{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"Pitch Playground","title":"Redesigning Rural and Indigenous Education: How Jonathan Santos Silva’s Liber Institute Empowers Communities at the Margins","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":1900,"description":"If we design at the margins, what we learn will help us make education better everywhere. That’s the perspective of this episode’s guest, Jonathan Santos Silva, founder of The Liber Institute. Liber’s mission is to embolden and equip Indigenous students, families, and educators to redesign schools from the ground up. Jonathan’s journey took him from Brockton, Massachusetts to the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, where he saw firsthand how systemic challenges create barriers to education for Native and Indigenous students.\nJonathan shares how these experiences shaped his vision for Liber—a nonprofit that uses coaching, storytelling, and design thinking to support transformative change in rural schools. He walks us through the POWER framework, his approach to leadership development and community-driven school redesign. From helping teachers better understand the cultural context of the communities they serve to embedding Indigenous knowledge into curriculum, Liber’s work helps school leaders reimagine education through empathy, culture, and belonging.\nJonathan pitches his idea to mentor Niloy Gangopadhyay, a longtime education leader, to explore key questions: How do you preserve depth while expanding reach? Can storytelling via a podcast help bridge the distance to hard-to-reach communities like Havasupai? And what will it take to make rural and Indigenous education a true priority for philanthropy? If Jonathan wins $50,000, he’ll use the funds to build a group coaching model and expand access to Liber’s tools—so leaders in even the most remote schools can create systems that reflect and serve their communities.\nEpisode Highlights:\n02:34 Jonathan's Background and Early Influences04:16 Teaching at Pine Ridge Reservation05:00 Systemic Issues on Reservations11:45 Liber Institute: Mission and Impact13:54 Challenges and Solutions in Rural Education19:46 Expanding Liber's Reach with Mentor Niloy Gangopadhyay29:34 Key Takeaways\nLinks & Resources:Jonathan Santos...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/RHUvVCiJgJMSGBHcrSAokswObgokSFYeF2yzaGy3ask/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS80M2Mx/ZmU1NGI4NDhiZDFh/NmM3NjhmMjlhYzY0/MWE2OC5qcGc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}