Karin Bjerde introduces us to eight colleagues whose careers and futures were shaped by the Diploma Programme (DP) and now work together at Kognity to bring IB students resources for academic success.
By Karin Bjerde
Many graduates witness the positive impact that the Diploma Programme (DP) can have on their lives. But for a handful of IB alumni, the DP has become an integral part of their future—and I’m proud to be among them. We’ve chosen to work at Kognity, a company started by DP students, for DP students. Kognity originated as a creativity, activity, service (CAS) project in Sweden for COO and co-founder Nicholas Johansson, who tutored other students. This later turned into a revision company called Lanterna Education, which finally evolved into Kognity, a publisher of digital textbooks used by more than 15% of DP schools.
Nicholas and I aren’t the only DP graduates at Kognity—11 graduates work there to give current students the resources they wanted to have as IB students. Jens Kron, coming from the same IB school as Nicholas, heads UX design. Then there is Alice Ford, our Account Manager Leader, a Middle Years Programme (MYP) and DP graduate from Italy who found Kognity by taking a Lanterna revision course. Swedish DP graduate Carl Emilsson, Head of Customer Experience, started out by tutoring for Lanterna while a university student.
Nicholas Johansson, COO/co-founder: “I realised that former students could have a significant impact on IB students and hence I started our revision course company Lanterna, which developed into Kognity.”
Anna Lifvergren, Content Manager: “The fact that I can now translate the IB’s vision of fostering life-long learners into reality at a company serving the educational community is just phenomenal.”
Recently, Kognity has branched into other educational systems like GCSE, with more curricula to be added in the future; but at its heart will always be the IB diploma and the foundation it laid for Kognity. When asked about his IB days, our Head of Growth and Swiss DP graduate Sebastian Sherif remembers the Aristotelian quote that continues to motivate his vision at Kognity to radically improve learning for the world’s 1.5 billion school students: “Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.” Alice Ford, Account Manager Leader: “As a slightly stressed DP final year student, I took a Lanterna history revision course to calm my nerves and then went on to work with Kognity ever since.”
To learn about the IB alumni network, visit ibo.org/alumni and read about our 50th anniversary featured graduates to see where other students have taken their studies and careers.