The Catalyst

Issue #9

Originally Distributed June 30, 2026

“What are we actually preparing people for?”

Dear Changemakers,

It’s a question I first began asking while teaching secondary school in the classroom years ago.

By 2020, the disconnect between the world students were inheriting and the systems designed to prepare them for it had become impossible for me to ignore. That realization ultimately led me to retire from the classroom environment and begin building work at the intersection of education, entrepreneurship, systems change, and community impact…

And if I’m honest, that question feels even louder now.

It screams in my mind as I read the news each day.
As I watch economic uncertainty rise.
As artificial intelligence reshapes industries in real time.
As young people navigate anxiety, complexity, and a future that feels increasingly difficult to predict.
As organizations and communities try to solve deeply interconnected challenges using systems that were built for a different era entirely.

The future is (and has been) asking for something so different.

Adaptability.
Creativity.
Systems thinking.
Collaboration.
Emotional intelligence.
Entrepreneurship.
The ability to solve meaningful problems, navigate uncertainty, and continue learning in real time.

And yet many of our structures (educational, economic, and organizational) are still largely designed around standardization, compliance, and stability.

Across my work this month, from our beloved Student Summer Ventures, to conversations around competency-based education, to social entrepreneurship gatherings, to strategic planning sessions with organizations preparing for their next season of growth, I keep seeing the same thing:

People are hungry for more human-centred ways of learning, leading, and building.

Not innovation for innovation’s sake.

But systems, businesses, and communities that actually prepare and equip us to thrive in a rapidly changing world.

This issue explores some of the frameworks, conversations, and changemakers helping move that future forward.

— Jess

Inside this issue:

Framework – Competency-Based Education and the future of human-centred learning

Field Notes – Success Redefined, Student Summer Ventures, Kenya + Toronto + Rome

Spotlight – Reflections from Uncharitable + Dan Pallotta’s challenge to rethink impact

In the Media – Students invited to turn ideas into ventures this summer

Take Action – One strategic planning question for the second half of the year

Your Next Breakthrough – Strategic planning season is here

Closing Reflection – The future is asking different things of us

Framework of the Month

Competency-Based Education (CBE)

At its core, Competency-Based Education asks a deceptively simple question:

What competencies do people actually need to thrive in the real world, and how do we help them develop them?

Rather than measuring success primarily through memorization, standardized testing, or time spent in a classroom, CBE focuses on the development and demonstration of meaningful, transferable skills.

Skills like:

• Communication and Collaboration,

• Critical Thinking and Problem Solving,

• Imagination and Creativity,

• Citizenship,

• Digital Literacy,

• Learning to Learn, and

• Self-Efficacy

In other words, the kinds of competencies increasingly required to navigate a rapidly changing world.

This framework has become foundational to much of my work through The YOU Power Project and our broader vision for education reform….but if I’m being honest, for a long time it felt like we were speaking a different language here in Canada.

We knew something was missing.
We could see young people disengaging from traditional models of learning.
We could see employers asking for skills schools were not consistently developing.
We could see that experiential, project-based learning was not an “extra,” but increasingly essential.

And yet, many conversations still felt rooted in old assumptions about education, success, and readiness for the future.

Then, last summer, something shifted.

Through blossoming relationships with education leaders across Africa and Europe, we began discovering that Competency-Based Education is not a fringe idea at all. It is a globally recognized framework supported by UNESCO and being actively explored and implemented in education systems around the world.

Suddenly, we found ourselves in conversations where leaders immediately understood the vision.

And not only understood it, but were actively looking for it! What many systems (globally) are realizing is this: Competencies cannot be developed through passive learning alone. They require experience and connection to real-world challenges.

Which is exactly why social entrepreneurship and experiential learning fit so naturally into the CBE movement.

At its best, social entrepreneurship is competency development in practice.

Students are not just learning about communication, leadership, innovation, financial literacy, adaptability, or systems thinking.

They are actively using those competencies in real time to create value, solve problems, and contribute meaningfully to their communities.

And perhaps most importantly, this shift is not just about access to learning.

As technology continues to make information more accessible to young people around the world, the true differentiator becomes the ability to apply knowledge meaningfully.

And with that comes something even more important:

Opportunity.

Opportunity to contribute.
Opportunity to lead.
Opportunity to prosper.

That belief formed the foundation of our recently released white paper exploring how competency-based entrepreneurial education can support both education reform and long-term economic prosperity.

One of the core ideas within the paper is this:

The future does not belong to the people who memorized the most information.
It belongs to the people who can adapt, collaborate, communicate, create, and solve meaningful problems in real time.

That future is already here.

The question now is whether our systems are willing to evolve alongside it.

Field Notes

What we’re working on (and what it’s shifting)

Success Redefined

Earlier this month, I had the privilege of moderating the launch of Success Redefined, a collaborative book bringing together eleven women who courageously challenged inherited definitions of success and consciously created new ones.

What struck me most throughout the evening was how many conversations circled back to the same idea:

People are craving lives and businesses that feel aligned, meaningful, and sustainable… not just impressive on paper.

In many ways, that’s the deeper work of systems change, too.

Not simply building faster within outdated systems, but questioning whether the systems we inherited (and definitions of success those systems were designed around) are actually serving human flourishing in the first place.

Student Summer Ventures

Our next cohort of Student Summer Ventures is officially underway, with students across the region beginning the process of transforming ideas into real ventures, community projects, and leadership experiences.

Each year, this work reminds me that young people are far more capable than many systems give them credit for.

When students are trusted with real responsibility, real creativity, and real opportunities to contribute, they rise.

Scholarships remain available, and our next cohort officially begins July 7. FREE Registration is available here.

Youth entrepreneurship education is never just about business.

