Despite entering college as a pre-med major, Corey Layne Crouch ’13 found her calling in the classroom after working as a teacher’s aide for a kindergarten class. Switching majors, she set out on a path to transform the education system from within.

Corey’s entrepreneurial mindset in her work as a high school English teacher and school principal led her to Rice’s Professional MBA program. Now, she’s the chief program officer for AI for Education — an organization providing AI literacy training to educators and championing responsible use of AI in the education ecosystem.

In this episode, Corey joins host Maya Pomroy ’22 to chat about her pivots from pre-med to English to her current role as an educational tech executive — as well as her time at Rice Business, the importance of supporting AI literacy and the innovative ways she’s influenced the education system.

Episode Guide:

00:00 Introduction to Corey Layne Crouch

02:15 From Pre-Med to Kindergarten Teacher

05:21 Teach for America and Moving to Houston

08:23 Becoming a Principal and Pursuing an MBA

17:04 Transition to EdTech and AI in Education

25:07 Challenges and Misconceptions of AI in Schools

30:26 Future of Education with AI

38:22 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Owl Have You Know is a production of Rice Business and is produced by University FM.

Episode Quotes:

On building AI literacy through tool-agnostic workshops

[30:26] Maya Pomroy: So, tell me some of the work that you do — because AI for Education is really tackling one of the, I mean, this is one of the biggest shifts in modern learning.

[31:41] Corey Layne Crouch: So we provide workshops and thing that we do, as well as that we're tool agnostic. We do have opinions about tools and where, you know, what's safe and what's fit for purpose, and what we think isn't quite yet, and how to integrate it in that way. ’Cause the technology is going to continue to evolve, but we really believe a foundation of which is rooted in durable skills, right, of critical thinking, and evaluation and understanding the best tool for a job and how to be community oriented. That is the work that we do. And, of course, we teach people how to use the tools and drive towards outcomes with them while we're laying that foundation as well.

How Houston’s education scene inspired Corey's bold, equitable innovation

07:16: Houston is such a great city, as you know, to be a young professional in and, and to start your career, let alone having the opportunity to be a part of the thriving, innovative education landscape there. I really think that it helped me think much bigger about what it meant to be an education and what was possible with innovation, and really moving the needle toward equity and supporting communities that historically, you know, weren't being serviced in the way that they deserved.

Why entrepreneurship skills is essential for an AI-driven world

32:46: I really believe that students need entrepreneurial skills, and not necessarily because every student is going to go off and start their own business per se, but at the root of it, entrepreneurial skills is about, you know, understanding what you're trying to drive to, or what's the job to be done, seeing what's the diagnosis, what are the challenges, or, you know, opportunities to do better, and then understanding the resources that you have, and moving forward with strategy, as if it's a puzzle piece and, you know, it's strategy, but it's also about just seeing that opportunity and having the confidence and the belief in your own critical thinking, your own resourcefulness, and your ability to collaborate and build relationship with others in order to solve a problem or drive something forward.

Show Links:

• Transcript
  
  

Guest Profiles:

• Corey Layne Crouch | AI for Education
• Corey on LinkedIn