Connection, Collaboration and Influence, will be published by St. Martin’s Press. The book reflects Ardi’s deep expertise in understanding organizations and our changing society. It focuses on building a winning culture, how companies must grow and evolve, and how talent influences and shapes communities of work. This is what she has coined “Corporate Anthropology.” It is a playbook on how modern companies must meet challenges – culturally, globally, digitally, across genders and generations.
Ardi is currently the Managing Director and Founder of Corporate Anthropology Advisors, LLC, a consulting company that provides human capital advisory and innovative solutions to companies building value through people. Corporate Anthropology works with organizations, their cultures, the way they grow and develop, and the people who are responsible for forming their communities of work.
Prior to her position at Corporate Anthropology Advisors, Ardi served as a Partner/Managing Director at the private equity firms CCMP Capital and JPMorgan Partners. She was a partner at Flatiron Partners, a venture capital firm working with early state companies where she pioneered the human capital role within an investment portfolio.
Ardi holds a BS from the State University of New York at Buffalo as well as a Masters degree and PhD from Boston College. She started her career as professor at the Graduate Center at Fordham University in New York.
