Youth Movement

In March, Corriero attended a conference in Malaysia, where, she says, the thousand-plus attendees were "captivated" by the idea of TakingITGlobal. "They'd been talking about empowering youth," Corriero says. "Everyone was saying how young people are so Internet-savvy and that we learn about technology so quickly. So I said, 'Don't just tell us, guys -- we need you to volunteer and do these small, menial tasks.' We have so much potential!" Corriero outlined the goals of TakingITGlobal, asking the crowd, "How are people supposed to be thinking globally if they're living only in the constraints of their own environment?" The reaction was overwhelming. "People didn't even let me finish," Corriero says. "They flocked. They said, 'I want to get involved.' " At the end of the week, a report was distributed with 15 key goals that had been extracted from the conference. One goal was to support TakingITGlobal.

Furdyk and Corriero describe the TakingITGlobal centers as libraries-plus-schools-plus-workplaces-of-the-future. And, in an act of unapologetic hubris, they speak openly about their hope that these centers might one day replace today's schools. If the centers are successful in developing countries that lack formal schools, Furdyk and Corriero reason, then developed countries might use them as models for overhauling their own schools.

Both Furdyk and Corriero have always excelled in school, and both have long felt frustrated as students. It is telling that Furdyk is technically in grade 12 at Martingrove Collegiate Institute in Etobicoke, Ontario, just outside Toronto, and that Corriero is technically a freshman at York University's Shulich School of Business -- but that both of them are actually several thousand miles away from their respective classrooms. They are finagling varying levels of credit from their schools for their work at Microsoft; still, it's unclear whether either of them will see much of academia in the future. Furdyk is planning to sidestep grade 13 (it will be eliminated in Ontario in 2004, but right now it is a requirement), meaning that he will be free as of this summer. He has no immediate plans to go to college, though he allows that he might eventually enroll to study "astronomy, or something else that I'm really interested in."

Corriero is less certain about leaving school behind. "If I'm convinced that it's more valuable for me to be in school than to be pursuing other opportunities, I'll go to school," she says. "For me, the purpose of school is to learn, to grow, to build skills and experiences. But what if I'm able to accelerate that a thousand times more by not being in school? If school holds me back, rather than helping me grow, then I can't be there."

Corriero's mother, Mary-Jo, is not entirely convinced by this argument. "That might be the only area where I nag Jennifer," she says. "I was raised believing that without a university degree, you can't get a job. I want my daughter to have a profession, because she has to be in a position to be able to take care of herself. Mike is so bright, and he says, 'Oh, you don't need a degree. We can do it this way.' And he's very, very persuasive. But I say, 'No, no, no. That's not what we're teaching here in the Corriero school of thought. The Corriero school of thought is, Get your degree, then you can do what you want.' "

Furdyk and Corriero's main problem with schools is that they emphasize grades over genuine learning and that they don't incorporate real-world experiences into the curriculum. "The bottom line is the mark you get," Furdyk says. "So why would I spend 10 hours doing something when I could spend 1 hour and get the same mark? We're not encouraged -- we're taught to do what we're told -- so kids aren't excited about learning."

Corriero agrees. "We need mentors. We need facilitators. We need coaches," she says. "But I see the role of a teacher completely changing. It's not for a school to say, 'You're worth an A, and you're worth a B.' We're all great in different ways." Corriero speaks from experience. In grade nine, after winning her school's art award for two years in a row, she received a 75% on a drawing. She was so disillusioned -- the drawing that she received the low grade on is one that she was particularly proud of, and today it hangs in her Redmond bedroom -- that she dropped art altogether. "I've always strived to do as much as I can, but, within school, I've been told what to do and how to do it," she says. "You know, this is your deadline, this is your audience -- and your audience is always your teacher. Requirements are made up of what the teacher thinks is important. I was always frustrated by that. I want my success to be evaluated by the impact that I have and not by the impression of one individual."