85. How to Instill an Innovative Growth Mindset in Education and in Future Career Opportunities with Amelia Sofjan
Jun 19, 2024
Sonia Cacique
In this episode of the College and Career Ready podcast, Sonia interviews Amelia Sofjan, a passionate educator and recent founder of Masterpiece an Acton Academy.
Amelia shares her inspiring journey from immigrating to the U.S. at age 11, discovering her passion for teaching and chemistry, to pursuing a dream career in pharmacy education.
She discusses her innovative approach to teaching, emphasizing the importance of character development, freedom, and responsibility in learning. Amelia reveals how her experience with Acton Academy inspired her to apply this approach with her adult learners, a class of pharmacy students, and saw much success within that timeframe.
That led her to create an unconventional private school that focuses on real-world skills over standardized tests. The conversation also explores the significance of failure, growth mindset, and the role of parents in shaping their children's education. Tune in to learn how Amelia is challenging the status quo in education and preparing the next generation for meaningful careers.
🚀 I'll help you rediscover who you truly are, provide clarity towards your future and be your personalized coach with Multiple Service Package options. Your Coach Sonia is ready to help you!
In this episode of the College and Career Ready podcast, Sonia interviews Amelia Sofjan, a passionate educator and recent founder of Masterpiece an Acton Academy.
Amelia shares her inspiring journey from immigrating to the U.S. at age 11, discovering her passion for teaching and chemistry, to pursuing a dream career in pharmacy education.
She discusses her innovative approach to teaching, emphasizing the importance of character development, freedom, and responsibility in learning. Amelia reveals how her experience with Acton Academy inspired her to apply this approach with her adult learners, a class of pharmacy students, and saw much success within that timeframe.
That led her to create an unconventional private school that focuses on real-world skills over standardized tests. The conversation also explores the significance of failure, growth mindset, and the role of parents in shaping their children's education. Tune in to learn how Amelia is challenging the status quo in education and preparing the next generation for meaningful careers.
🚀 I'll help you rediscover who you truly are, provide clarity towards your future and be your personalized coach with Multiple Service Package options. Your Coach Sonia is ready to help you!
"Stay well, be present, and enjoy the journey"
Amelia:
growth mindset is believing that your abilities are not fixed and that it can grow over time. I'm a big proponent of growth mindset because if a learner has a growth mindset, They're really equipped to overcome so many challenges that they will see as an adult, versus if they have a fixed mindset this mindset that my abilities are fixed, I'm just not good at math, or I'm just not good at communicating right versus, I'm not good at math yet, This is Amelia Sofia, and you're listening to the college and career ready podcast.
Amelia Sofian discusses her journey from clinical assistant professor at University of Houston College of Pharmacy to educating students in her new school, Masterpiece and Acton Academy, a school focusing on character development and real world skills. I am so excited Amelia and I connected because there should be more of us advocating for students to be seen as an individual and not just as a grade, as a pass or fail, or as a numeric digit within a system. I'm so excited to share this conversation with you today. So without further ado, let's get started.
Sonia:
Hi, Amelia. How are you doing today? I'm good. Sonia. How are you? I'm good. Thank you for being a guest of the college and career ready podcast. I'm super excited to have you here today.
Amelia:
Thank you. I'm really excited to be here. It's an honor. I love what you're doing. And so thank you for the opportunity.
Sonia:
let's dive right in. Why don't you give our audience a quick bio of yourself, who you are and, what made us connect?
