Jake West is the epitome of a triple threat: He’s an innovative educator, an entrepreneur and a performer… with a specialty in circus acts (you’ve probably seen him down at the Inner Harbour). He’s someone you’d want at your cocktail party, someone you’d want to shape the minds of future generations AND someone you’d want to do business with.

Jake is an educator at the Pacific School of Innovation and Inquiry, the leading school for change and innovation in the entire province. It’s a one-room school house exploding with 3D printers, LEDs and eager youth.

“We are doing amazing things. I am trying to provide kids with the same level of freedom and opportunity to pursue their own personal learning, as the most innovative companies in the world currently do like Pixar and Google,” commented Jake. “Everyday for me is about creation with the kids and the ‘whoa, we are making some awesome stuff.’”

For $10 you can see what Jake and his students have been up to on April 18th at their Theatre Show at Berwick House.

As an entrepreneur, Jake fuses everything he does and everything he teaches. He’s a Monetary Historian, Salesman and Analyst with a particular focus on the technology sector and commodities.

“One thing that I would like to highlight is that Dan Gunn has given us tremendous support to develop cutting edge products for VIATEC,” commented Jake. “We are working furiously to get them done for Dan by the VIATEC Awards, so everyone can see an example of what happens when you enable super talented teenagers to shoot for the moon. We have been getting mentored by engineers from Limbic Media and the kids are actually getting a real experience of what it means to develop a startup and how to work as a team to get things done. I can’t think of a more relevant learning experience for the times we live in.”

Jake has only lived in Victoria for two years and last year he earned himself the VIATEC Technology Award for Education Champion. Now that’s impressive.
(Nominations are still open for this year’s champions).

“I am never leaving this town. I love the fact that I can hang out with incredibly creative people downtown, go to delicious restaurants and then it is only a 10 minute drive to swim in the lake.  Not many cities have that.”

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