January 2025 Update Highlights at a Glance:
- ARK Blockchain Education Initiative Rebrand
- Making Progress in Pasco County
- Encouraging Correspondence with Florida Legislators
- Meetings with House and Senate Education Committee Senior Legislative Aides
The “Ardent” Blockchain Education Initiative
Although we began under the banner of the ARK SCIC, our first piece of news revolves around our soft rebrand using our U.S. affiliate, Ardent. The reason for this is two-fold:
- Our leadership team believed it made more strategic sense to continue conversations with legislators and school board members by focusing on our U.S. open-source software development company. Though the philanthropic mission is funded by the ARK Ecosystem SCIC out of France, focusing on the U.S. entity better aligns our interests and opens more doors in the Sunshine State.
- In our continuing conversations with the ARK Educate team, both sides thought it best to use the Ardent name to remove any confusion between our two programs. We will be meeting with Cathie and Caitlin Wood next month to chat about the next steps between our organizations.
While the name has changed, the mission remains the same: to build relationships with people in power who can make blockchain education a reality for students all across the state of Florida.
Making Progress in Pasco
I kicked off the month of January by addressing the Pasco for the second time, providing many of the updates that had happened since my first appearance in early October of last year.
Then, just this past week, I received an email from Bobbi Starling, the Senior Specialist for Computer Science K-12 in the Office of Leading and Learning. She and I will be meeting next week with her supervisor, Matt Wicks, to discuss what sort of opportunities we can provide to Pasco students.
Stay tuned for an update next month in the February review!
Encouraging Correspondence with Florida Legislators
At the start of the new year, rather than focus solely on Florida legislators who cover my home county of Hillsborough, I began outreach to the legislators who serve throughout Florida as members of the Education Committee in the Senate and Education and Workforce Committee in the House.
I received some interesting follow-ups, some from the aides, and some from a few of the legislators themselves who asked for additional information and/or links. But this response from Representative Rita Harris reaffirmed my personal passion for bringing innovative education to our students:
Meetings with House and Senate Education Committee Senior Legislative Aides
I followed up my emails about a week later with phone calls to each of the Senators and Representatives offices in Tallahassee, either thanking them for writing back or asking if they had seen my email. This led to a couple of meetings over the last two weeks, and a few more on the horizon in the weeks to come.
Last week I had an excellent meeting with Sasha O’Kane, the legislative aide to Representative Dana Trabulsy. I provided a more detailed overview of what we have accomplished in the first six months of our outreach, and she asked great questions about blockchain and how it will impact our future.
On the heels of this call, I then met with Michael Brien, legislative aide to Senator Thompson. He provided a wealth of insight into how to approach other legislators, request meetings, and further build relationships with public officials in Tallahassee. He noted how Senator Thompson was a college professor for 30 years, and as an educator herself looks forward to meeting with us directly next month before the legislative session begins.
With lots of exciting activity planned for February, stay tuned for next month’s installment of the Ardent Blockchain Education Initiative!
