It’s no secret that Pittsburgh is proud of its homegrown talent, and tech giant Duolingo is no exception. Now heralded as the top education platform on the planet, Duolingo was birthed right here in the ‘Burgh and has continued to invest in the region since its inception. Their newest project is a bilingual learning space called Duo’s Treehouse, which is housed at The Kingsley Association in Larimer.
Duo’s Treehouse is the latest initiative in the company’s Early Learners First social impact program. The learning space is bright and colorful, with exciting activities including water play, dance lessons with Los Sabrosos, and crafts that encourage children and their caregivers to engage in meaningful play. The programming at the Treehouse focuses on bilingual education in English and Spanish and was developed in tandem with the team at La Escuelita Arcoiris, a Spanish immersion school in Squirrel Hill. Early learning experiences are held on Friday mornings and are available at no cost to all families and caregivers of children from ages birth through 5.
Through Early Learners First, Duolingo has pledged to invest $1 million annually in early learning and high-quality, affordable childcare in the Pittsburgh region. On March 21, Duolingo brought community stakeholders to celebrate the new space at The Kingsley Center. The launch gathered elected officials, members of the press, business owners, and community members to tour Duo’s Treehouse and hear from speakers on the importance of robust early education and childcare. While touring the Treehouse was the impetus, the bulk of the event focused on how these stakeholders can work together to transform early childcare services in the Pittsburgh region.
Kendra Ross, Duolingo’s Head of Social Impact, kicked off a panel discussion by sharing what her team had learned about the city’s needs when it comes to early childhood education and childcare. Ross said that, traditionally, funding individual childcare slots was the most common way companies supported families with young children. While noble, Ross and her team wondered if that was still the best use of their resources.
“So we asked them,” said Ross. “What do you need? How can we help?”
The answers Ross received from the community were surprising. After speaking to experts in the private sector, government sector, and at nonprofit organizations, Duolingo took that feedback and revamped their approach.
“We found out that the best opportunity for us to support those programs was to provide grants to improve the conditions of their programs and their centers,” Ross shared. Teacher burnout is an ever-present problem, which leads to fewer childcare slots across the city — and in turn, fewer options for parents who need to work to support their children.
After defining the current needs, Duolingo put their money where their proverbial mouth is. “We provide grants to fill those gaps,” said Ross. Funding benefits, for example, improves teacher retention. So they did that — and it made an impact. Nine grants of $75,000 each may be a small line item on a big corporation’s budget, but Ross says that amount can be transformational to a childcare center or early learning program.
Underwriting high-quality childcare as Duolingo has pledged to do has a high return on investment for businesses, according to the Pennsylvania Early Learning Investment Commission. The commission’s Executive Director, Andrea Heberlein, spoke about the critical need to invest in young children in the Pittsburgh region and across the state. Heberlein says that in 2021, they asked employers in the Commonwealth about how childcare was impacting their workforce. Similar to Ross’s experience, Heberlein said the answers were not what she expected.
“The things that we learned did really kind of surprise us,” she said. “We knew that [childcare] was a key factor in recruitment and retention and that business leaders were really concerned about how insufficient childcare was affecting their bottom line.” The rest of the conversation encouraged her, though. Rather than only thinking about that bottom line, businesses wanted to look at the whole picture. “Businesses wanted to do a better job of helping their working families,” said Heberlein.
With the positive impact of robust early childhood investment made clear, attendees were invited to sign a petition spearheaded by Start Strong PA. Private investments like those made by Duolingo matter, but so does government funding. The petition advocates for $55 million in additional state funding for teacher recruitment and retainment initiatives.
“We want as many folks as possible communicating to their legislator that, yes, we want that investment in early childhood,” said Cara Ciminillo, Executive Director at the nonprofit early childhood advocacy group Trying Together.
Ross encouraged everyone in the room to keep brainstorming, collaborating, and advocating for the city’s youngest residents. She said that this is not a quick fix, but a long game. “A lot of times you’re fighting for things that you won’t even see in your lifetime.”
This article appears in Mar 19-25, 2025.