Amelia:
Absolutely. Sure. So I am first and foremost, a wife and a mom of two young boys. I live here in Paralim. Um, I immigrated with my family from Indonesia to Houston when I was 11 years old. And growing up, um, teaching has always been my passion. So my mom told me that when I was five or six years old, when I did pretend play with my friends, I would pretend to be the teacher. And I would make my friends be my students. So my poor friends, but that love for teaching really followed me throughout. Um, so, you know, I served as a tutor in high school and college. And along the way, I discovered two more passions, which were my love for chemistry and for connecting with people. And so because of that, I decided to pursue a career in pharmacy. So I thought it would be a nice blend of my three passions. And my dream was that when I finished pharmacy school, I would work at a college of pharmacy where I get to teach students and also be a pharmacist. Right. Um, and I was very fortunate that that actually happened. I was offered my dream job 10 years ago. Um, and I was invited to join as an infection. just disease as a clinical assistant professor at the Houston College of Pharmacy. And this really has been my dream job, uh, for the past 10 years, because I get to teach students. I also get to practice as a pharmacist and serve patients. Right. And I thought I would retire here. But the Lord had something else in mind. Um, so I actually just resigned from that position, uh, last month, um, to open an innovative private school called Masterpiece and Acton Academy for my children and families in our Paralim community. Oh my goodness.
Sonia:
I love, I love your story. Um, because You know, you are the prime example of what's happening today in the job and in the career field is that people are following their passions in the season of life that they're in. So there was a season for where you were at. You maximize that opportunity. You loved it. You enjoyed it. It's not like you're saying, Oh my gosh, I was, you know, a professor for 10 years and I hated my job. No, you were passionate and you loved it. But in this season of your life, you are going back to some of those innate skills that you had from the very beginning of continuing to be in education. But now you're, you're challenging in, you're challenging the status quo in education. And, we had a great conversation about that. So tell our audience what this innovative way of teaching our next generation is all about.
Amelia:
Absolutely. Yes. So I'll kind of Give a 10, 000 foot view of what Masterpiece Enactment Academy is all about, and then how I took this leap of faith. Does that sound good? Yeah, sounds perfect. Okay. So masterpiece and acting Academy. What we're about is we are about emphasizing character development and real world skills over passing tests. And we trust children with freedom and responsibility for their own learning. So imagine a school where your children are free to learn at their own pace. to move in the classroom and to question a place where we instill character traits like grit, empathy, and kindness, uh, and a place where they get to develop skills that will help them thrive in the real world, like communication, critical thinking skills, and taking responsibility for their own learning journey, right? And ultimately, our mission is to help them discover who they are. So they can find their calling and go change the world. So that's what our school is all about. Now, how did I take this leap of faith? So as I was sharing with you, uh, Sonia, when we first met, um, teaching, because it has been my number one passion, I was Always looking for innovative ways to better engage my learners in the classroom because I noticed there was increased level of disengagement over time. Well, one day I just stumbled upon Acton Academy, this really unconventional school that started out in 2009. But now has grown into a network of 300 private schools across 23 countries. Yeah, so I was feeling really curious and I decided to dive into this book called Courage to Grow, which is essentially a day in the life of Acton Academy. And the funny thing is the book said that if you decide to read it, warning, you might end up wanting to open your own Acton Academy. Well, guess what? That's exactly what happened to me. Right. But of course, I wasn't ready to make such a life changing decision after reading a book. So what I did was I actually experimented with Acton methods in my own college classroom. So I basically created a brand new course where there were no lectures, no tests, There were still plenty of assessments, but they were skills based and I trusted my learners to peer grade and peer evaluate each other. So trusting the more with more power in their learning journey, right? And this was probably only 10 percent of active methods, but that 10 percent just sparked a transformation, like the depth of learning and the love for learning that I witnessed just exceeded all of my expectations as a teacher. And one learner wrote a comment And on my course evaluation that I'll never forget, he basically wrote, I could have gotten a C in the course and not cared because I truly enjoyed the challenges in this course. I wanted to meet the course objectives and just learn as much as possible. And for me, Sonia, that was the dream. That was my dream as a teacher. Sure. Right. Where learners just focus on the joy of learning and not worry about the grades. And so I realized that I didn't want this kind of education just for my learners. I wanted it for my own children. And so after praying about it for many, many months and, you know, battling my own inner monsters, there were plenty of those. Um, I finally took a leap of faith. To leave that decade long career and to start a new journey.
