GoldCap Education seeks to fill in the gaps

A new educational program designed to enhance students’ learning experiences outside of school is launching June 1 in downtown Iowa City. GoldCap Education, founded by Jordan Immerfall, program administrator and instructor at the University of Iowa College of Education, is offering everything from leadership development courses for high schoolers to math tutoring for elementary students. Mr. Immerfall, a father of four and husband to a 6th grade teacher, wanted to create a supplemental educational experience that is “fun, engaging, challenging and inclusive” that could help fill in some learning gaps when children aren’t in school, provide opportunities that reflect the values of the downtown community, and be inclusive and welcoming of all learners. “There's a lot of really important skills that students learn in their developmental years,” he said. Teachers often feel pressure to teach a tremendous amount of content during school hours, he said, which leaves little room for soft skills such as financial literacy or conversational competency. These skills are foundational to create successful learners and individuals, he said. “They're not always able to be specifically focused on (in school), and so we'd like to take a little bit of space and create time for that in a way that districts aren't able to. We have some great educational systems here, but we think that we can supplement some of what they're doing by offering some of those,” Mr. Immerfall said.

Courses will eventually connect with area businesses

GoldCap Education debuts with Think Camps operating out of MERGE, located at 136 S. Dubuque St. in Iowa City. Programs will be offered Monday through Friday and include courses in engineering, creative writing, language, advocacy, and – for Swifties – a world geography course that follows singer Taylor Swift’s Eras tour, replete with facts on landmarks, local cuisine, culture and language of the areas she’s performed in. During the school year, courses will be offered on non-school days, winter and spring breaks, and occasional weekday evening or weekend activities. Each class will have a six-to-one student to staff ratio with a lead professional teacher and an additional associate teacher for the experiences. This summer’s Think Camps will focus on a midsection of age ranges, mainly 4th-8th grade. Mr. Immerfall said he is looking forward to integrating some of the camp experiences with the downtown community and local businesses. “(What) I will definitely do later this summer and fall is offer some experiences where students are learning, but they're also experiencing, through either visiting or networking with downtown business or business owners,” he said. For example, this hands-on approach could take the form of cooking and hospitality classes or a mock trial, he said. It’s an opportunity for students to learn more about Iowa City as well. “In my mind, downtown Iowa City is very unique and the highlight, I think, of the community. There's so many people that live in the area – the Cedar Rapids/Iowa City area – that don't spend enough time here to really know and love some of the things that are happening,” he said. Mr. Immerfall has curated educators for the program that span teaching levels from early childhood to college level education with the goal of bringing together “teachers who love to teach and students who love to learn.” “That synergy can create a lot of great experiences for everybody that's involved,” he said. “If we can put on programming that our staff have a passion for, have expertise in, and want to teach, right away it's going to create great experiences for the students,” he added. The organization’s goal is to hire some of the top area teachers who can offer quality content. Mr. Immerfall anticipates that the courses and experiences will be both enjoyable and of top-notch quality, creating repeat customers of students and their parents. "We want to help students build real-life skills that are really going give them tools to be successful as they transition into whatever phase of their life is next," he said. Anyone who registered for a summer course with GoldCap Education can attend its grand opening June 1 from approximately 12-1:30 p.m. at MERGE, where attendees can meet the staff and see the space during the open house.