I remember being little and feeling like I learned wrong.

I did not know then that the way I learned was actually one of my greatest strengths. The things that made me, me were never things I needed to hide or shrink. They were things I needed to understand, nurture and expand into.

I talked too much. I asked a million questions. I could barely wait to blurt out the answer. I moved constantly. Sitting still felt impossible. My mind was always somewhere ahead, making connections, imagining something new, wondering why.

For a long time, I thought learning meant figuring out how to fit myself into the environment around me.

What I eventually learned is that education can do something much more powerful. It can help us understand who we are as learners. It can teach us to respect the way our own minds work while also becoming curious about the many different ways the people around us think, create, question and make sense of the world.

Every learner brings a different way of seeing.

That belief is why my work with the Learning Economy Foundation over the last several years has meant so much to me.

At LEF, we have been working toward a future where learning belongs to the learner. We have built programs, infrastructure and partnerships designed to help people see themselves across learning environments, own the evidence of what they know and can do, and carry that learning with them as they grow.

And now, I get to help bring that vision to our youngest learners.

I am incredibly excited to share a new collaboration between LEF and LearnLand.

On LearnLand, the character stories are designed around different ways of learning, moving, thinking and expressing yourself.

LearnLand is a learning and media company built to help children discover how they learn. Through characters, stories, play and technology, kids can explore their curiosity, understand their strengths, practice new skills and begin building a relationship with learning that is personal to them.

LEF will serve as a fiscal sponsor and strategic partner to LearnLand, bringing together LEF’s work around learner agency, identity, credentials and portable learning with LearnLand’s world of characters, stories and experiences for children and families.

The collaboration creates a bridge between the infrastructure LEF has been building for learner ownership and the experiences LearnLand is creating for children. Learning can begin with a story, a character or a moment of curiosity, then become something a young person can recognize, own and carry with them.

For me, this feels deeply personal.

My role is evolving from Chief Development Officer at LEF to Senior Strategic Advisor, while I step into my role as Co-Founder and Chief Community Officer of LearnLand. I get to continue building alongside a community I love while bringing years of work around learner agency into something designed for children from the very beginning.

Because I keep thinking about that little girl who believed she learned wrong.

What if instead, someone had helped her understand herself?

What if she had been taught that her questions were curiosity, her movement was energy, her excitement was engagement and her way of seeing the world belonged in the classroom too?

What if every child could learn that about themselves?

That is what we are building toward.

Dear learner, this is for you.