Sonia:
Oh my gosh. Okay. I need a moment here to process this because this is everything I'm passionate and I speak about. And here you have real world experience with adult learners that you have tested these strategies and you have seen the effect. Why? Because you're diving into their personal why they're their personal skills, abilities and interests. So you're, you're creating that engagement first and foremost, and then you are allowing them to discover at their own pace and get that motivation. And I think this is something that we're going to see in the generations to come. Mark my words. Um, they are looking for careers where they are passionate about, they're engaged and and we talked about this. Um, when we met in person, I take the word passionate loosely because in the high school years or before it's, it's exploration years, years for them to discover interest, explore opportunities. Now, passions can suddenly be. Um, and I think that's something that we discovered and identified definitely in, you know, middle school and high school, maybe in college, but you've got to expose students to the opportunities out there. And I love the fact that you talk so much about character development. I mean, now you're not just having a student in the classroom, you're having a real human being who you're connecting with. And I think that was beautiful. I think that was a big piece of your success is really diving into the real world experiences with them through this, this new platform. What did your students think when they came into the classroom when they heard that this is, this is going to be a new, a new system of learning? Yeah,
Amelia:
honestly, I don't think they knew what to expect because there was no other course like this in the college. And so I took the first two days just to kind of orient them to what is this class about? Why did I make it this way? Right? And I really wanted them to focus on the why. Why are you guys here? What do you want to get out of this? Right? And then why did I structure it this way? It's for your own learning benefit. And let me show you why. Right? So I think the hook. During that first two classroom sessions were so important because now they're rooted in the fact that she cares about my learning journey. She cares about my success. And so I'm going to be invested in this. So I think setting the stage setting the expectations and letting them know that you care about their development and you're there for their success. Really set up the entire course.
Sonia:
Wow. Did you, did you encounter any hesitation from faculty? Um, you know, administrators, those who basically give you the green lights, to implement this in the classroom.
Amelia:
Great question. So because this course was an elective, I did not experience too many pushback, uh, because it was that I'm a required course, right? So I had a lot more freedom to experiment. And that's actually why I decided to implement in an elective course so that I had more freedom to experiment. Um, because it was so new, you know, I think people were just kind of watching me in the back to see how it went. And then after the first year or two, I got to share my success story with my faculty. So now they're More interested in learning about peer to peer assessment, giving students more power in the classroom. So I think it's opening up doors for possibilities.
Sonia:
That's beautiful. I love how you are completely challenging the status quo. I know a lot of parents are thinking, Well, what if I give them too much freedom in their learning? Have you encountered That concern.
Amelia:
I have. I have encountered that concern with prospective parents for my current school, right? And so I think my typical response would be when it comes to when it comes to education. We want to begin with the end in mind, right? And the end in mind is our Children are going to be adults who are free, right? They have complete freedom over their lives, and their lives is going to be about the choices that they make. So while they're still with us, what I am a big proponent of is to give freedom within limits, right? Our children need limits. And when we set that limits as adults, they're likely going to create their own limits. But it's so important to give them choices and freedom because then they learn to make good choices and bad choices and experience natural consequences of those choices. So then when they're no longer with us. They can make wiser and better choices. That
Sonia:
is so beautifully said, because one of the things I advocate for, and which is why I created this podcast is because of the gap that we have between the transition from high school to college and college to careers, and this is. Solves that problem. The problem we're having right now is that we're going from a system in high school where everything is programmed, everything's organized and structured, and our students don't have to think they don't have to, you know, create time management skills. And then they go from there to college where it's complete freedom. And guess what? 32 percent of our undergraduate students do not complete their degree. 32 percent because nobody transitioned that. So this is so beautifully said that within limits we can provide those those segments of freedom for students to basically take charge of their own learning.
