Introducing Cariina's Partnership with I Dream Big
After a remarkable year of partnership during I Dream Big Charter School’s pivotal pre-launch year, we’re thrilled to celebrate their official opening this Fall 2025 in Tuscaloosa! As Alabama’s first HBCU‑partnered charter school, the school serves grades 6–9 (expanding yearly), and is located on Stillman College’s campus.
I Dream Big was founded by Dr. Angela Lang and Dr. Lucretia Prince. Both are veteran educators and administrators with a passion for equitable access to education, and a dream to broaden the scope of student's aspirations and opportunities.
I Dream Big Charter will also have an ongoing HBCU partnership with Stillman College, an effort to create more pathways for students to either attend and graduate from college or be equipped to directly obtain high paying/high demand jobs after graduation.
Creating a Pipeline for Future Educators
Providing HS schools students with opportunities to earn up to 30 hours of college credit
Providing students with firsthand experience of college programmings and expectations
From the beginning, their bold mission has inspired us: empowering students to recognize their unique gifts, pursue dreams, and grow into confident, community-centered leaders through real-world learning and meaningful relationships.
We’re proud to have walked alongside I Dream Big on this journey, and can’t wait to see their students soar from Day 1. 🚀
Emerging Charters: Designing the Future Before Day 1
Cariina works hand in hand with emerging charter schools in the pivotal pre-launch year when schools gear up to turn their unique vision into a new reality. We cultivate and design systems from the ground up, ensuring everything is ready for opening day.
Through our partnership, founders learn from one another: sharing strategies and solving challenges. By the end of the pre-launch year, schools are not only ready to open doors, but also are connected to a team that will support them far beyond Day One.
I Dream Big Charter's Journey with Cariina
In August 2024, I Dream Big began its Emerging Charter journey alongside two other founding schools, Honor Prep and Unbound, as part of a cohort-based Cariina implementation. The first step was a collaborative organizational mind-mapping session, where leaders from all three schools brainstormed structures, processes, and priorities for the year ahead.
With their blueprint in place, I Dream Big turned to its most urgent priorities: enrollment and hiring. Using Cariina, the team built clear, streamlined workflows to manage every step: handling all student enrollment and new-hire onboarding within a single platform. They then created centralized portals as a home base for stakeholders, ensuring everyone could access the right information, at the right time, in one place. This unified approach freed leaders to focus on what mattered most: building culture and preparing for opening day.
Click on the link below to look at an example of Cariina boards that I Dream Big has used to centralize operations.
What's Next
As I Dream Big moves into Year 1, the partnership with Cariina is just getting started. With core systems in place from the pre-launch year, the focus now shifts to expanding use cases: tackling priorities that emerge once the school is open and running.
This means refining processes to make daily operations even smoother, and leveraging Cariina’s tools for data analysis to inform strategic decisions. From tracking student progress to optimizing staffing and resources, Year 1 is about using real-time insights to guide growth, strengthen outcomes, and deepen community impact.
Cariina is proud to provide ongoing support to hundreds of partner schools like I Dream Big. All the best to the team as they open doors this fall!
Ready To Become Organizationally Excellent?
We Believe Organizational Excellence Drives Student Success.
So we created a system for schools to achieve that excellence, transforming them into a unified organization where every department is interconnected and every process is optimized, all under a single, simple platform!
One where educators and department heads are relieved of logistical headaches and a laundry list of different tools and logins. Where students have undivided attention and education, and where teachers are empowered to do what they’re best at: teaching.
Just like how Cariina is a platform rather than a point solution, we're also a partner rather than a vendor. We'll help you quickly and easily configure Cariina's powerful tools to suit your school's unique organizational needs in just three days. Once you're set up, Cariina provides ongoing support and help, for as long as you need it. Let's get started - request a demo today.
