Student Programming

Students are at the core of everything we do in education. Our programs give youth the opportunity to learn about and implement the design thinking process in their schooling and daily lives. Working beyond the traditional engineering framework, our process brings students through real-world learning scenarios and grounds students in human-centric behavior—ensuring students tap into their audiences empathically to create effective solutions and societal change.

JUMP TO SECTION: social change Internship | MECA challenge | BAck to school innovation challenge | special projects & collaborations | WORK WITH US

Social Change Internship

The Social Change Internship (SCI) is an immersive, virtual 8-week program that challenges students to inspire, encourage, and create social change. Working in teams, students are led through a deep dive in design thinking and work together to create viable solutions for various social issues, including but not limited to areas of public health, political issues, racial injustice, climate change, and education. We also believe these examples and stories of student-led learning serve as models for teachers to follow in the classroom.

Students often continue to pursue their ideas beyond completion of the internship - having held large-scale community events and even pushing legislative bills through their city’s council.

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MECA Challenge

Created in September 2013, the first MECA Challenge was launched at Kansas City Kansas Community College after strong interest in holding a student innovation competition. The result was a 3-day competition where six different teams worked to solve six different startup problems. “MECA” stands for Most Entrepreneurial Community in America - which is inspired by one of the Kansas Chamber’s Big 5 initiatives to make KC ‘America’s most entrepreneurial city’.

Today, our MECAs take a few different formats based on our community’s and partners’ needs, including one or several-day—in-person or virtual, private or citywide—innovation challenges and pitch competitions The purpose of these challenges is to introduce young people to entrepreneurial mindset and design thinking.

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Back to School Innovation Challenge

The Back To School Innovation Challenge is a team-based pitch competition that introduces local high school students to the design thinking process and challenges them to solve a real-world problem in their community around a certain topic.

The Challenge culminates in students pitching their final solutions – with the winning team being able to garner funds to continue their solution and make it real.

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Special Projects & Collaborations

Our community partners work with us to create educational programming that inspires educators and students alike to channel innovation within Kansas City.

Remake Learning Days

Remake Learning Days is a 10-day innovative learning festival for families and youth. Hosted in 16 regions across the US, these hands-on, engaging events are designed for kids of all ages. In partnership with KC STEM Alliance and The DeBruce Foundation, we aid students in finding their voice, going through a design challenge, and pitching their final ideas.

Winning teams receive resources to fund their event, along with a 4-week Marketing and Events v-Ship in April.

Student Voice

In partnership with the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, Student Voice is a program that groups students and teachers together in teams to create solutions informed by real-world learning for their districts. Teams work together to plan and design a ‘student voice’ campaign – working on a strategy for storytelling, engagement and marketing – with the intention of piloting it during the program.

All teams are taught to consider how best to leverage student voice within their school and community, including intentionality around diversity and inclusion and strategies for sustainability.

Project Lead The Way

More than 35 school districts and private schools in the Kansas City metro offer Project Lead The Way, a project-based curriculum designed to engage students in problem solving and STEM learning. PLTW is a national nonprofit offering this transformative learning experience for K-12 students and teachers across the United States.

In partnership with KC STEM Alliance, PLTW offers experiences designed to inspire and motivate Project Lead The Way (PLTW) engineering and biomedical science senior capstone students toward excellence; recognize and reward a job well done; and help students with innovative projects connect with resources and mentors in the business community.

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