A Lifetime Dedicated to Optimizing Students' Learning Experience
Learning One to One was founded in 2011 by Erika Twani and Julio Fontan. Experts in pedagogy, psychology, and philosophy joined the research and development team to scale Relational Learning to the world.
Our first core principle is to build from where school systems are, from the practices of leaders and teachers, just like Relational Learning works with students. Our second core principle is to never stop researching and developing. After all, the human mind is in continuous growth, and we must shape education to foster its evolvement. Our third principle is to empower educators to continue investing on research and develop in their areas of greatest abilities.
Erika Twani
Co-Founder and CEO
Erika Twani is the Chief Executive Officer and a founding partner of Learning One to One Foundation. After years of experience in the technology industry applied to education and seeing the difference that personalized education can make to students’ lives, she joined experts to start up Learning One to One. She leads the organization to provide a personalized, life-long learning system that develops all individuals' potential, impacting their social and economic opportunities, and their country’s growth.Â
Prior to Learning One to One, Ms. Twani was the Education Industry Director for Microsoft Latin America’s Multi-Country region, responsible for the company’s sales and marketing in the education industry and the citizenship program Partners in Learning, which enables 90,000 teachers per year in the use of technology. Prior to that, Ms. Twani was responsible for Education in Microsoft’s Unlimited Potential Group, a program that combines advanced technologies and strong partnerships with governments, international organizations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), educational institutions, and technology and service partners, to enable technology to reach underserved communities globally.
Under her leadership, Microsoft has increased sales by 154% for original equipment manufacturer (OEM) segment in Chile, through successful sales campaigns and customer adoption of new education products, an initiative that was later spread worldwide among Microsoft. She also created and launched a sales model via undergraduate students in Brazil, reaching a total of 6,000 registered members.
Ms. Twani, a recipient of the Microsoft Circle of Excellence Award, is a speaker at national and international conferences on the topics of educational technology, school reform and strategic leadership, has represented Microsoft in engagement with government officials in Latin America, such as Ministers and Presidents, and has co-authored and published three papers about the use of technology in education. Ms. Twani has over 20 years of international experience in sales, marketing, and profit and loss management and started her career with Microsoft in 2005 as a Regional Sales Manager for the Enterprise Partners organization within Latin America.
Erika Twani resides in Florida, USA. She is originally from Brazil where she holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Software Engineering from the BrasĂlia Catholic University. She also holds an MBA in Entrepreneurship from the Jones International University in Colorado and a Partnership Brokerage International Certification.Â
Julio Fontan
Co-Founder
Julio Fontan is the founder and Director of Fontan School, and the creator of the Fontan Relational Education, a pedagogy model explores the students’ potential, developing their intellectual, personal, social and emotional competencies through a personalized learning that respects their learning pace. Students reach excellence in each subject, in an environment without lectures, blackboards, classrooms, or exams.
In 1999, Mr. Fontan received the Orden a la Democracia en Grado de Comendador (Democracy Order in the Degree of Commander) by the Colombian House of Representatives. This recognition was due to the outstanding results achieved, in environments of poverty and violence and with prostituted girls.
As a recognized authority in education, Mr. Fontan has provided educational consulting services to open 30 schools in Colombia and has worked with the Colombian Government to transform the education system in Sincelejo, Itagui, Tauramena, San Andres, Cerrejon, La Guajira, and Chia states. The Telefonica Foundation in Colombia, the Santa Maria la Blanca school in Madrid, the University of Manizales in Colombia, and four schools in Chile in partnership with the Luksic Foundation, have adopted the Fontan Relational Education as their pedagogy model.
In his junior year, Mr. Fontan has worked with his parents Ventura and Emilia Fontan, at their Psycho-technical Center, dedicated to the education research of new learning tools and methodologies. The Fontan Relational Education has improved in the last 58 years. It demonstrates that education can be transformed, and students can develop their potential to the excellence level.
Mr. Fontan is also the co-founder of Learning One to One Foundation, where he holds high expectations to provide personalized education to all students. He lives in Bogota, Colombia.