WGI was founded as the Wilson Global Initiative in April 2014 by a then 14 year old named Chance Wilson. Wilson, then an eighth grade student in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, had noticed an issue: his peers in school were unable to read and write. Research led him to learn that illiteracy was one of the world’s biggest issues - not just limited to his Baton Rouge middle school. Turning his imagination to action, Wilson realized this was a crisis and he had to do something about it. He decided to start an organization dedicated to helping people learn to read and write. WGI was born. For a decade WGI has worked teaching literacy to communities in need around the world. Specifically, WGI built programs, recruited volunteer teachers and mobilized them to teach people in places like Los Angeles and Manila. Today our core offering is education technology. Over half the world has access to a mobile device and we recognize this as the future of education. Building technology that can teach people to read and write solely from a device in the palm of their hands is revolutionary. This is our current goal. We operate commercially as The WGI Worldwide Company and continue our philanthropy as WGI Worldwide Philanthropies. We are proud of the work we have done to impact lives and shape the future.