1. Everyone deserves access to educational materials.  Since we are initially targeting the test prep and college admissions markets, let's be more specific.  Everyone deserves help with mandatory standardized tests and a good shot at getting to the college of his or her choice.  If a student is motivated and has a goal, access to helpful study aids and knowledgable peers and professionals should not be a barrier to success. Right now, there are a variety of circumstantial barriers related to standardized testing that prevent students from achieving their goals. At Mindfish, we hope to overcome these obstacles.

2. Learning should be fun.  Traditional test prep materials have significant problems. They are long. They are boring. They are static and do not adapt to the specific needs of each individual student. Simply put, they do not mesh with the current cultural, technological, and pedagogical climate. MindFish is specifically designed to address each of these issues. We know that students are spending a lot of time online. We know that they are interacting in meaningful ways and creating content while there. And we know that many young students learn better through a modality other than the strictly liguisitic (print books). MindFish aims to tap this technological engagement and these learning habits and channel them into educational success.

3. There is someone out there who can help you. Every student has individual strengths and weaknesses and specific needs. Nonetheless, about 2 million take the SAT test every year, many more students apply for college annually, and there is a very deep, loosely knit network of independent educators and counselors throughout the country and world. Other students have had been through this process before and are going through it right now. Part of our goal at MindFish is to connect you with peers and professionals who can answer your questions, share their knowledge, and help you succeed.

4. People learn better together. Human beings are social creatures. This is reflected dramatically in the unprecedented growth of the online world. In less than a decade the world wide web has morphed from a repository of the world's information (think Google) to a people-driven platform for interaction and real time exchange of ideas (think Facebook and Twitter). We believe that the boundary lines between the online and offline worlds are fluid and that our individual knowledge and self-awareness and those of our culture as a whole do not recognize such distinctions. At MindFish, we are striving to connect people and ideas in intelligent ways to raise the educational bar for everyone.

5. The time is now. We believe that social learning is the future of learning and that education is the future of our society. The United States, in particular, is currently at a dramatic crossroads. There are more young people in our country than ever before and, at the same time, our educational institutions are sputtering.  Meanwhile, our students are remarkably adept at using modern technology and voracious consumers of online content. We believe that the time is ripe to capitalize on this engagement and convert it into educational achievement.