For John Dias, this year's University of Toronto Entrepreneurship (UTE) True Blue Expo was a bittersweet moment - he was there on the two-year anniversary of his father's death, working to grow the business they started together.
With its education platform, Dias Learning aims to make learning French more engaging and accessible for students, and teaching French less daunting for instructors.
Dias and his father started the company in part because of the severe shortage of French teachers across Canada, despite an almost 80-per-cent rise in demand for French and French Immersion schooling over the last two decades.
"The last thing I ever said to my father was, 'I'm going to do this. I'm going to lead this company,'" says Dias, a U of T Scarborough alumnus who also earned a master's degree in French and bachelor's of education degree from the university.
"Through what he's taught me and how he guided me, we can continue to help all sorts of other people."
Dias says he hated French classes growing up - it was only after his mother insisted he study it in high school that he grew to love the language. He went on to earn his specialist in French and a minor in English at U of T Scarborough and became a French immersion teacher at the York Region District School Board, where he saw that most students dropped their French classes long before they could develop a similar passion.
"A lot of kids develop a negative attitude towards French," he says. "I realized, if we make it interactive, we make it fun, we make it relatable and connected to real-life experiences, children can learn so much more."
With industry groups saying Canada needs thousands of additional French teachers to meet demand , Dias says many students are left to learn from teachers who may only have a tenuous grasp on the language. He also recognized a serious disparity in education quality between students who could afford private tutoring and those who could not.
"It creates such a big discrepancy between families who have money and those who don't," Dias says. "A lot of the time teachers who are not experienced in French end up teaching French classes - some can't speak French at all.
"At the very least if they have resources and lesson plans, they're better able to teach the lessons."
So, Dias set out to create interactive French lessons and programs that would engage students who may find the standard French curriculum stale or hard to follow, and would resonate with students that have non-traditional learning styles.
The company has since created a suite of interactive resources, from games and books to lesson plans for teachers, study tools and listings of free French-focused online resources. It also provides tutoring, educational programming, events and workshops in partnership with organizations such as summer camps, libraries and schools.
A key resource is Dias Learning's interactive magazine. Each edition is packed with activities that give the French curriculum a colourful spin - often with a bodily-kinesthetic, or physical learning, approach. Many also incorporate learning through play and the arts.
Several of these activities are co-created by undergraduate students with the support and revisions of a certified French Immersion teacher as part of two U of T Scarborough courses for aspiring French teachers. Working with Dias Learning, the students hone their teaching skills at the company's free community events.
"We have a lot of people here who would be interested in teaching, but they don't want to teach French the way they were taught French," says Dias.
Dias' father, Frank, didn't know French - but he had an MBA and unwavering support for his son. Dias says up until two years ago, his plan was to lean on his father to help make the company profitable.
"My circumstances changed drastically when my father died, I realized that I'd have to learn all these things," Dias says.
Dias found support through his long-standing relationships at the university, including through U of T Entrepreneurship and one of U of T Scarborough's business incubators, the Sam Ibrahim Centre for Inclusive Excellence in Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Leadership (formerly The Hub).
With help from the incubator's Level Up program , Dias says he's learning a wide array of skills, including how to build a brand, secure funding and scale his business assets.
He aims to continue expanding Dias Learning's programming and resources to more students.
"I saw the difference French made in my life, job opportunities, my career path," Dias says. "If we change French education, especially in such a way that includes non-traditional learners and kids with learning disabilities, it could be something to be really beneficial to society."
