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Stories
Spreading the Words
When the youngest of his three sons went off to college in 1994, Carey Cook (MBA 1969) finally had time to pursue a lifelong dream: creating word games and puzzles designed to build the vocabulary skills of school-age kids. At the same time, he discovered the fledgling World Wide Web and realized that it offered a fast, low-cost way to distribute his handiwork. With guidance from his wife, Jan, who retired from teaching in 2002, Cook built a virtual Vocabulary University: www.vocabulary.com.
A whimsical faculty of cartoon characters, including Dean Cinny Nym and Chancellor Dick Shinary, introduce users to different learning activities. Cook drew the characters and came up with concepts, and Jan guided content development to meet the needs of classroom teachers.
Fast forward to 2003, and the Cooks are still at it. While Cook hasnt given up his day job doing stock market research for a San Francisco investment firm, he and Jan now spend twenty to thirty hours a week adding to the site from a spare room in their Menlo Park home. Its a passion, Cook told the San Jose Mercury News (April 8, 2003). Were making a difference, and its fun.
With zero marketing budget, the Cooks have slowly built a loyal following of teachers and students. More than 110,000 people now visit the free Web site each month, 10 percent of them from abroad. Its been like a pebble in a pond, Cook said of the sites spreading popularity. (While vocabulary.com is free, the Cooks earn a trickle of income from national syndication of their daily word puzzle called Rootonym.)
Even as they invest more time in developing the Web site, the Cooks wouldnt think of charging users an access fee. They told Gentry Magazine (October 2003) that the pleasure they derive from the project provides them with plenty of psychic income.
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