Dan Gonzalez | District C - Show Notes
A Reimagined Internship with Dan Gonzalez
Welcome to the Education Equation podcast where host Jeremy Singer talks with Dan Gonzalez, co-founder and co-CEO of District C, a national nonprofit. Dan's career spans engineering, education, and corporate leadership, and he shares his unique journey from teaching physics to leading the test prep company Manhattan Prep as its president.
In 2016, Dan and his wife, Anne Jones, launched District C to address a crucial gap between academic learning and the collaborative skills students need for the modern workforce. Their solution, called Teamship, is a reimagined internship model where student teams solve real-world problems for real businesses.
Key Takeaways
- Finding Purpose: Dan explains how he found purpose in the "unlikeliest of places"—a crisis at Manhattan Prep—where a team rallied together to protect the company they had built after a major security breach. This experience taught him the importance of a common purpose in professional life.
- The Problem with Traditional Education: Dan argues that the education system often prepares "two-point players" for a "three-point economy" by focusing on individual achievement rather than essential collaborative and problem-solving skills. Teamship aims to develop these "three-point skills" that are valued by every employer.
- Teamship's Model: The Teamship program involves teams of 3−4 students who work on a real business problem over 4−6 weeks. The time commitment for the business partner is intentionally light—just 5 hours total—and an educator trained by District C serves as the coach. Dan provides examples of typical projects, which fall into categories such as operations, marketing, or human resources.
- Challenges of Scaling: The biggest challenge for scaling District C is getting school districts to adopt the program, as it doesn't have an existing "vessel" or a specific class where it easily fits. Dan hopes to solve this by creating a dedicated space for this type of programming within the school day.
Why You Should Listen
This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in the future of education and workforce development. Dan Gonzalez offers a compelling look at how to bridge the gap between classroom learning and the skills students need to succeed in the real world. He discusses the power of a shared purpose, the challenges of scaling educational innovation, and the importance of preparing the next generation with essential collaborative skills.
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