Amelia:
Exactly. Exactly. And like you said, when they are still, um, you know, in our home, it's still They typically are not as high, right? And so I will share a story with you. Um, um, that I had while I was serving at U of H. So I had a learner who completely missed an exam by five hours because he overslept and he ended up having to take a zero on that exam. And then he ultimately failed the course and had to be held back a year. So in this case, um, and he explained to me that he did that because he studied all night. He pulled up. All nighter, and then he was just too exhausted and did not hear his alarm. Right. So this was an instance where a learner made a poor choice, and the stakes were very, very high. Right. And so what I want to encourage parents to do and reminding myself to do is that when something like this happens to our children, let's say they don't wake up for school, and they're going to miss a quiz. Because of that, I would encourage parents to let them take that zero in that quiz when they're in high school when the stakes are lower because they will learn from that. And what I experienced as a professor probably won't happen again, if that makes sense.
Sonia:
Yes, that makes complete total sense and that's where you mentioned the natural consequences instead of saying you are grounded for a whole week and you don't get to see your friends or I'm going to take away your phone. They're receiving the natural consequence. I love that growth mindset explain to our audience with a growth mindset is
Amelia:
sure. So I think very simply a growth mindset is believing that your abilities are not fixed and that it can grow over time. So this believe that, uh, the believe in neuroplasticity, right, that our brain develops and grow over time. Uh, and I'm a big proponent of growth mindset because I think if a learner has a growth mindset, they are. They're really equipped to overcome so many challenges that they will see as an adult, versus if they have a fixed mindset this mindset that my abilities are fixed, like, I'm just not good at math, or I'm just not good at communicating right versus, you know, I'm not good at math yet, but I can be. If I practice, right? Yes.
Sonia:
I love that. I love that. I always add, I love that you said yet, because I always, the students that I coach, when they say, Oh, I can't. And I always say yet. So I want to remind them exactly what you're saying, that there is a growth mindset. Um, my daughter for so many years, She was like, I don't like math. I'm not good at math. I'm not good at math. We heard that, you know, for a couple of years. And then suddenly she had a great, amazing, um, teacher that instilled the love. Of math to the point where She became skilled at math that then she was saying, Oh, I love math. I'm so good at math. And again, it was that one opportunity that a teacher came in to really change her mindset on how to see math. And it really has helped her to now, you know, saying that she loves math.
Amelia:
I love it. I love it. Yeah. Sometimes we just have to follow the child and
Sonia:
wait for that time. Yeah, absolutely. So tell me how some of these skills that you're teaching and that we're advocating for the character development, the growth mindset, um, the freedom, um, of, or in responsibility of their own learning. How is this going to apply in the career in the real world? Within their careers.
Amelia:
Absolutely. Right. So freedom and responsibility. So when they go out, um, and they find a career and they have a real job, right? More than likely their bosses, most bosses are not going to micromanage, right? They're going to give them set responsibilities and plenty of freedom on how to manage those tasks. So if you give them those, um, exposure now, they'll be set up for success when they have to do it as an adult, having a real job, right? Um, growth mindset. I would say a lot of people have to learn new skills on the job. Right. We come to a job. Yes. Having our degree. We know a lot of things, but there's so many things you have to learn on the job that you just don't know at the beginning. And if you have a growth mindset, you will see those opportunities as challenges that you can overcome that. Yes, I can learn new things. I know how to learn. Right. But if they don't have that, then that is going to be such a, such a challenging task. And it may be a hindrance from, for them, um, to go forward in their calling or in their careers. and then things like, mindset is to redefine what failure is. So I have a professor who said that fail stands for first attempt in learning. And I love, yes, because I have just met so many learners who are just so afraid of failure and don't know how to cope with failure, right? But we're gonna encounter failures, um, when you are a student in college or when you're in your jobs, it's just a part of life, right? But if we can embrace failure as a part of learning, and as necessary, it's really going to help you wherever you go, whatever journey. You take
Sonia:
that is so perfectly said, especially because and I have experienced this myself, you know, with the students I interact with and, and, you know, As active as I am in the community with the youth. Yeah. Sometimes it's not that the parents are creating this pressure. Sometimes it is, but some, but for the most part, it's the pressure they put on themselves, whether it's society, whether it's. whether it's education, I factors. But they, they are much pressure that they'r because they're so afraid I'll give you a perfect e Children see our youth se media and social media ha I will never say that we need to get rid of it completely, but they go to social media and they see the best of best of everything, right? They don't see the process. They don't see the journey. They don't see that it took so many failures. So they don't know that to get that one. Yes. They had to first get nine no's. And so it's so important for us as community members, as parents, as educators, to really help them understand that we actually want them to fail and fail fast. Because the quicker they fill, the quicker they will learn and the quicker they will grow.
