MINERVA VOICES

Developing a Scientific Mindset to Improve the World of Education

by Dun Xiao, as told to Tanna Krispil | Class of 2019 Master in Decision Analysis (MDA)

January 3, 2021

Dun Xiao founded 17zuoye (17EdTech) to address education inequality in China using innovative technology and updated learning approaches. With over 200 million families with students in the K-12 sector in China, Dun saw how geographical and social constraints determined which students succeeded and which failed. Like Minerva, he believes that talent can be found everywhere and access to quality education should not be limited to just urban or wealthy communities. With this mission in mind, over the past nine years, 17EdTech created an online learning environment that has provided educational resources and support to over 100 million families in China. With the demands of a rapidly growing business, it is not common for a founder to take the time to go back to school — but for Dun Minerva’s Masters in Decision Analysis (MDA) program offered a unique value he could not refuse.

Dun learned about Minerva in 2014 after meeting Minerva’s Founder Ben Nelson while visiting educational startups in San Francisco. In addition to admiring Ben’s vision to build an innovative institution from scratch, Dun was particularly impressed by the curriculum and pedagogy, which used principles from the science of learning to make it more effective. As an educational entrepreneur himself, Dun connected with the idea of education as a value-oriented product and transforming teaching into a scientific process to systematically improve learning. While interested in experiencing Minerva’s pedagogical approach, curriculum, and learning environment first-hand, at the time Minerva only offered an undergraduate program.

A few years later in 2017, Dun saw Ben at the ASU+GSV Summit, an education conference, and learned about Minerva’s new graduate program, which was designed to empower working professionals with the knowledge to make decisions of consequence. Initially, Dun was hesitant to join, as he already had a Masters in Information Engineering from Cambridge University and was busy developing 17EdTech, but his curiosity prompted him to apply.

Looking back, Dun candidly shared that when he enrolled in the MDA, he did not have high hopes that he would finish the program — noting that he was preoccupied with his work. However, once classes began, Dun’s perspective quickly changed.

“One of the great merits of my MDA education at Minerva is that it really enabled me to return to the state of academic learning, which I [had] lost as a working professional for more than a decade…However, at Minerva, I became a student once again, absorbing knowledge and ideas on a daily basis through diving into massive academic publications.”

Instead of distracting him from his job, Dun was surprised by how the MDA helped him become a better leader by allowing him to empathize with 17EdTech’s target audience — the student. Seeing the benefit of online education first-hand as a remote student himself, Dun strengthened his faith and confidence in 17EdTech’s offerings and the virtual education sector as a whole.

In addition to his broadened perspective, Dun credits the MDA for helping him develop a scientific and systematic mindset. “The knowledge and skills I’ve gained during Minerva’s MDA program were extremely beneficial to my own management of 17EdTech, especially through the application of data-driven operations and strategy-making,” shares Dun. “[This] is extremely relevant to the growth of my company, which requires us to understand the differences between individuals, find factors that are the most relevant, and build models to leverage data, analyze users, and create strategies.”

Possessing an analytical mindset and understanding how to apply scientific methods is a critical skill Dun hopes every employee of his acquires — although how each person utilizes their skill set is open-ended. For example, in one assignment MDA students were tasked with explaining the concept of #networks through real-world examples. Dun chose to write about his company and its network of stakeholders, a reliable and, self-described, boring example. On the other hand, his classmate, Tomomi, listed every character in the Harry Potter novels. “I was shocked!” elates Dun, “ It never occurred to me that we could learn about #networks in such a fun and effective way. [Tomomi’s assignment] was just such an excellent and extremely creative application of #networks.”

Two years after graduating from Minerva and 17Edtech’s recent successful IPO, Dun is grateful that he invested the time to complete the MDA. While quite challenging, he believes he has grown into a decisive, thoughtful, and more communicative leader. When asked if he has any advice for young professionals considering the MDA, Dun cites Nike’s slogan — Just do it!

“The MDA Program is all about decision-making. So, if you have strong decision-making skills, then you should have already made the decision of applying to Minerva. If you are still debating about it, then it’s time for you to learn about data-driven decision-making! This should be a program that you will find very useful in both professional and personal lenses.”

If you are interested in leveling up your own leadership and decision-making skills, click here to learn more about the MDA.

Quick Facts

Name
Country
Class
Major

Social Sciences & Business

Business & Computational Sciences

Business and Social Sciences

Social Sciences and Business

Computational Sciences & Social Sciences

Computer Science & Arts and Humanities

Business and Computational Sciences

Business and Social Sciences

Natural Sciences

Arts and Humanities

Business, Social Sciences

Business & Arts and Humanities

Computational Sciences

Natural Sciences, Computer Science

Computational Sciences

Arts & Humanities

Computational Sciences, Social Sciences

Computational Sciences

Computational Sciences

Natural Sciences, Social Sciences

Social Sciences, Natural Sciences

Data Science, Statistics

Computational Sciences

Business

Computational Sciences, Data Science

Social Sciences

Natural Sciences

Business, Natural Sciences

Business, Social Sciences

Computational Sciences

Arts & Humanities, Social Sciences

Social Sciences

Computational Sciences, Natural Sciences

Natural Sciences

Computational Sciences, Social Sciences

Business, Social Sciences

Computational Sciences

Natural Sciences, Social Sciences

Social Sciences

Arts & Humanities, Social Sciences

Arts & Humanities, Social Science

Social Sciences, Business

Arts & Humanities

Computational Sciences, Social Science

Natural Sciences, Computer Science

Computational Science, Statistic Natural Sciences

Business & Social Sciences

Computational Science, Social Sciences

Social Sciences and Business

Business

Arts and Humanities

Computational Sciences

Social Sciences

Social Sciences and Computational Sciences

Social Sciences & Computational Sciences

Social Sciences & Arts and Humanities

Computational Science

Minor

Computational Science & Business

Economics

Social Sciences

Concentration

Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence & Cognition, Brain, and Behavior

