September is the perfect month for new beginnings.
As we usher in a new school year full of excitement and fresh possibility, the Future Design School team also has the pleasure of welcoming new members to our ever-growing team. Get to know the newest faces at Future Design School below!
Hélène Fournier | Canadian Partnerships
Helene has been in the education space for nearly 20 years, focusing on creating meaningful learning experiences for all students. In her previous role as Director of Education at the National Film Board, Helene worked to revamp their education offerings with an emphasis on cultivating learner engagement and inspiring creativity through and around storytelling innovation and media arts.
Helene joins Future Design School having led and managed over 300 education and product-development projects for K-12, post-secondary, NGOs and corporate clients across Canada and internationally. Helene is an expert at providing vision leadership, strategy, performance efficacy, and learning solutions with the goal to equip learners with tools and mindsets to problem-solve, create and innovate.
What is your philosophy on learning?
I believe in empowering students and giving them agency to learn to improve both themselves and the world around them. When today’s youth are equipped with a creative, collaborative, innovative, and problem-solving mindset, they are able — from a very young age — to act as agents of change while collaboratively solving problems that they themselves perceive.A quote I like to live by: “You only live once. Make it count!”What is your big vision for the future of education?
I’ve made it part of my life’s mission to contribute to helping learners, at all levels, live to their fullest potential while pursuing their passions and improving the world around them, locally and globally.
I strive towards a future where schools are drivers of innovation; where teachers and students work together through meaningful, real-world & personalized, learning experiences; and where all students are given the opportunity to put their ideas and passions into action.
Follow Maddie on Twitter at @mhutchison94
Maddie Hutchison | Logistics and Ops Coordinator
Maddie joins Future Design School after completing a Master’s degree in Early Childhood Studies at Ryerson University, where she pursued children’s rights research.
Maddie has a background in early childhood education from the University of Guelph, and formerly was teacher in preschool, toddler and infant classrooms. Maddie’s exposure to education through teaching and academics brought about an extreme passion for children right’s, and wanting to find a way to improve the school system so that we can better honour children and the capabilities they have
What is your philosophy on learning?
I believe that learning is open-ended and that each child is unique and influential and can have a direct impact on the world. I believe that learning happens in all forms and all environments and that it is a co-learning experience between the child and educator/parent. I believe that learning is open, hands-on, interactive and includes the voices of all involved.
What is your big vision for the future of education?
My hope is that the structure of education changes to be less standardized and mechanical, and that children are seen as more than a cog in the machine. I hope the future of education can make each child feel represented and appreciated, and allow them to succeed in their own unique way.
A quote I like to live by:
“Little is taught by contest or dispute, everything by sympathy and love” — Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
A friendly reminder that life is not about being better than those around us, or treating people as though we live on a hierarchy, but to embrace everyone with understanding, acceptance and love, especially the little ones in our care.
Future Design School is always looking for incredible educators to join our team. Visit us at: www.futuredesignschool.com/careers to join us on our mission to to revolutionize education.