Author Archives: Mark Hecker

Video: Year In Review

By Mark Hecker | May 16, 2012

What does it look like when our tutors and students come together to read? Check out our Year In Review to find out!

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Ten Percent Time

By Mark Hecker | May 9, 2012

Ten percent time is pretty simple: The idea is to foster creativity by letting everybody spend 10% of their time developing their own ideas, as long as its got something to do with our work. So, how does 10% time work at Reach Incorporated? Each Reach job description includes 10% time. It is part of [...]

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Remarks: April 25, 2012

By Mark Hecker | April 25, 2012

William Penn Charter School Cum Laude Assembly April 25, 2012 Good Morning. It’s very exciting for me to be back here today. Thank you to Dr. Ford, Mr. Larrabee, and Mr. Ballengee for inviting me and to Ms. Glascott for that kind introduction. During the past twelve months, I’ve had the opportunity to speak at [...]

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Meet Our Student: LeeAnnah

By Mark Hecker | April 23, 2012

Tears rolling down her face, LeeAnnah walked, head down, three paces behind her brother. He had just delivered the news. Because of testing, her grandmother had arrived early to pick them up. “But my auntie said I could stay!” she protested. Her screams fell on deaf ears. I pulled LeeAnnah to the side and sat [...]

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Crazy? Cocky? Both?

By Mark Hecker | April 17, 2012

When writing and speaking about Reach, I often make aggressive word choices. I use superlatives and make strong statements about my belief in this model. When I asked others to review a recent document written to my board, I was slightly surprised by the response. “It’s arrogant,” I was told. The following lines, specifically, rubbed [...]

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Fun With HR Policies

By Mark Hecker | April 12, 2012

Seriously. I mean it. I’m enjoying the creation of Reach’s HR policies. HR policies and procedures are generally considered to be the most boring part of organizational leadership. Often, that reputation is deserved. However, the creation of these documents also provides one of few opportunities to explicitly define organizational culture. So, as we created our [...]

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Start With Why

By Mark Hecker | March 22, 2012

Kony2012. Trayvon Martin. At this point, you’ve likely heard of both. One took the internet by storm due to a video produced by Invisible Children. The other was more of a slow burn. Weeks after Trayvon’s death, the news media is beginning to tell the story of a young boy killed by a neighborhood watch [...]

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Journalism and Journopalooza

By Mark Hecker | March 9, 2012

This week, for the first time, Reach Incorporated was featured in The Washington Post. John Kelly’s “In DC, Reach Inc. Explores Tutoring as a Two-Way Street” was a stellar description of the work we’re doing in DC schools. The article was exciting to see – as a founder, it occasionally takes events like this to [...]

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Meet Our Tutor: Binetou

By Mark Hecker | March 6, 2012

In September 2010, while trying to recruit students for a brand new program, I depended heavily on the teachers at what was then called Hyde Leadership Public Charter School (now Perry Street Prep). Ms. Butler, the 9th grade English teacher, made some strong recommendations – students who had been struggling in the first few weeks [...]

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(L)Insanity in the NonProfit World

By Mark Hecker | March 2, 2012

We’ve all heard about Jeremy Lin recently. His journey from his brother’s couch to the Knicks starting line-up has been well documented. In all the hoopla about this hoopster, an important lesson is being missed. New York Times columnist Howard Beck produced a gem in his recent article entitled, The Evolution of a Point Guard. [...]

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