Who We Are: Carina Initiatives
Carina Initiatives is a philanthropic fund working to send more kids from more communities to the frontiers of science and technology. We see math as fundamental to future innovation; as such, we fund and support organizations that work to inspire, unearth, and train math talent.
We believe that math camps provide transformational experiences that deeply strengthen students' mathematical knowledge and identity. Many of today’s premier mathematicians and scientists point to their participation in math camps as transformative to their mathematical journeys. It is in these immersive programs that they discovered the beauty/joy of mathematics in a tight-knit community of other “mathy” students and decided to pursue careers that push innovation in the STEM fields.
We also believe that artificial intelligence represents the frontier of innovation in our generation and is poised to transform society as we know it. With the advent of AI technology, it is more important than ever to equip students with the core mathematical concepts and applications that lie at the heart of modern AI innovation.
However, summer math camps in the U.S. today are not meeting the needs of the moment. These camps are oversubscribed. Most selective camps receive applications from 2-10x more eligible students than they have space for. And these camps don’t tend to teach mathematical concepts that are key to AI research and development. We want to change that.
We want to support the creation of a large-scale organization running a variety of math camps across multiple geographies for thousands of students per year. These camps will be modeled after the math camps that have propelled students to the frontiers of math/science for decades and teach advanced-level math concepts. While we expect some of these camps to focused on more “traditional” math, some camps will teach concepts and applications fundamental to the modern AI innovation (e.g., the algorithmic backbone of deep learning that combines calculus with linear algebra, vectors and matrices that act as the building blocks of neural networks, logarithmic scales fundamental to the science of neural network training, etc.).
The mission of this organization will be simple: provide thousands of top mathematically talented high school and middle school students in the U.S. with a transformative experience that prepares them to push the frontiers of mathematics and artificial intelligence.
The Role
We are looking for an experienced entrepreneur/operator to join the Carina team as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence (EIR) to set the vision for and build a plan for this Math & AI Camps organization. The EIR will have until Summer 2025 to explore the opportunity space, recruit other founding team members, and develop a vision/model, with the goal of piloting 2-3 sites in Summer 2025.
If the pilots prove successful and scalable, Carina will provide funding and assistance for the EIR to spin out into an independent nonprofit organization. Carina is willing to provide a series of growth funding as the organization scales - first round of funding will be $3-5M, followed by participation in additional rounds depending on progress. This is a full-time position reporting to Carina’s Math Talent Programs Lead until successful spin-out, at which point the entrepreneur will assume the role of CEO of the new organization.
Carina expects that at scale, this organization will provide opportunities to at least 3,000 mathematically talented middle/high school students per year around the country. Carina expects that in order for this new organization to be successful, it will need to do the following key things well:
- Scalable Model - Build an operational infrastructure that is highly scalable and efficient, minimizing the logistical burden on any mathematician and scientist who participate as site directors, instructors, counselors, etc.
- Recruiting Academics - Recruit key academics and instructors to shape the academic and cultural side of programming
- Math/AI Experience - Maintain a quality bar for the curriculum and camp experiences that are highly rigorous, highly joyful, and geared towards pushing the frontiers of math and AI
- Brand - Build a trusted and respected brand among students, families, and academics such that there is demand from both students and instructors to participate
Responsibilities
- Communicate a compelling vision and plan
- Build the organization from 0 to 1, then scale rapidly
- Hire and manage a high-performing team
- Develop relationships and earn trust with the academic community
- Manage board and funder relationships
Skills and experiences you’ll need to bring:
- Experience building and scaling an operationally efficient organization
- Deep appreciation of “frontier-level” mathematics and a solid understanding of the advanced math enrichment space
- Ability to build relationships with academics, families, and students
- Extremely high energy and drive - relentless
- Exceptional communicator, capable of getting diverse stakeholders to buy into the mission
- Experience at a high-growth start-up a plus
Preferred Location:
Open to a fully remote US-based position with light quarterly travel.
We value and encourage diversity and solicit applications from all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, gender, sex, age, religion, creed, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, marital status, sexual orientation, physical or mental disability, medical condition, veteran status, gender identity, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law.
Salary: $175-225K
Website: carina.fund