Entrepreneur Spotlight: Ruth Foster
Ruth Foster is CEO of Effective Intervention Services, LLC and is a Spring 2022 Design Fellow. She also participated in CityBridge’s Design Studio.
What was the most impactful or meaningful part of participating in CityBridge Programming?
The most impactful part was the program sessions in which different organizations and individuals shared their concepts, and we collectively offered insights to each other to help navigate specific DC-related challenges. Getting to learn from and with each other, other program participants.
How has your experience with CityBridge influenced or helped you in your life and career?
My experience with CityBridge has helped me a lot. The first one that comes to mind is when I was looking to pilot, as soon as I mentioned that I was in CityBridge programming, people were so keen to lean in and work with me!
What are you up to now?
So right now we’re working on a second pilot. And with pilot two we are hoping to start a therapeutic summer camp, which we will be using the model that we have for the school structure that we got to develop and implement that structure into a summer camp. It’s not going to be as intense but it’s going to kind of hit each target. We’re gonna target the parents, the teachers and the students all working together to the best effect [of] the child so I’m excited about that. I mean, I can’t wait to see how it turns out.
What piece of professional advice would you give CityBridge alumni and education entrepreneurs?
One professional advice I would give is that you are never too successful to learn. And I think that a lot of times, we might have a craft that we are familiar with. And we’ve been doing it for so long, but other people can come into our lives and can kind of give us some guidance and some knowledge. You take what’s good, you take what is meaningful, the meat of it and you apply it because it can always help you grow. I was wanting to get insight and information from other people because even though I specialize with working with children with special needs, there are other people in the general ed community that work with special needs children can say, “You know what, this is what I see when I’m with them.” And so I learn from them. I might not have seen that before.
Fill in the blanks: “Before I participated in CityBridge programming I used to think ________________. After participating in CityBridge programming, I now think __________________.” Before I participated in CityBridge programming I used to think that starting a new school was just impossible. It was just a dream to participate in CityBridge programming. I now think that starting a new school is going to be a reality.