Stefanie Baduria

Identified: 2025-04-22 Relationship Type: Alpha School Staff (Head of K-8, Alpha Schools) Connection: Mentioned by Jack Oremus. Met with Super Builders group on 2025-05-09. Key contact for school operations, guide training, and new school initiatives.

Background & Role

• Head of K-8 at Alpha Schools.
• Previously Director of K-8 at Alpha School.
• Connected Jack Oremus to Alpha after he DMed her on Twitter.
• Key liaison for initiatives to scale Alpha School operations, particularly guide training and student support systems.
• Expressed need for tech solutions for guide training, student "second brain", Life Core curriculum, and an AI assistant ("Stef bot").
• Appears to be involved in decisions about Two-Hour Learning integration with existing schools.
• Has knowledge of the resources and personnel needed for school integrations.

Interactions

• 2025-05-21 (Video Call with Gary):

  • Discussed potential integration of Two-Hour Learning into Jewish schools (yeshivas) in New York City that are facing regulatory challenges for not meeting academic standards.
  • Identified a contact (possibly Dave Patine) who would be the right person to help with school integration in NYC.
  • Discussed the opportunity to create a "pipeline of goodwill" in the Northeast if successful with helping these schools.
  • Gary mentioned introducing Stef to an important mentor who could help with science and technology in K-114 education - a person who has "written a book on every periodic table element" and "built Shenzhen from the fishing village."
  • Briefly discussed organizational challenges, including questions about certain personnel decisions.

• 2025-05-09 (Meeting with Super Builders):

  • Discussed her "wish list" of tech projects to help scale Alpha School operations.
  • Highlighted current guide training as "highly manual, very in-person, and super white glove, and very expensive." Goal: achieve same outcome (confident, competent guides) scalably.
  • Tasked Heather Staker with making guide training scalable, initially for teachers licensing 2R Learning. Suggested Super Builders could help by integrating AI and adding rigor to measuring learning.
  • Mentioned using GPTs of student personas for guide training and envisioned talking avatars.
  • Discussed challenges with Crossover for hiring guides (currently .001% hiring rate) and openness to improving the process, possibly with simulated persona interactions.
  • Clarified "Schedule Master" is for operational logistics, not curriculum scheduling (which is AI-pushed).
  • Confirmed possibility of starting a quality school by Fall 2025, mentioning a "building a school" framework she created.
  • Expressed enthusiasm for new school concepts pitched by Gary Sheng, including:
    • Schools near corporate campuses (e.g., Apple, Oracle in Central Texas).
    • Potential schools near Musk corporations (mentioned Paige and Jamie working on this, and Valencia Academy in Bastrop for Boring Company).
    • School with Zachary Levi (film/performing arts in Bastrop).
    • Specialized schools (e.g., F1 school, starting grade depends on specialty).
    • Trump golf school.
    • Schools in Chicago (with BOLD, Chance the Rapper, etc.), Los Angeles (Kendrick Lamar's team, forward deployed film school), DC (Georgetown Day School successor), Riyadh, Dubai, China.
    • Lai Alexander's "MIT for grades 4-12" in Austin.
  • Stated starting a school from scratch is easier than reforming existing ones if student recruitment is figured out.
  • Top 3 wish list items:
    1. "Second brain on every kid."
    2. "Life course stuff."
    3. A "Stef bot" / "Staffer" (AI assistant for guides).
  • Agreed to a standing meeting with Gary Sheng and Jack Oremus to keep initiatives moving.

• 2025-04-21 (Mentioned in Staff Meeting): Discussed re: Texas Prep conversion to private ESA school. Joe Liemandt gave her and Gaston Grille a "get out of jail free card" regarding the transition.

Current Priorities

• Scaling Alpha School operations and guide training
• Exploring the integration of Two-Hour Learning into existing schools, particularly those facing challenges with academic standards
• Evaluating new school opportunities and partnerships
• Working on technology solutions to support Alpha's educational model

Key Quotes

• From 2025-05-09 Meeting:
  • On current guide training: "What we have built for guide training today is highly manual, very in-person, and super white glove, and very expensive."
  • On goal for guide training: "My goal would be to be able to achieve the same outcome which is guides who are super confident and competent to live through the three commitments to every single kid at a brand new alpha if there were no veteran guides around them. I would love that same thing without the super high touch white glove, come fly and basically live and breathe our culture."
  • On student personas: "we created GPTs of student personas...in my head it would be so cool if we turn them into like actual talking avatars that the guide can have a simulated conversation with."
  • On starting new schools: "Is it possible? Yeah, I'm an ambitious gal. I'd say with the right people, you could get it done."
  • On reforming schools vs. starting new: "Starting a school from scratch is easier than trying to convince people who are skeptical to use two-hour learning and completely design their system and their culture to embrace it and integrate it."
  • On her top wish list item: "Probably the, like a second brain on every kid. One is like my number one. Like I just, I want us to know every kid inside and out better than anybody else in the world, better than any school."
  • On a "Stef bot": "If there was a Stef bot, that would be pretty cool because it could help a lot of people without me having to jump on a lot of calls...I would love a stuffer, as some of my guides have called it."

Transcripts

Transcript ID	Date	Summary
2025-05-21-gary-stef-baduria-discussion	2025-05-21	Discussion of NYC Jewish schools opportunity, strategic contacts, Two-Hour Learning integration process, and organizational priorities