Passionate Educator Teaches How to Make What Matters
Photo courtesy of Clarissa Ngo
“I still remember when he was sixteen and so upset about losing his first girlfriend he was hanging upside-down from my couch!” Clarissa reminisces, lighting up with a smile as she speaks of an old student.
“He moaned, ‘She just wants to be friends and didn’t even say why.’ ‘Want to write a poem about it?’ I asked, knowing doing so would be cathartic.”
“Okay,” he said.
“Well, the next day, he brought his poem to school, and his teacher and all the girls were so amazed, he got to be quite popular with the ladies,” Clarissa says, laughing.
“He started to love and work even harder on poetry and storytelling after that, and eventually, he studied storytelling in college. He rose through the ranks of a Fortune 500 company and got nominated for a major industry award for storytelling."
"That is the power of learning how to express yourself with words.”
The nation recently was imbued with hope through just this power when Inaugural Poet Amanda Gorman stepped onstage.
“The same elements Gorman used to give us hope -- blooming cinematic pictures in people’s minds, creating music and rhythm when she spoke, using her voice as an instrument of power, and her face and gestures to tell her story -- these are what I teach my students and more,” Clarissa affirms.
For 23 years, Clarissa Ngo of Imaginate Ink has been quietly teaching students in person and virtually worldwide to rise and give others hope.
Eight of her students have given TED talks. Some have founded charities with global impact and multinational businesses. Others have won James Beard awards, become surgeons, developed virtual reality for Facebook, and designed self-driving cars. Her students become young people with the heart and tools to help the world.
As a teen Emagineer, Stephanie Engle used her love of photography to reveal the beauty in others. (This photo launched her friend’s modeling career.) As an adult, she turned her skills to designing virtual reality for Facebook, self-driving cars for GM's Cruise, and augmented reality, cameras, and toys at Snap/Courtesy of Clarissa Ngo
“I’ve done this for 23 years through word-of-mouth alone. Now that my students have become lighthouses in the world, I think it’s time I shared how more people can become lighthouses,” Clarissa says with excitement.
“The learning adventure system my students and I created is called Emagination Island.”
Image by Clarissa’s 16-year-old students Andrea Chang and Angelina Lyon/Courtesy of Clarissa Ngo
A Different Kind of Teacher
Clarissa Ngo, the founder of Imaginate Ink, her teaching business, and Chief “Emagineer” for Emagination Island, her learning adventure, is a different kind of teacher.
Photo courtesy of Clarissa Ngo
“For too long, we’ve put our kids through a factory education system invented in the Industrial Age designed to spit out cookie-cutter kids so they could be interchangeable cogs in a machine,” Clarissa says.
“Now robots automate tasks. We need our kids to learn how to cross-pollinate and innovate to solve world problems.”
“For instance, did you know art is math in disguise? Take the golden ratio (1:1.618), the secret mathematical formula behind everything beautiful—from a model’s face to a nautilus shell to the way leaves catch the sunlight for photosynthesis."
"Even though you need to know math to be a good artist and vice versa, we artificially segregate subjects in schools and divorce them from the real world. No wonder kids feel disengaged.”
In contrast, Clarissa teaches kids to find a cause to champion. She guides students to make something to help their cause, then teaches them storytelling, marketing, and charisma, so they can sell it to help the world.
Film still: Two of Clarissa’s Emagineers selling books they made for charity as depicted in a film by 14-year-old Emagineer Tony Zeng/Courtesy of Clarissa Ngo
“In making something that matters for a cause they care about, students discover their potential to help the world,” Clarissa says.
Few of her students come to her on fire. Indeed, the ones who transformed from directionless and disillusioned to impassioned and empowered have been the most satisfying. It means she turned someone who was lost (or simply being a typical teenager) into a lighthouse.
Eileen Chen, one of Clarissa's "lighthouses"/Courtesy of Clarissa Ngo
The Quest
Clarissa never dreamed she would be a teacher. “When I was 17, I thought I was going to be an astronaut,” Clarissa says, laughing. “I think Harvard got cheated when they took me. Hopefully, they’ll forgive me when they see I’ve developed a learning adventure method that works.”
