Thuan Nguyen, incoming CEO of AVID Center, says public education and dedicated teachers changed his life, as well as those of his family. Nguyen immigrated – at the age of eight – to the U.S. from Vietnam.

WorkingNation sat down with Nguyen at SXSW EDU in Austin.

AVID Center (Advancement Via Individual Determination) trains educators nationwide to “shift from delivering content to facility learning.”

Nguyen says teachers are trained to work in a student-centric way – recognizing that students learn in different ways.

AVID Center provides professional development training to educators over the summer break each year. This summer, trainings will be taking place in nine locations, including Dallas, Tampa, and San Francisco – with 40,000 teachers expected to participate.

Nguyen notes, “For us, it is about making sure that we are addressing students’ individual learning styles, individual needs, and individual possibilities in terms of where they could potentially go and what their futures look like. So that the experiences and the information that we provide for our kids are meaningful and something that will stay with them, not just through high school or through their K-12 experience, but really for life.”

Learn more about Avid Center.