Local entrepreneur looks to overhaul education in the Roaring Fork Valley
Jaymin Kanzer/Glenwood Springs Post Independent
For the past decade, local entrepreneur Altai Chuluun has worked to reshape the education system in the Roaring Fork Valley.
Nearly 10 years ago, Chuluun started connecting young adults throughout the valley with work opportunities through the creation of GlenX. Now, in the midst of another technological revolution, he wants to modernize what he calls an “archaic” education system.
Chuluun, who heads the Gnarly Inn at the base of Sunlight Mountain Resort, is working to transform the old ski lodge into a hands-on, experience-based, post-secondary learning experience for people trying to find their life’s path. The GlenX school will be a revolutionary style of learning focused on helping young adults on their path of educational development and career exploration.
“It’s a lifelong journey to continue learning,” he said. “Schools are, in general, very archaic. They are built in the industrial era, so everything has to be innovated and radically transitioned differently in the same way technology is advancing quickly. We need to be able to radically innovate and advance, how we educate now, how we transfer knowledge and skills currently as well to future generations.”
His vision revolves around an apprenticeship-style program, supplying young adults with access to both hands-on learning experiences and a small stipend to help cover living expenses.
“What if, instead of college, there was a way that young adults could get paid for learning?” he wondered. “I want it to be like an apprenticeship program, where students will learn but still be able to receive at least a small stipend to be able to afford food, housing and enough to live off of.”
Initially, Chuluun envisioned taking over Sunlight Mountain Resort, turning every department into an apprenticeship program.
“Students studying business principles in different subjects would have learned them hands-on while the business was in operation and serving customers,” he said. “An undergrad business student studying marketing one semester would have been working in the marketing department at the ski resort then maybe learning communication skills by working at the shop or ticket booth. Everything would have been incorporated into becoming a learning exercise and school, while expanding the offerings of what it could have become during the off-season as well.”
After his initial plan crumbled, he downsized the idea to something within his jurisdiction. The backwards education system forcing students to pay money they didn’t have didn’t sit right with him.
“Like, time out,” he started. “You’re wanting to charge this much to the people who have the least amount of money. People are just getting started in life, and you’re gonna put them in debt before they even start out. That’s a super depressive state and just so backwards.”
Instead, he scaled his vision to a small, hands-on experience-based school for adults 21 and over who are unsure of their next steps. He realized that the Gnarly Inn, his building, would be the perfect building to reinvest in and renew into a revolutionary school.
The former Glenwood resident found the urge to help through his late older brother, Mergen Chuluun.
“I was lost and not sure what to do next with my life, and I asked Mergen about why he spends so much time volunteering for so many organizations and donating his time back in Mongolia. He told me at the time that he believes ‘As we become leaders, it’s our duty to give back more to the community,'” he said. “Talking with my brother inspired me to want to help my community I lived in, which was Glenwood Springs…Thus GlenX.”
According to their website, the GlenX Career Expo serves over 20,000 students across 12 different high schools over eight years. The Career Expo helped students gain access to first-hand experience to different options after high school.
“This isn’t just needed in Glenwood or the Roaring Fork Valley, this is needed around the globe,” Altai Chuluun said. “We need to have better systems of connecting the professionals to the young adults and to students”
As the pattern usually goes in the education system, the project is only as strong as the community members backing it.
The school will only grow stronger when the community rallies behind the project. They are accepting fundraising donations on their website to help transform the old ski lodge into a small alternative school.
GlenX started fundraising at the beginning of the month. They are shooting to raise 100k by the end of spring so they can start the transformation from ski lodge to school.
“I think it could be a super innovative project to rethink everything in regards to college, in regards to post secondary education and in regards to continued learning for adults,” Chuluun said. “If we’re able to be successful with this and make it as big as we’re dreaming it to be, then we can be radically shifting education across the country.”