Film still from “The Transformational Power of Story” shot by 16-year-old Tony Zeng/Courtesy of Clarissa Ngo
Clarissa says the secret to a life of freedom and joy is simple. “Be meticulous, go the extra mile, think outside the box, and savor giving to others who appreciate your gifts and pass them on. This is what my parents taught me and what I pass on to my students."
“Even if you don’t yet know your path, if you engage in daily curiosity quests, open your mind to all the wondrous things in the world, and live by these four principles, you will attain the freedom and joy so many crave but few attain.”
While some of Clarissa’s students come to her wanting to get into Ivy League colleges, she advises them it isn’t getting into a fancy college that makes you happy. Instead, it’s becoming a lighthouse to others.
Photo by Johannes Plenio/Pexels
“I won all kinds of national awards as a kid. I danced with the Joffrey Ballet. I was one of ten in the nation to win a full scholarship to NASA Space Camp. I was the first runner up to Miss Teen California. In short, I was passionate and curious,” Clarissa says.
“Most vitally, I was fortunate to come from a family that filled our house with books and dancing and music. My parents taught me to love figuring out how to do things better for the sheer joy of it and to share.”
Clarissa dancing in a park in New York/Courtesy of Clarissa Ngo
“However,” Clarissa says, “it wasn’t all those accolades that made me jump out of bed in the morning. I used to want to be special, but it wasn’t until I made other people special that I found true joy. That’s why I teach people to become lighthouses.”
“Another thing to know is you should follow what sparks you,” Clarissa says. “I never realized learning acting and dancing and musical theater would one day help me help my students do TED talks and create films to promote their causes and the books they created with their own hands.
Film by 13 year old Tony Zeng
“My youngest student is four, and my oldest is seventy,” Clarissa says, laughing. “I teach everyone from little kids to moms who want to do more to doctors and CEOs.
"I can help such a wide range of people because I listen to wisdom and podcasts and stories every day. In stories, we find out how to become better and avoid the mistakes others make. Stories teach us to live many lives in one.”
Emagination Island
Clarissa’s dream is to bring Emagination Island, her personal, cause-based education system she developed with her students, to the world to change education everywhere.
“The worst thing is to put children through a factory school system that teaches them to wait for directions blindly. They learn to compete instead of collaborating, that only a few kids can earn A’s, and that ‘There’s only one answer. It’s in the back of the book; don’t look,’” Clarissa says.
“I loved it when Sir Ken Robinson said that. That’s just it—in the real world, there’s more than one correct answer, and often, it’s from the person who thinks outside-the-box. That’s why Peter Diamandis set up the X-Prize—to give everyone a chance to solve world problems.
“And you know what? One finalist for providing better oil spill cleanup solutions was a team from a Las Vegas tattoo parlor. That’s what I’m talking about when I say we need to teach our kids to cross-pollinate to innovate and not be blinded by ‘expertise.’"
"This is why they shouldn’t think their teachers or textbooks have all the answers. I love it when my students point out I’m wrong!” she says, laughing.
“As the late Sir Ken Robinson said in his celebrated TED talk, “Do Schools Kill Creativity,” we bewail wasting natural resources, but worse still is to waste our human resources. We do this every time we put our children through a school system that fails to recognize that there’s more than just IQ when it comes to intelligence.
Some kids create visual art that moves us. Some have a natural affinity for dance. Some are great with people, and so much more. We need to celebrate all these kinds of intelligence, so we do not make our kids think they are dumb when they are not.”
“So this is why I developed Emagination Island with my students,” Clarissa says. “To celebrate all kinds of intelligence and to cultivate kids’ creativity (which is even more important than intelligence). I want to build kids’ confidence by teaching them to make something that matters and how to sell it to the world to aid their cause.”
