Meet Jarron Thomas of Jump Institute

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jarron Thomas.

Jarron, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I was born and raised in East Charlotte, NC. As a child, I had a late birthday (December) so I was set to start school late but my mom wasn’t having that and she pushed to get me tested as she thought I was gifted academically. To make a long story short, I tested to be in second grade and ended up being placed in first grade and then I began to go to a magnet school on the other side of town. This would shape my schooling until High School and ultimately shifted my perspective on my personal trajectory at a young age. Even then, I could see that the tools and resources afforded to me at my school were different than that of my friends at our neighborhood school.

At the time, I felt like all of my friends were smart and had the propensity to excel in different areas but I felt like it was about the difference in how we were being engaged. Imagine seeing a video of a car doing donuts and it asking you a question about physics. Something relatable or cool and then adding the education piece to it. When I got to High School, I returned to my neighborhood school for my freshmen year and although I was in Honors classes, the disparities were still ever so present as I had a substitute teacher in my Honors Algebra I class for 3/4 of the school year. When I transferred the following year to play football for a better program I was so behind because I didn’t get the tools I needed that first year. All of this became fuel inside me to figure out one day how to right the ship and level the playing field. Even as a 13 years old in high school I was like this doesn’t make sense. So fast forward a few years after attending a small school my freshmen year to play football I move back to Charlotte to attend UNC Charlotte.

At UNCC, I studied Economics and Sociology and would end up meeting my co-founder who ironically grew up in my same neighborhood. Initially my co-founder at the time and I wanted to do something cool that would change education, we wanted to be the hip-hop Bill Nye the science guys and connect Science and Math with the real-world for students that looked like us. We entered a business accelerator, City Startup Labs, that was focused on creating a class of black male entrepreneurs and won their business pitch competition in 2014 with this idea. Initially we linked up with another startup out of Charlotte led by one of my close friends Khaleel Loyd and the Loyd Visuals team and we shot a small portfolio of videos connecting things like Physics and Skateboarding, the Pythagorean Thereom and football and Fractions as a percent and basketball just to name a few. The money was also enough to build an initial website. I decided from there it was bigger than videos when I connected back to some of my own limitations, fears, and hopes as a kid. I felt like students needed a space to connect to other students with similar interests. A social network of sorts, but we’d refer to it as an ecosystem.

So we began down the path of developing a self-organized learning environment where students serve as both the subject matter experts and the learners. The idea is that they post, pictures, videos, and questions in relation to Science, Tech, Engineering, Arts and Math or answer other students questions and through a point system they are rewarded for doing so. The mission is to leverage students’ social capital to engage them in STEAM. We liked the idea of building a private platform to facilitate this type of learning. The coolest part is that the first magnet school I went to, Oakhurst Paideia Academy, is now a S.T.E.A.M school and at the time we reached out had just re-opened, divine intervention of sorts as I look at it. Over the past three school years, we have been able to build with Oakhurst brick by brick as a community partner testing the online community in a controlled environment. In the past year, we’ve also facilitated an origami mentoring program with Oakhurst and are working with other schools to expand across the school system. It all just started with my desire to expand the opportunities for students who looked like me but with a mindset that it would be accelerated if other kids they connected with were the ones to put them on to the concepts.

Today, I am a hybrid entrepreneur – working full time at Bank of America leading Fraud Strategy for Global Banking & Markets and also full time pushing to expand the Jump Institute network of schools. Outside of Jump, I also sit on the Board of Directors of 100 Black Men of Greater Charlotte leading PR & Communications for the organization. I think every role that I play in my community has this harmony in terms of each one challenging an area of opportunity for me and then lending me the opportunity, to immediately challenge myself by putting feedback or learned lessons into action and pushing the other piece forward.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It’s been the furthest thing from a smooth road. But I laugh saying that actually just thinking about some of the challenges we’ve had to overcome to get to the point we are at today. Even with that point still being miles away from the end goal, we’re cognizant it’s a marathon. The biggest challenge initially was getting past the red tape to get involved with schools. Through some strong partnerships with other community organizations and some due diligence, we have been able to overcome that.

Please tell us about Jump Institute.
Jump Institute is an ed-tech company with a mission to leverage students social capital to engage them in S.T.E.A.M. Our core function is a peer-to-peer private learning community while we also offer auxiliary services in consulting and bubble ball rentals. We are specializing in connecting students across cultures, socio-economic backgrounds, class, and any other factors around their educational interests.

What ultimately sets us apart is that jumpin.io is student-led and student-focused. It’s not about a teacher or illuminator but more so the students perspective or understanding and them sharing that with their peers. The thing I’m most proud of is that we didn’t give up. We’ve been able to work with public as well as some charter schools and community organizations that support each. Ten years from now that will be the only distinguishing quality because I’m certain the only constant will be change. We made pivots where we needed to and have continued to build as we go.

Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
Friday nights at my house were Blockbuster nights. Of course, this was before Netflix or even Redbox but my mom would take my brothers and I to go to pick out a movie at Blockbuster that we would rent for the weekend. My favorite movie was Stand by Me so that was always on my list or The Little Giants.