2021 Park Promising Young Professional Award

This award recognizes a Park University alumnus/a who graduated from Park within the last 10 years, is under the age of 40 and shows exceptional leadership promise in his or her profession and community.

By the time Edna Martinson, ’12, began narrowing options for her college education, Park University had already clinched an advantage.

“My cousins, Michael, John and Grace, attended Park,” said Martinson. “They would return to Ghana (her native country) and talk about their experiences in such a positive way. That’s when my brother, Douglas, and I put Park on our short list of schools to seriously consider.”

Ultimately, Park became their school of choice, too — and once she arrived, it was everything Martinson expected. Well, almost everything. “When I arrived for school, I expected Parkville (Mo.) to be more like New York. I thought every city in the United States was like New York,” she laughed.

The ambitious 16-year-old freshman hit the ground running, participating in Park’s Summer Business Academy, where she helped inner city high school students prepare pitches for mock businesses. Perhaps it was there where Martinson began to understand her ultimate purpose and future career — addressing gaps in education and making concepts clear for every learner.

Lightning in a Boddle

After earning her Bachelor of Science degree in business administration/international business from Park and a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Missouri – Kansas City in 2016, Martinson and her husband, Clarence Tan, set out on a mission to transform math education through gaming. After doing field research in classrooms and after-school programs, they discovered that one of the most pressing problems in education was getting children up to grade-level learning. In 2018, the couple founded Boddle Learning to combat educational gaps and help improve student outcomes in elementary schools.

Boddle Learning is a game-based learning platform. Machine-learning algorithms identify areas where student gamers struggle and tailors the content to address learning gaps. It also challenges advanced students by gradually increasing the academic rigor of their games. Teachers and parents also have access to their students’ data and reports.

“The first moment we saw it being used and received feedback that users liked it, that was gratifying,” said Martinson.

The timing of their launch could not have been more fortuitous. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic left educators scrambling for solutions to keep remote learners engaged. Boddle Learning saw its user base expand from nearly 1,700 students in January 2020 to approximately 50,000 registered users within a lightning-fast few weeks. Today, Boddle Learning has more than 600,000 registered students and is used in all 50 states.

Funder waves

The ed-tech startup made waves with multiple funders, too. One of the company’s most ardent supporters has been AT&T. In 2019, Boddle Learning was accepted into the AT&T Aspire

Accelerator, with a seed investment of $100,000, and it also won AT&T’s Pitches with Purpose competition for an additional $25,000. In early 2020, AT&T invested $100,000 more in the form of a grant, enabling Boddle Learning to offer the platform free of charge to schools and parents worldwide.

In the same year, Atento Capital, an early-stage investment firm, invested $350,000. Most recently, Boddle Learning was awarded $50,000 by recording artist Pharrell Williams’ Black Ambition initiative. Martinson, who was named to Forbes magazine’s Next 1000 list in early 2021, oversees a growing team of 18 full- and part-time employees.

Martinson is grateful for the education she received at Park, and happy to use what she’s learned to impact a new generation. “I value importance of a great education,” Martinson reflected, “I grew up believing that practice makes perfect. With Boodle Learning, I can share that philosophy with kids, but in a fun way, through gamified education.”