Teen Emagineer Valerie Ihara's painting of guests inside a wooden hot air balloon in a public space. They enjoy the kid-crafted books, podcasts, videos, Minecraft learning adventure rides, and cause-based websites Clarissa's students have made./Courtesy of Clarissa Ngo
After 23 years, Clarissa is finally releasing the secret method she’s worked on for so long.
“It’s transformed so many kids. I can no longer keep it to such a small student circle,” Clarissa said. “People need hope in this pandemic, and my students have been doing better instead of worse because they have a purpose beyond themselves to work on daily.
“Lastly, I heard Sapien’s author Noah Yuval Harari say humanity has 100-200 years left before we may self-extinguish due to our errors. The amazing thing about education is that in 12 years, we can shape an entirely new generation of kids who are on fire to solve our problems and know how to do it.
Where to Learn More
Clarissa is now starting to post her students’ work on the Emagination Island website. She is proud of how her students have grown as human beings through their projects.
By learning about different causes, students become aware of the world around them and begin to discern what their role may be. By choosing a cause to champion, students work toward something larger than themselves and gain a sense of confidence in being able to make a difference.
By applying their creativity to their cause and going the extra mile at every step, they develop valuable life skills ranging from how to inspire with storytelling, how to create work that is both useful and visually pleasing, marketing, public speaking, and persistence. They also learn practical skills such as website development, podcasting, video-making, and more.
When they sometimes fail or don't get the results they were expecting, Clarissa encourages them by reminding them what a great story they'll have to tell when they keep trying and eventually succeed. Many have used their stories of persistence to craft successful college application essays.
Digital art by teen Emagineer Angelina Lyon/Courtesy of Clarissa Ngo
Others are impressed, as evidenced by the quality of the universities to which her school-age students are admitted and the scholarships they receive. She hopes their work inspires others.
“Come visit us at EmaginationIsland.com,” Clarissa says, smiling. “The kids and I put up a sneak preview of what we have to share with you, and in the coming weeks, we’ll be adding more. It’s a lot of work to put up a decade’s worth of material, but we’re going to try.”
EmaginationIsland.com will soon offer:
1. Emagination Library: a collection of kid-crafted books either written and illustrated by kids or written by kids. Some kids are offering free downloadable book PDFs, while others are selling theirs to raise money for a cause to help the world. Sample here.
Book cover by teen Emagineer Avril Jensen/Courtesy of Avril Jensen
2. Emagination Island on Vimeo: a collection of animated videos the kids made about their books and causes
Film still from “Harold the Hippo” by 14-year-old Emagineer Tony Zeng/Courtesy of Clarissa Ngo
3. Emagination Island Podcast on iTunes and SoundCloud
Logo by teen Emagineer Andrea Chang/Courtesy of Clarissa Ngo
4. Emagination Treasure Hunts. Sample here.
Treasure Hunt to teach kids about sea creatures by teen Emagineer Angelina Lyon/Courtesy of Clarissa Ngo
5. Emagineers’ Websites. Sample here.
Photo from the website of Teen Emagineer Angelina Lyon/Courtesy of Clarissa Ngo
6. Emagination Island on Minecraft. Sample here.
Image of Minecraft ride to learn about cows and global warming by teen Emagineer Kylie Chang/Courtesy of Clarissa Ngo
References
- Sir Ken Robinson’s TED talk “Do Schools Kill Creativity?”
- Seth Godin’s TED Talk “Stop Stealing Dreams”
#Education #EducationalReform #EducationSystem #EmaginationIsland #ClarissaNgo
Most PopularWelcome to NewsBreak, an open platform where diverse perspectives converge. Most of our content comes from established publications and journalists, as well as from our extensive network of tens of thousands of creators who contribute to our platform. We empower individuals to share insightful viewpoints through short posts and comments. It’s essential to note our commitment to transparency: our Terms of Use acknowledge that our services may not always be error-free, and our Community Standards emphasize our discretion in enforcing policies. We strive to foster a dynamic environment for free expression and robust discourse through safety guardrails of human and AI moderation. Join us in shaping the news narrative together.
Comments / 0