In her days as a teacher, Sandee Kastrul ? had students choose nicknames from the periodic table to get them engaged in chemistry.
Today, she’s still looking for innovative ways to rethink education.
Kastrul is the president and co-founder of i.c. stars — a technology-based leadership and workforce development program for inner-city adults. But in her spare time, she lends her expertise to groups focused on disrupting education and helping entrepreneurs.
“I was a teacher and I love thinking about how … we disrupt the educational system as it is through curriculum, through love, through changing the whole infrastructure,” Kastrul said.
She’s on the board of the Ryan Banks Academy, a nonprofit, tuition-free boarding school in Chicago that plans to open within the next two years. The school will be named for a 12-year-old boy who was killed by gunfire in 2012 — and hopes to provide a safe environment and high-quality education to underserved children. The academy’s founder, Valerie Groth, was Banks’ social worker.
“She’s right on the cusp of building something that I think is going to disrupt a lot,” Kastrul said.
Kastrul was also an adviser at the for-profit Experience Institute, which among other programs offers a yearlong curriculum comprising apprenticeships, self-directed projects and other opportunities.
And as someone who knows the pains of starting her own company, she also devotes her time to causes that promote founders.
She sits on the board of Goodcity, a nonprofit organization that aims to help Chicago entrepreneurs in under-resourced communities. The group offers an incubator program, fiscal sponsorships and consulting services.
“I want founders to feel supported,” Kastrul said. “The loneliest thing I’ve ever done is start a business. Being an entrepreneur is really crazy lonely. … I’d say the legacy I want to leave is to really stand for entrepreneurs in this space and let them know that they’re not alone.”
When deciding where to devote her time, Kastrul said she gives points to organizations that care deeply about the human condition and that make opportunities for others: “It’s some sort of intervention and action that changes somebody’s life so that they are now open to an opportunity they weren’t open to before.”
She said she also looks for organizations where she can use her expertise to provide real value — and learn something, too.
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And when it comes to balancing it all, Kastrul said it’s been easier than she expected.
“I kind of came into that thinking, OK, I’ve got a pot of 60 hours that are i.c. stars per week, and then I’ve got 20 discretionary hours” before family time, she said.
“But then I realized that it’s all connected. My closest friends realized years ago that if they wanted to see me, they had to volunteer at i.c. stars, that’s just how it was going to work. … You realize, well, I’m sitting on this board with this person and they’d make a great speaker for this organization. It all sort of comes together.”
For those wanting to give their time and money to a cause, Kastrul advises getting a good sense of whether it’s a fit before diving in.
“Go and visit, go engage with the organization,” she said. “Every organization should have some way for you to catch a vibe, for lack of a better term. … Sight unseen, it’s really hard to pick one.”
She also urges people to think about how they’re providing value with their donation or their time.
“We want to get involved with charities because we either want to serve or we want to be served — by that, I mean, we want some sort of feel-good (moment) … I would say to find that balance so that you’re doing both: You’re both serving and being served, and that it’s not all about you,” she said.
Kastrul knows well the time and work that goes into a providing a volunteer’s experience.
“Sometimes for a lot of organizations, it’s very hard to manage volunteers, and it actually costs the organization money,” she said. “Your financial contribution as well as your time — that’s the right package.”
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Twitter @megancgraham
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