When we invited education entrepreneurs to tell their stories in our Story Booth at NewSchools Summit 2011 earlier this year we were completely unprepared for the response we received. We heard from a diverse group of social innovators, fiercely dedicated to improving public education for all children. They spoke the experiences which led them to take on such challenging work, and their thoughts on the future of education reform.

This week we’re releasing two more videos as part of our NewSchools Presents video series.

Alexandra Bernadotte was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and moved to the United States with her family when she was a young girl. Alex’s parents encouraged her to view getting into college as an important goal. But, once she received her admission letter to Dartmouth University, she found many challenges still lay ahead for her. Alex created Beyond 12 to help bridge the gap between K-12 and higher education to help increase the number of first-generation, underrepresented and low-income students who attend and succeed in college.

A former high school history teacher, Scott Given became the Principal of Excel Academy Charter School in 2005, where for three years he was part of a comprehensive school improvement effort. Given now leads Unlocking Potential Schools, a nonprofit school turnaround organizations which took over its first school in the fall of 2011.