Amelia:
Exactly. I could not agree more. And, you know, I think as parents, as both you and I are moms, I think, you know, what we can do as parents Parents is to share our moments of failure with our Children, because this is something that I do with my learners, um, to just create a more vulnerable setting. But because sometimes learners put teachers in this pedestal. That teachers know everything. Teachers don't make mistakes. But as soon as I share, you know what, I have failed miserably. Let me tell you about my failures and what I learned from it. Right. And I think when our children hear that from their parents, then failures become more acceptable and are not something to be fearful of.
Sonia:
Yes. And that reminds me, you mentioned something earlier about imposter syndrome. We didn't mention the word at the time, but, you know, you gave examples of how, students start questioning their ability and, or when you're out in the workforce, you finish your education and students, if you have student listeners, I'm going to tell you the. The real honest truth. You will graduate with your degree because we all did as professionals. And then you will get into, you will transition into your career. And guess what? You're not going to know all the answers. And you're going to feel like you're an imposter. Like who am I to be in this career in this role with this degree? And I don't know all the answers. Well, you won't know the answers. Right off the bat, but there is a learning curve that has to happen in order for you to continue to grow. That's where the growth mindset comes into play.
Amelia:
Exactly. Exactly. And so now when I first started my career at U of H, I struggled with imposter syndrome. I think I still do from, from, um, day to day on certain days. And I think it's just part of. That journey, right? And I wish I could have told myself 10 years ago that it's okay not to know everything. And there are people around you who want to help you. But first you have to overcome your pride and be humble and ask for help. Right because I was afraid to ask for help because I didn't want people to think that I didn't know what I was doing. So in a sense, I was like my students so I have some of my students are actually afraid to come to exam reviews, Sonia because they're afraid their friends would see them as stupid. Because only people who make mistakes on exam go to exam reviews, but the purpose of exam reviews is so you can review what you did wrong so you can be better on your next exams, right? And so, um, yeah, this imposter syndrome I think can be so detrimental, detrimental to us and prevent us from being, um, who we're meant to be and reaching our full potential. So, couldn't agree more.
Sonia:
Yeah, and this goes back to our audience. This goes back to what Amelia and I are teaching. And there's so many parallels. I love this. We are teaching character development. We are teaching our children, our youth to be inquisitive. To ask questions to discover themselves to identify their skills to abilities to get that passion back that that feeling of wanting to conquer the world, and from there, then guide them through years of exploration, the years of From K to 12 should be exploration, not defining. There's so much they can learn and explore together. and this is what, what Amelia and I are doing is we're advocating for us to all redefine, you know, the education system. Do they need to learn the four cores? Yes. You know, they need to know math, the English, the reading, the social studies, they need to know that they need to know the academic. But where are we filling the gap in their character development and discovering themselves? Because once they do, then they'll feel their own self esteem will be empowered for them to this, to dream bigger than what they could have ever imagined. And so this is important. And so now we want to transition to the last phase that I have a question for you, which is all right. Students have discovered themselves and they're exploring careers. How can we create exposure to careers and opportunities that they would have never even thought of if they had not seen it themselves.
