Leticia Guimarães Lyle: Transforming Traditional Classes Into Unforgettable Classes

Meet Leticia Guimarães Lyle, the founding partner and Global Chief Education Officer of Camino Education. She has extensive experience in developing and implementing teaching methodologies, curriculums, and teacher preparation for the 21st century. Leticia is a recipient of the 2017 Early Career Award from Teacher’s College, Columbia University, for her work with Social Emotional Learning Programs for several low-income students in Brazil. Before establishing Camino Education, Leticia served as the former Director of Curriculum, Assessment, and Teacher Training at Somos Educação and the President of the Somos Institute. Previously, she founded São Paulo-based AfterSchool Educação and Instituto Vila Educação, which is a non-profit organization responsible for the development and implementation of one of the largest public school socio-emotional learning programs in Brazil. Additionally, through her consulting company, Mindset Education, Leticia led programs at premium private schools in São Paulo and innovative rural teacher training in many other countries.

Enriching Learning

With the mission to enrich the learning experience, Camino Education integrates educators, managers, parents, and students. It aspires to transform traditional classes into unforgettable classes with high education quality and improved engagement by educators and students using Active Learnings. The firm plans to do this by using two main paths;

• Cloe: An Active Learning platform whose mission is to bring an engaging and quality education to millions of young people from all over Brazil.
• Camino School: It is a trilingual, integral, and technological school that uses the best of each education theory aimed at a connected and human practice.

Currently, Cloe has several offerings, highlighting the bilingual program and financial partnership for devices. Both Cloe and Camino Schools work to support an ecosystem of professional development, implementation services, and data analytics to improve learning outcomes for schools spread across Brazil considerably. As the founding member of the Camino school, Leticia feels proud to have both her kids as students of the school.

She says, “I have high standards for education, and I am walking the talk – learning, moving through challenges, celebrating new mistakes every quarter. Being able to share the journey to excellence with my children on board makes me a better entrepreneur.”

Tackling Challenges and Failures

One of Leticia’s primary advantages is her ability to navigate through chaotic situations and deal with several problems at once. She does that by not trying to control the situation’s complexity but by constantly asking essential questions and keeping her eyes open. It may seem counterintuitive, but she feels it’s quite the opposite because challenging environments are all about relationships and things one can’t control by design; hence one needs to design solutions in a way that can help control problems. She also took a course at the Human System Dynamics Institute, which gave her essential insight into becoming a much better leader at Camino Education.

Leticia says, “There is always learning in failure – but the most important thing is how you process those lessons. If you have a growth mindset, practice self-compassion, and sustain ambiguity, you will come out stronger. If not, you will come out unhopeful, disengaged, blaming, and controlling.”

Just like most other entrepreneurs, Leticia has had many professional failures. During one of her many ventures, she had spent most of her money without thinking; at another venture, she positioned herself as a cost center, which soon left her stranded without any revenue. In another experience, she learned about her mistake of sharing her dreams with partners which she should have avoided. However, at Camino Education, Leticia has been able to adapt better and do things differently due to those mistakes and added layers of complexity, including investor relations and operating a new organization during times of uncertainty.

Leticia explains, “I could have become bitter and never have tried to start anything new since the first moment I faced a bad business decision in high school. All to say that attitude towards failure is more important than the fact itself.”

The Driving Factors

Leticia loves humans, nature, and life. She loves witnessing how people can grow and change, which she finds beautiful and moving. “If I can create companies that help that movement, I will be successful. If I can help children in that journey, I will be really successful.”– she says.

Leticia entirely believes in people creating their paths and following them closely, so it is easier to learn from their mistakes without jeopardizing the organization’s deliveries. Camino Education arranges weekly meetings and individual meetings to understand the quarterly goals. Leticia always asks them if they need her help, and unless she has the idea in her head, she tries to be less prescribing of how to do, manage or tackle things. She is also quite known for hiring new employees and telling them to roam around the school for a month to observe and ask important questions before telling them their positions. Leticia believes that asking questions is a much more arduous task than most people could imagine.