Entrepreneur Saad El Yamani earned a spot on Forbes “30 Under 30 Education” with his program Ambi. In the chaotic world of students juggling classes and extracurriculars, Ambi shows you how to “student” better.
The Moroccan native found his inspiration during his time as a multi-tasking college student. Frustrated by the need to juggle several different programs – one for classes, one for work, even more for extracurriculars – he saw a niche for a centralized program to unify the education experience.
The growth of Ambi could lead to a future of revolutionary student organization that can keep students on track and minimize stress on campuses.
Saad El Yamani Creates a Student One Stop Calendar
In today’s age, social media is an integral part of college activities, classes, and events. As a result, many students find themselves constantly moving back and forth between Instagram, Facebook, and other platforms to find new bulletins or club meeting times.
During his time at Babson College, El Yamani could find no program to meet his needs. “To be fair, I always had a high expectation of the American college system,” El Yamani admits. “When I came in, all the resources were there…but the actual digital experience was not where I thought it was.” From there, he took the initiative to fix that digital experience.
“Most LMS [Learning Management System] portals were designed for faculty, not for students,” he adds. “They were built to be a CMS, course management system for classwork and grades. They are clunky, feel old and absolutely aren’t connected to anything students understand and recognize.”
His solution: Ambi. Ambi allows peer-to-peer connections on college-course or extra-curricular related topics that mimics a newsfeed board on Twitter or Facebook. A student can get updates from professors, find out times and dates of meetings, and participate in live discussion boards, all in one stop.
Saad El Yamani Knows the Modern Student
Coming from Morocco, El Yamani arrived in the United States in search of an answer to the “Global Learning Crisis.”
He wondered at the rates of students who do have access to schools, but still fail to learn.
He found in his own college experience that students did not engage in the classes and extra curriculars via technology. Learning platforms had no engagement. However, he did find that students were engaged with social media apps.
So, in his early days on Babson College campus in 2012, he thought to integrate an online platform for all of his classes, college activities, and social in a way that reflected a social media platform.
Integrating Ambi on Campus
Once launched, Ambi quickly raised over $6 million dollars in revenue in just 2 years. Even Ivy School systems have begun implementing Ambi.
By integrating learning management systems (LMS) into an easy communication and connectivity, Ambi produces impressive results. “That’s no accident,” El Yamani says, “We know students learn more, engage at a deeper level when they can share ideas, collaborate and build connections. When students feel engaged, they persist.”
Moreover, Ambi earns itself a spot in the big leagues of LMS’s. The program has caught the attention of major LMS companies like Canvas and enjoys executives of LMS companies on its Board of Advisors.
In spring of 2019, the company also launched its first Executive Off-Site which resides at Babson College’s San Francisco campus.
You can find more about Ambi, its progress, and its new ideas here.