Amelia:
That's a great question. I think this is where people come in. Our learners our children have to be connected with. Right? Because I, I think most learners just know, a very limited set of careers or things that they can go into, right? Can be a doctor, a lawyer, a teacher. But then if you just connect with people in your community, you'll be surprised at the kind of jobs people actually hold. Like, wow, I didn't know that kind of jobs existed. That's super cool, right? And so I think teaching, um, our learners the power of connecting with your community, connecting with others around you, listening to their stories and how they get there is so important so that they can be exposed to other things. Besides what they typically learn in school. Yeah,
Sonia:
that's beautiful. Especially for our learners. That, maybe they haven't had that much exposure. But, it's honestly the same thing if, you know, a child, both parents are engineers. Or both parents are doctors. And, maybe the child, is designed is created in a way that they want to pursue a different type of career. If they don't have that exposure, they would never know that there's a possibility for them to, dream even bigger using their own skills, abilities. I have truly enjoyed our conversation, Amelia, and you have shared so many insights. Is there anything that you'd like to share with our audience for our parent listeners? Maybe two or three takeaways that they can do today in their home with their Children to start creating that growth mindset.
Amelia:
Yes So for parents, I will definitely say I really believe that education starts at home, right? And so we are really are Children's biggest influencers and educators. So I think a couple of things. So we can do to instill growth mindset is one to praise process and effort, instead of praising innate abilities or fixed abilities. So instead of saying, Wow, John, you're so smart, we can say instead, Wow, I can tell you work really hard on that project and look at the outcome. Or going back to what we talked about, if John says, Mom, I'm really not good at math. So instead of saying, Well, some people are just not good at math. Then we can say, well, you're not good at it yet. But with enough practice and guidance, you can be great at math and you will be right and a really great resource for this that I use as a parent. Because is that easy to kind of change the way we praise our Children, right? It takes time. So there's a website called mindset works dot com and parents can go on there. Go under the home resource and download this PDF. Um, that they, um, that they have created. And the title of the PDF is say this Not that. So it gives phrases that parents can use to give, uh, praises that will help their children to have a growth mindset. So some very practical things that you can start doing. I have that PDF, um, taped to my wall on my kitchen table to remind me on how to praise my children the right way. Um, second thing I would say, I think it's a question that I would like parents to reflect on. So, like I mentioned before, I really believe we are the biggest influencers in our children's lives. So, the question that I'd like for parents to think about is, Are we working so hard to make our children become who we want them to be? Or do we see them as who they truly are? This amazing human being with their own unique abilities and talents and helping them become who they were meant to be. Beautiful,
Sonia:
beautiful. I love it because these are great tips that parents, no matter in what education system your child is in, whether public, private, and you're going to tell us a little bit about acting in a minute, no matter what system they're in, these are things that you can take control of in your own home. It's how you process what they are currently doing now in the classroom that you can change the way they see it. And can actually create a growth mindset from it. Yes. Yes, exactly. I love it. Emilia. So to wrap up, tell us about your school. When will it open? we'll create a a shout out for your school.
Amelia:
Oh, thank you. Sure. So we are serving children ages four to 11. We are located in the Paraline Town Center. We're currently enrolling. Families right now, and we will be opening in August. And so, if you want to learn more about us, you can go to our website, MasterpieceAcademy. org. And you can contact me there, it'll go directly to my email inbox, I'd love to connect with you. And you can also follow us on Instagram or Facebook. Um, and
Sonia:
I'll make sure to have all the, links on our show notes, including the book that you recommended parents to read And it's been a pleasure having you here. I hope this is just the first of many more to come because there's so much alignment in what we're doing and I am just so honored to have you here and congrats on starting your new career. And also you ended your career with the charm as well, because you've got accolades for all the work that you did. And it's going to be a new era and a new transition. I'm really excited for what's coming forward in the future for you.
Amelia:
Thank you, Sonia. And thank you again for this opportunity. Again, I love what you're doing for our communities. I can definitely see many opportunities for collaboration and synergy.
Sonia:
Thank you, Amelia. Have a great day.
Thank you for listening in. If you enjoyed this episode, it would mean so much to me. If you share it with a friend, a colleague, or your own community, if you share it on social media and tag me, I'll make sure to personally thank you. My two favorite places to hang out are Instagram and LinkedIn. Check out our show notes for a direct link. I'm so thankful for each and every one of you. And as always stay well, be present and enjoy the journey. I'll talk to you next week. Adios.