2022
2022
2022 represented a year of transformation for Learn Fresh. Since our founding over ten years ago, our organization has always represented a bigger vision to engage students through their passions outside of the classroom. We have always seen Learn Fresh as something that represents more than just one sport, industry, or product. I am proud to say that we are achieving significant steps to bring this vision to life.
Personally, the highlight of 2022 was in Los Angeles, California at Dodger Stadium. The previous day, our team hosted the inaugural MLB Players STEM League All-Star Championship with students representing the Los Angeles community and states including Arizona, Hawaii, and Texas. The event was a special one, as it was the first time that we were leveraging a new program to bring students together from diverse communities across America and it delivered all the fun and excitement that we have come to expect from a Learn Fresh experience.
The STEM League has been an extra special project for our team, as it has leveraged the talents of many of our community’s most supportive members. The STEM League game is the product of Tim Scheidt and Jim Fina’s work, an extension built upon previous iterations of their baseball learning experience. Tim and Jim are also the creators of the NBA Math Hoops game and have been Learn Fresh partners since our founding. Our MLB Players Trust partnership is the product of over seven years of collaboration with Amy Hever, the Trust’s Director, who first launched our Math Hoops program in Philadelphia while leading the Sixers Youth Foundation. From all angles, the project is representative of a true Learn Fresh collaboration.
As I sat in Dodger Stadium watching the Home Run Derby with our STEM League Championship-winning students, our first-ever ESPN feature was airing on TV. The 60-second spot showcased the previous day’s event, alongside footage of our students meeting MLB superstars Mookie Betts and Pete Alonso (and can be viewed later in this report). Within three hours after the feature had aired, over 200 educators had gone out of their way to email our team and our MLBPA partners for information about the program.
Like no other, this kind of response demonstrates the power of our community. Educators and students nationwide are starved for learning experiences that are authentic, that build confidence, and that inspire young people to explore the world. As funders and community leaders across the education sector call for a different approach to math education, we continue to lead the way in providing a scalable model for the next generation of learning that fuses the learning space with the world around the student.
Over the next year, you can continue to expect innovation from the Learn Fresh team. We have recently finalized a new partnership with Major League Soccer and will launch our MLS STEM Goals program by 2024. Our new EcoTour experience, which allows students to explore financial and environmental literacy by designing an artist’s nationwide tour, will enter a pilot launch by June 2023. We are excited to continue building upon our vision for the future of education with these new experiences, while strengthening and expanding the foundation of NBA Math Hoops, which continues to drive our growth domestically and abroad.
Thank you for your ongoing support of Learn Fresh! Over the next year, I invite you to engage with our community as we continue to build a leading role in the future of education.
Nick Monzi
CEO & Co-Founder
To date, programming has engaged over 700,000 students and over 7,000 educators across the US and beyond. Learn Fresh partners with over 30 professional sports organizations to create an authentic and immersive experience for our students.
By the Numbers
By the Numbers
By the Numbers
By the Numbers
students served in 2021-22
students served all time (as of January 2023)
educators trained 2021-22 (as of January 2023)
of students served from low-income communities
gains in math fluency
improvement with higher-order math skills related to stats and data analysis
growth in key attributes like leadership, grit, and resilience
Programs
Programs
Programs
Programs
Programs
Programs
Initially developed in the classroom of a math educator in Southern California, the program is now implemented in partnership with the NBA, WNBA, NBPA, WNBPA, and a majority of teams across both leagues. NBA Math Hoops develops students’ algebra readiness prior to entering high school while strengthening fundamental social-emotional skills through team-based gameplay. Community events form a key part of the program experience, exposing students to the real world applications of their learning through tournaments and STEM activations.
The 2023 NBA Math Hoops Global Championship, the flagship event of the program, will take place in New York City in June in conjunction with the NBA Draft, offering an immersive, three-day experience for students drawn from regional programs across the U.S. and internationally.
The program brings to life the energy of the sport through a board game and curriculum that cultivate students’ math and social-emotional skills. The program is free for youth-development organizations and schools of all types, helping thousands of young people build new skills, confidence, and a passion for learning through a fun and engaging program rooted in sport. MLB Players STEM League features several annual championship events, which are transformative opportunities for students to celebrate and connect with peers in their community.
The 2022 MLB Players Trust STEM League All-Star Championship offered students an exciting, multi-day experience during All-Star week in Los Angeles, and an ESPN segment aired during the Home Run Derby highlighted the program, partnership, and student experience at the tournament, leading to a national response from interested educators. The 2023 MLB Players Trust STEM League All-Star Championship will take place in Seattle in July, again in conjunction with All-Star Week.
The community-based program is built around a simulated soccer game that targets 5th and 6th graders with grade-appropriate, standards-aligned questions across science, technology, engineering, and math disciplines, with a particular focus on sustainability and renewable energy. Students work up and down the field to score goals using player stats, and chance and action cards give students the opportunity to learn more about soccer.
Since 2018, Learn Fresh has facilitated the NBA Cares State Farm Youth Assist Tracker Challenge by developing STEM-related curricula for participating schools and facilitating the grant-making process for the program. Grants support the development of STEM learning spaces and experiences within awarded schools and out-of-school time partners.
The baseball-based program features a board game and eight-session curriculum designed to engage students in grades 4-6. Students in Math Hits sign a sportsmanship contract, draft a team, compete in "baseball" games on the game board, and challenge their peers for the championship title, all while developing fundamental math and social-emotional skills. Community-based events provide exciting opportunities to connect with other program sites and bring the learning to life.
