![\"NewComm](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/14ellanewcomm-scaled.jpg\")
<\/a>NewComm students networked with professionals at the Routes and Roots block party. Photo: NewComm<\/p>\nLater, working at an independent school in Philadelphia, PA, Asoluka had an actual dream of students designing policy from the lessons of Toni Morrison\u2019s \u201cSong of Solomon.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI just thought, \u2018What a powerful thing, that novels were the framework for policy.\u2019 I woke up from that dream, and I\u2019ve been obsessed ever since,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
NewComm, as Asoluka\u2019s organization is now known, began as a redesigned English class at that Philadelphia school. Then Horace Mann School in the Bronx hired him to teach NewComm.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI became a little bit disenchanted with working at a privileged school,\u201d Asoluka said. \u201cWhat would it look like if this was just the way education was done? What if students were always thinking about the ways to connect their education to the community, and what if they actually had resources to do it, and what if schools became like design studios?\u201d<\/p>\n Asoluka\u2019s virtual TEDx Talk about his transformative vision for education caught the attention of a Simons Foundation funder. \u201cShe said, \u2018Are you serious about this vision?\u2019 I said, \u2018Yes, I am.\u2019 She said, \u2018Are you $110,000 serious?\u2019\u201d he recounted.<\/p>\n NewComm was born as a Horace Mann summer program with 11 students in 2023. It soon expanded into a year-long extracurricular program with over 150 students from public schools around the Bronx. The Simons Foundation has since been joined in its support of NewComm by Morgan Stanley, the Heckscher Foundation and the Pinkerton Foundation, among others.<\/p>\n<\/a>The Roots and Routes block party celebrated NewComm-funded student ventures, such as this custom pipe-cleaner flower business. Photo: NewComm<\/p>\n