Paul Kim is the CEO and Co-Founder of EDGE Campus and has an Honors Degree in Actuarial Science from the University of Stellenbosch. Having graduated in 2008, he worked in the financial sector (Metropolitan EB, GRS Actuarial Consulting) and now has one board exam left before qualifying as an associate actuary. He left the actuarial field to follow his passion for entrepreneurship.
He is a highly analytical and critical thinker, and loves the idea generation process. He understands that in today’s complex world, creativity is required to provide implementable solutions. These solutions will most likely come from the synergy of concepts from different sectors, and as a result Paul enjoys keeping up to date on a variety of sectors. This is quite evident in the EDGE concept which combines concepts from fields such as economics, technology, education, and psychology (to mention a few). In March of 2011, EDGE Campus proudly won the "Idea/Concept" track of the 2011 Cape Town Entrepreneurship Competition.
Further Resources
Interview Date: March 1, 2011
Written and Produced by: JK Fowler (www.roaminghills.com)
Music by: Caroline Ross, Rothko and Susumu Yokota (Song: "Clear Space"; Album: Distant Sounds of Summer)
Interesting Statistics, Quotes and Links:
a. Cellphones
i. “Thus, a survey of high-school learners in South Africa by the Youth Research Unit at the University of South Africa (UNISA) analysed their results by school type finding a negligible difference. They found that 98-99% of high school learners across all school types owned a cell phone.
b. Cellphone expenditure
i. Cell phones are being prioritised amongst youth of all backgrounds:
1. Specifically amongst low income black South African youth,
The majority (83%) access the Internet via their phone on a typical day. About 50% of all these individual’s expenses are spent on cell phones.
http://www.cet.uct.ac.za/
c. Education i. "It's not a crisis in that it is falling apart, but kids who are going to school are not learning anything." Graeme Bloch, former education specialist for the Development Bank of South Africa, The Toxic Mix, (2010). ii. “There is no shortage of evidence showing how badly the South African education system is performing. International comparisons evaluating literacy, numeracy and science ability clearly show that South African children are not getting it.” –Graeme Bloch, The Toxic Mix, (2009). iii. “...children who depend on the public education system are getting a declining quality of tutelage with every passing year”, Ray Hartley, Sunday Times Editor, (Jan, 2010). iv. “What has happened in the field of education is maybe one of the biggest failures in the new South Africa,” De Klerk, Former South African President, citing a recent survey by Newsweek which listed the world’s best countries and ranked the South African education system 97th out of 100. The Herald (Sep, 2010) v. Cameron Herold - Let's Raise Kids to be Entrepreneurs http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/ vi. Charles Leadbeater - Education Innovation in the Slums http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/ vii. Diana Laufenberg - How to Learn from Mistakes http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/ viii. Ken Robinson - Schools Kill Creativity http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/ ix. Ken Robinson - Bring on the learning Revolution http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/