It’s about confidence.
Voice.
Adaptability.
Leadership.

And helping young people realize they are capable of shaping the future around them.

Kenya → Toronto → Rome

This summer and fall are becoming an extraordinary season of global conversation around entrepreneurship, education, and systems change.

In July, I’ll be travelling to Kenya to continue conversations around Competency-Based Education, teacher development, entrepreneurship education, and youth empowerment alongside incredible education leaders helping shape the future of learning across East Africa.

In August, I’ll be speaking at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Toronto, joining leaders from around the world exploring the future of innovation, entrepreneurship, and economic development.

And I’m thrilled to share that two project abstracts submitted to the 2026 Social Entrepreneurship Summit hosted at LUMSA University in Rome, Italy, have officially been accepted!

What continues to amaze me is how interconnected these conversations are becoming.

Whether in local communities, international education systems, entrepreneurial ecosystems, or global summits, people are increasingly asking the same questions:

How do we prepare people for an uncertain future?
How do we create systems that are more human-centred, adaptive, and sustainable?
And how do we ensure opportunity is more widely shared?

These are no longer isolated conversations.

They are global ones.

Spotlight

Rethinking Impact: Reflections from Uncharitable

One of the most thought-provoking moments from our June 19 Social Enterprise Journey gathering came from a simple but uncomfortable realization:

Many of the systems we rely on to create social change are structurally prevented from scaling that change effectively.

During the event, we screened Uncharitable, the powerful documentary inspired by Dan Pallotta’s groundbreaking TED Talk, challenging the assumptions society holds about nonprofit funding, overhead, profit, and impact.

The film asks difficult but necessary questions:

Why do we celebrate ambition in business, but often distrust it in the social sector?

Why do we expect organizations tackling our biggest social challenges to operate with fewer resources, lower salaries, less marketing capacity, and constant scarcity?

And what happens when our fear of “too much profit” unintentionally limits the very impact we claim to want?

These conversations resonated deeply with participants because they extend far beyond nonprofits.

They touch education.
Entrepreneurship.
Economic development.
Community building.
And the broader systems shaping how we define value in the first place.

One of the ideas that stayed with me most is this:

If we want different outcomes, we may need different structures.

Not every problem can be solved through charity alone.
Not every impactful organization fits neatly into existing categories.
And increasingly, the future may belong to hybrid models that blend sustainability, entrepreneurship, collaboration, and community impact in entirely new ways.

This is exactly why conversations around social enterprise, competency-based education, and systems thinking matter so much right now.

🎥 For a taste of the conversation, I highly recommend Dan Pallotta’s TED Talk:

Media Room

Another Wonderful Barrie Today Article

This month, Barrie Today featured The YOU Power Project’s Student Summer Ventures program and the growing momentum around youth entrepreneurship education in our region.

At its core, this work is about helping young people move from:
“I have an idea…”
to
“I know how to take action.”

Because entrepreneurship education isn’t just about business. It’s about confidence, creativity, leadership, and helping young people recognize their capacity to shape the future around them.

📖 Read the article:

https://www.barrietoday.com/local-news/students-invited-to-turn-ideas-into-ventures-through-summer-online-coaching-12426904#google_vignette

Take Action

Ask a Better Question This Summer

As organizations begin planning for the fall, I want to encourage you to step back and ask a deeper question than:

“What do we need to get done?”

Instead, ask:

What are we actually preparing people for?

Whether you lead a business, a team, a classroom, a nonprofit, or a community initiative, the answers to that question shape everything:

• the competencies you prioritize

• the culture you create

• the opportunities you design

• and the future people step into because of your work

Because meaningful impact rarely happens by accident.

More often, it happens when we intentionally design for it.

Your Next Breakthrough

Strategic Planning Season is HERE!

Summer creates something many leaders rarely have enough of during the rest of the year:

Space.

Space to reflect.
Space to reassess.
Space to think beyond immediate demands and reconnect with the bigger picture.

As organizations begin preparing for fall and 2026 planning conversations, this is the perfect time to ask:

• What future are we actually designing toward?

• What systems, structures, or assumptions need to evolve?

• Where are the greatest opportunities for impact, collaboration, and growth?

This is the work I love supporting through strategic facilitation, operational planning, systems mapping, and organizational growth conversations.

Because strong visions need strong structures behind them.

And meaningful impact requires more than momentum alone.

It requires intentional design.

If your team, organization, or initiative is entering a season of planning, transition, or expansion, I’d be honoured to support what comes next.

Closing Message

The Future Is Asking Different Things of Us

The more I move through work across education, entrepreneurship, community development, and systems change, the more convinced I become that we are living through a profound transition.

The future is asking different things of us than the systems many of us inherited were designed to cultivate.

It is asking for adaptability in place of rigidity.
Collaboration in place of competition.
Creativity in place of compliance.
Systems awareness in place of siloed thinking.
And perhaps most importantly, it is asking us to remain deeply human in a world accelerating toward constant change.

That’s why I remain so hopeful.

Because everywhere I look, I see people beginning to ask better questions:
Educators reimagining learning.
Entrepreneurs building with purpose.
Communities creating new ecosystems of support.
Young people stepping into leadership far earlier than previous generations were invited to.

None of this work is happening in isolation anymore and the people willing to build differently are finding one another.

The future may be uncertain, but uncertainty also creates opportunity.

And I believe the people willing to rethink, redesign, and reimagine how we learn, lead, and contribute will help shape what comes next.

With you in the work,

Jess

Stay Connected to the Work

🌍 Donate to the Nabweru Community Initiative in Uganda
Community-led youth empowerment and sustainable development.
🌿 Monarch & Co. Community
My preferred community for heart-centred entrepreneurs building aligned, sustainable businesses.