Designing Societies & New Ventures

Strategic Finance & Data Science and Statistics

Brand Management and Designing Societies

Data Science & Economics

Machine Learning

Cells, Organisms, Data Science, Statistics

Arts & Literature and Historical Forces

Artificial Intelligence & Computer Science

Cells and Organisms, Mind and Emotion

Economics, Physics

Managing Operational Complexity and Strategic Finance

Global Development Studies and Brain, Cognition, and Behavior

Scalable Growth, Designing Societies

Business

Drug Discovery Research, Designing and Implementing Policies

Historical Forces, Cognition, Brain, and Behavior

Artificial Intelligence, Psychology

Designing Solutions, Data Science and Statistics

Data Science and Statistic, Theoretical Foundations of Natural Science

Strategic Finance, Politics, Government, and Society

Data Analysis, Cognition

Brand Management

Data Science and Statistics & Economics

Cognitive Science & Economics

Data Science and Statistics and Contemporary Knowledge Discovery

Internship
Higia Technologies
Project Development and Marketing Analyst Intern at VIVITA, a Mistletoe company
Business Development Intern, DoSomething.org
Business Analyst, Clean Energy Associates (CEA)

Conversation

Dun Xiao founded 17zuoye (17EdTech) to address education inequality in China using innovative technology and updated learning approaches. With over 200 million families with students in the K-12 sector in China, Dun saw how geographical and social constraints determined which students succeeded and which failed. Like Minerva, he believes that talent can be found everywhere and access to quality education should not be limited to just urban or wealthy communities. With this mission in mind, over the past nine years, 17EdTech created an online learning environment that has provided educational resources and support to over 100 million families in China. With the demands of a rapidly growing business, it is not common for a founder to take the time to go back to school — but for Dun Minerva’s Masters in Decision Analysis (MDA) program offered a unique value he could not refuse.

Dun learned about Minerva in 2014 after meeting Minerva’s Founder Ben Nelson while visiting educational startups in San Francisco. In addition to admiring Ben’s vision to build an innovative institution from scratch, Dun was particularly impressed by the curriculum and pedagogy, which used principles from the science of learning to make it more effective. As an educational entrepreneur himself, Dun connected with the idea of education as a value-oriented product and transforming teaching into a scientific process to systematically improve learning. While interested in experiencing Minerva’s pedagogical approach, curriculum, and learning environment first-hand, at the time Minerva only offered an undergraduate program.

A few years later in 2017, Dun saw Ben at the ASU+GSV Summit, an education conference, and learned about Minerva’s new graduate program, which was designed to empower working professionals with the knowledge to make decisions of consequence. Initially, Dun was hesitant to join, as he already had a Masters in Information Engineering from Cambridge University and was busy developing 17EdTech, but his curiosity prompted him to apply.

Looking back, Dun candidly shared that when he enrolled in the MDA, he did not have high hopes that he would finish the program — noting that he was preoccupied with his work. However, once classes began, Dun’s perspective quickly changed.

“One of the great merits of my MDA education at Minerva is that it really enabled me to return to the state of academic learning, which I [had] lost as a working professional for more than a decade…However, at Minerva, I became a student once again, absorbing knowledge and ideas on a daily basis through diving into massive academic publications.”

Instead of distracting him from his job, Dun was surprised by how the MDA helped him become a better leader by allowing him to empathize with 17EdTech’s target audience — the student. Seeing the benefit of online education first-hand as a remote student himself, Dun strengthened his faith and confidence in 17EdTech’s offerings and the virtual education sector as a whole.

In addition to his broadened perspective, Dun credits the MDA for helping him develop a scientific and systematic mindset. “The knowledge and skills I’ve gained during Minerva’s MDA program were extremely beneficial to my own management of 17EdTech, especially through the application of data-driven operations and strategy-making,” shares Dun. “[This] is extremely relevant to the growth of my company, which requires us to understand the differences between individuals, find factors that are the most relevant, and build models to leverage data, analyze users, and create strategies.”

Possessing an analytical mindset and understanding how to apply scientific methods is a critical skill Dun hopes every employee of his acquires — although how each person utilizes their skill set is open-ended. For example, in one assignment MDA students were tasked with explaining the concept of #networks through real-world examples. Dun chose to write about his company and its network of stakeholders, a reliable and, self-described, boring example. On the other hand, his classmate, Tomomi, listed every character in the Harry Potter novels. “I was shocked!” elates Dun, “ It never occurred to me that we could learn about #networks in such a fun and effective way. [Tomomi’s assignment] was just such an excellent and extremely creative application of #networks.”

Two years after graduating from Minerva and 17Edtech’s recent successful IPO, Dun is grateful that he invested the time to complete the MDA. While quite challenging, he believes he has grown into a decisive, thoughtful, and more communicative leader. When asked if he has any advice for young professionals considering the MDA, Dun cites Nike’s slogan — Just do it!

“The MDA Program is all about decision-making. So, if you have strong decision-making skills, then you should have already made the decision of applying to Minerva. If you are still debating about it, then it’s time for you to learn about data-driven decision-making! This should be a program that you will find very useful in both professional and personal lenses.”

If you are interested in leveling up your own leadership and decision-making skills, click here to learn more about the MDA.