Service meets innovation for education graduate student

Omari Tait, a student in the UNC School of Education’s Master of Arts in educational innovation, technology and entrepreneurship program, has built a career defined by service, leadership and a deep commitment to helping people find their best path.

As a first-generation college student and former Division III student-athlete, Tait said the full-time nature of academics and athletics was challenging. Later he realized few people asked him the right questions about his interests, challenges and well-being or offered the support he needed then.

Tait ultimately transferred to and graduated from UNC Pembroke, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology with a minor in athletic coaching. While completing that degree, he also joined the North Carolina Army National Guard — drawn by a desire for discipline, service and personal growth.

Now a staff sergeant, Tait has deployed with the North Carolina Army National Guard to Kuwait, Iraq and Qatar. The experiences, he said, strengthened his ability to lead under pressure and continues to influence how he approaches leadership and problem-solving.

“Whether I’m serving soldiers or adult learners, the principles are the same — stay adaptable, stay informed and help people succeed by meeting them where they are,” Tait said.

The sum of his experiences led him to professional roles at East Carolina University, where he served as a Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs success coach and assistant director of youth programs and special populations. Later he was an academic adviser at North Carolina Central University.

Now Tait is a flightpath success coach with Project Kitty Hawk — a University of North Carolina System-affiliated entity. The project helps adult learners earn high-quality, workforce-aligned degrees and credentials from UNC System institutions.

(Submitted photo)

“Both worlds — higher education and the National Guard — require empathy, patience and structure,” he continued. “In both roles, I’m helping people reach their goals, whether it’s earning a degree, completing a mission or just believing they can do it.”

His Project Kitty Hawk work inspired Tait to enroll in the UNC School of Education’s MEITE program, where he focuses on creating innovative, technology-driven tools that help to expand college and career access.

Tait joined the MEITE program’s learning engineer track, one of several focus areas offered by the program. After discussions with Todd Cherner, MEITE program director, Tait said he realized he needed a deeper understanding of design — specifically, how to build and refine the platform for the college and career access initiative he hopes to launch.

Tait aims to build a VR/XR platform that enables high school students to explore various pathways toward their career goals by virtually touring community colleges and four-year universities, completing mini-courses on key topics like financial aid, majors and minors, and study skills, and exploring careers through immersive virtual experiences and day-in-the-life videos.

“This track is helping me build something useful and something immersive that really impacts students,” Tait said. “I want it to be something that feels alive, something students want to use.”

For Tait, understanding technology’s human impact is no different from understanding the people he leads.

“I’m always asking myself, ‘How can we use the technology we already have to improve education as a whole and enhance the learning experience?’” Tait said. “That’s where my focus on college and career access really comes in, finding ways to use innovation to make education more accessible for everyone.”

Remembering his own challenges as an undergraduate, he has a more holistic view of access.

“College access isn’t just about getting students in the door,” Tait said. “It’s about helping them stay, succeed and see themselves in the future they’re working toward.”