“I’ve seen the doors that education opened for me.”
It’s not all fun and games for Edna Martinson and Clarence Tan. Well, mostly. This husband and wife duo are the founders of Boddle Learning. An educational gaming platform that harnesses the power of play and machine learning to help kids identify and overcome learning gaps in a fun and interactive way.
“I’ve always been passionate about education,” shared Edna. At 15, she desired to move to the US from her home in Ghana. She learned that she could go straight to college if she passed the SAT and IGCSE, an equivalent to a high school diploma in the US. Spending countless hours outside the classroom studying and working with tutors earned Martinson her F1 student visa, leading to her first internship and, eventually, her first full-time job. “I’ve seen the doors that education opened for me,” she says.
Then, she decided that every child deserves access to high-quality education, and it should be fun. “When you’re younger,” Martinson adds, “if you enjoy learning, then you’re not just going to endure it, but actually enjoy the process.”
Edna’s husband, Clarence, has a zeal for gaming and has been a designer and developer for decades. For most of his career, he’s worked as a contractor, building games for companies whose primary focus was education. Martinson and Tan saw the opportunity to combine their passions into a business that could benefit the next generation.
“We want to build tools that serve all children, but especially underserved communities.”
The unlikely tech entrepreneurs didn’t meet at a coding conference looking for co-founders but at church, where Clarence plays electric guitar and Edna mixes live sound. One Sunday’s sermon about ‘pouring out your gifts’ gave Martinson and Tan the inspiration they needed to visualize their company’s values.
“We specifically made the characters transparent to send kids the message to value what’s inside,” says Edna. Boddle’s name derives from its iconic characters. As kids venture through the game and begin to learn, their character’s bottle-shaped heads fill up with knowledge.
Once their heads are full, they can use their knowledge points to plant trees, and grow their virtual environments. “The ultimate message,” Martinson adds, “is to fill up on knowledge and pour back out to help others.”
“WE ARE SETTING OUR FUTURE UP FOR SUCCESS.”
Research shows that learning gaps begin to develop between kindergarten and 6th grade. “If it’s not addressed early on, students can feel like they are falling behind and get discouraged.” shared Martinson. Edna and Clarence piloted Boddle at an after-school program in Kansas City. They met a 4th-grade student who was a few grades behind before using their platform. The program director started to see a stark difference in that student’s excitement for learning math and love for reading in a short amount of time. “That showed us that we could really change the perspective of learning for kids,” Edna says.
“We want to build tools that serve all children, but especially underserved communities.” Martinson shares. “If you look at those areas, it’s Black and Latinx students that are disproportionately affected and we want to make sure that they benefit from Boddle as well.”
Edna and Clarence believe that confidence leads to comprehension. “If we get our young generation confident and proficient in those foundational skills, then we are setting our future up for success,” says Martinson, “And that’s really important for everyone.”
▪️ PHOTOS BY Rachelle Champlain
Featured in Issue No. 3
Issue No. 3 highlights Black entrepreneurs innovating and creating solutions in the tech space. From sneakers to education, this issue will tell the stories behind the tools and platforms that are changing the world!