How Duolingo's director of social impact is making a difference
This Women's History Month, KDKA-TV is shining a light on those making a difference. Kendra Ross, Duolingo's director of social impact, is doing just that.
"Having access to language creates opportunity and also creates connection between people," Ross said.
Ross is from Banksville. At 17 years old, she moved to New York to study music business and technology at NYU. She met some of the biggest names in music, recorded her own album and worked at Universal Music Group. After 21 years, it was time to come home.
"I decided to enroll in a PhD program at Point Park for community engagement and that really kinda turned my whole trajectory around. I said, 'you know what, my life is bigger than just music' and I wanted to do something that was going to impact my community," Ross said.
From teaching at Point Park University to now being in this role, Ross has done just that.
"This opportunity came up and I couldn't pass it up, I had never heard of a director of social impact," she said.
"Because I lived in New York and had been around from people all over the world, I have traveled many places in the world, the international scope, especially around the language that we focus on, is something that I understood," she said.
In her nearly four years at Duolingo, she accomplished so much, supporting child care programs and providing scholarships.
Just this month, they officially launched Duo's Treehouse, a groundbreaking bilingual play and learning space for children ages 0-5 and their caregivers. It's at the Kingsley Association every Friday.
Emily Lea and her 2-year-old love it.
"It's spectacular, it's by far the best early childhood program that we've gone to and we've been to everything," Lea said.
It's free to attend. There's a play space for children with different stations. The bilingual space is a place where community is built and everyone is able to learn from each other one word at a time.
"Our mission here at Duolingo is to create the best educational world and make it universally available," Ross said.