The fellowship invites educators to create and broadly share standards-aligned curricula that authentically represent the cultural, ethnic, and racial identities of their communities. Throughout the experience, fellows work closely with the Learn Fresh team to develop and refine a self-defined project that falls within the bounds of the fellowship’s mission.
The project can focus on any content area or grade level. In conjunction with our existing community of education, program, and philanthropic partners, we provide spaces for educators to refine, test, and promote their new work.
Programs like yours (NBA Math Hoops) give me the research base and the tangible evidence that afterschool doesn’t have to look like the school day. As a matter of fact, the school day should look more like afterschool.
Shawn Petty
TX ACE Programming
Jayden is excited and honored to represent Texas and compete at this level. He has shown me how to play NBA Math Hoops. He loves it and I’m so proud of him and his achievement.
Shaunda Pryor
NBA Math Hoops Parent
A.M. Story Intermediate School student Jayden Pryor was selected out of 150,000 students to compete June 10-12 in the 2022 NBA Math Hoops National Championship in Philadelphia. This is the first year a student was selected from Texas to represent the Texas ACE Math Hoops program.
To read more about Jayden's journey to the NBA Math Hoops National Championship, click here.
Playing Math Hoops at a feverish pace has not only ignited our students' love for basketball, but also improved their math skills simultaneously. This was such an amazing experience and our ASP is excited to continue the work of serving our students at Markham.
Moses Omolade, Educator
After School Coordinator, Bay Area Community Resources, Oakland, California
These teams provided everything from funding to intimate knowledge of local communities, and are crucial in providing authenticity and immersion to Learn Fresh program experiences. Our two national programs, NBA Math Hoops and MLB Players STEM League, are grounded by core partnerships with Hasbro, Getty Images, NBA Cares, and MLB Players Trust.
Learn Fresh implementation partners provide access to the crux of the Learn Fresh model: educators. These partners include hundreds of community-based organizations and education providers, from major urban school districts to state afterschool networks, charter school networks, city parks and recreation departments, and international NGOs. They assist in recruiting educators to deliver direct programming in classrooms and out-of-school time environments, and help provide engaging STEAM learning experiences that bring Learn Fresh programs to life.
Implementation partnerships exist on many levels: some are hyper-local (like individual schools), others are city level (i.e. large urban districts, citywide organizations), state level (state afterschool networks), and a few national (i.e. Boys & Girls Clubs of America). This model allows us to directly serve the students and communities in our target demographic in partnership with the people and organizations who know those communities, allowing us to tailor regional NBA Math Hoops programs to the unique education landscape of each community.
NBA Math Hoops programming is supported by core partnerships with Hasbro, the NBA/WNBA and NBPA/WNBPA, and Getty Images. Hasbro produces all NBA Math Hoops board games as an in-kind donation along with additional cash funding, and NBA/WNBA and NBPA/WNBPA provide licenses granting us use of player and team likenesses and branding. Getty Images also provides Learn Fresh a substantial royalty-free license that grants use of photos for all NBA Math Hoops program materials.
Learn Fresh is grateful to partner with incredible organizations around the world to bring our programs to life. Our partners help ensure our programming is accessible to students and educators, and allow us to scale our work to new heights. Thank you to all of our partners for your commitment and continued support.
The grant came through Takeda’s Social Responsibility Program in the U.S. under their “Promoting Greater Educational Equity” program, and represents the second largest financial commitment in Learn Fresh history. The grant will support the global scaling of the NBA Math Hoops program, as well as the growth of programming around Cambridge, Massachusetts and the city of Boston, where Takeda operates its U.S. headquarters.
During the pandemic, AT&T supported digital product development, helping jumpstart Learn Fresh’s COVID-19 response and paved the way for evolved NBA Math Hoops program participation, and also helped to develop NBA Math Breaks, a social media series designed to provide students with math learning through the game of basketball.
In 2023, we’ve teamed up with AT&T again to create math content for The Achievery, a free digital learning platform designed to make distance learning more engaging, entertaining, and inspiring for K-12 students. The new series of NBA-focused math lessons features Learn Fresh’s Coach Calvin and targets young learners, using NBA statistics and culture to teach basic math concepts such as decimals, fractions, averages, and probability.
Programming highlights from the weekend included a session with Mitchell & Ness, a college campus visit to the University of Pennsylvania, an activation with Hasbro, and a STEM panel and basketball statistics workshop with 76ers staff at the team’s practice facility. Final Round competition took place in the 76ers Business Office at the team’s complex in Camden, NJ, along with an Art and Sport learning session with renowned Philadelphia artist King Saladeen.
In order to qualify for application to the National Championship, students must play a minimum of 25 games of NBA Math Hoops and complete 10 curriculum units over the course of the program season, which runs from October through the Spring. Students must also display a high degree of growth through the program, a dedication to practicing good sportsmanship, and an ability to overcome adversity either inside or outside the classroom. Students meeting these criteria are nominated by their program educator to apply, and attendees are selected from the pool of applicants.
Krish Veluthakkal - Golden State Warriors Math Hoops (Educator: Mani Veluthakkal)
Jasmine Rodriguez - Golden State Warriors Math Hoops (Dorene Fontanilla)
Edward McLellan - Seattle Storm Math Hoops Presented by AT&T (Conor Ike & Justin Leong)
Jude Hedeen - Portland Trail Blazers Math Hoops (Home School)
Jocelyn Mata - LA Clippers Math Hoops (Joe Diaz)
Jude Hedeen - Portland Trail Blazers Math Hoops
Isabelle Shumway - Utah Jazz Math Hoops (Austin Alm)
Allan Quijas-Juarez - Denver Nuggets Math Hoops (Imad Ridha)
Silas Gilliard - Philadelphia 76ers Math Hoops (Joy Bryson)