Lean Lab announces new, mature fellowship class
June 18, 2015 | Andrea Essner
The Lean Lab, an education innovation incubator, announced its second cohort of fellows who hope to bring meaningful change to Kansas City education.
In the 2015 class, 10 fellows with seven solutions for Kansas City’s urban education will be participating in the Lean Lab’s summer program.
Fellows arrive at the program with ideas in various stages of development, Lean Lab co-founder Katie Boody said. Boody, a former middle school teacher, identified this year’s cohort as a group with advanced solutions.
“Fellows have been working on their solutions for a little bit longer,” she said. “It’s not just the idea stage.”
Lean Lab fellows participate in a month-long incubator program, which began Tuesday. During the summer program, fellows engage in a process of innovation that involves rapid prototyping and testing of their solutions to a problem in Kansas City education.
This year’s group is taking a closer look at how to help youth in education.
“These are direct initiatives that are impacting students,” Boody said. “They’re already taking on really big problems and I’m really excited to see where they end up.”
An important component of the incubator is building partnerships, Boody said. Fellows receive mentorship from the creative professional in Kansas City, and have the opportunity to pilot ideas at schools or programs once they’ve been refined in the incubator.
Fellows will pitch their solutions at a culminating event, Launch Day, July 17.
Learn more about the Lean Lab with this video from our media partner, Kansas City Public Television:
Featured Business
2015 Startups to Watch
stats here
Related Posts on Startland News
‘Night Without Borders’ opens coffee house doors to honor heritage through harmony
Culture transcends borders, said Danny Soriano, surrounded Friday night in a popular Crossroads coffee shop by music, dance, art, food, and drinks that all shared a common link: Latino flavor. “Whether it’s Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Argentina, we all come together as Latinos, as Hispanics, and celebrate our heritage,” said Soriano, who organized a…
KC GIFT orders a full meal with $100K Wah Gwan grant: Job creation (with a side of inspiration)
Young people on Kansas City’s east side need to see examples of what can be achieved when someone who looks like them works hard — and wins, said Tanyech Yarbrough, pledging to use her recent grant funding from KC G.I.F.T. to mirror entrepreneurship to her community, as well as expand her Troost eatery. Yarbrough’s Wah…
GEWKC returning to familiar venue (but its new destinations might surprise ticket holders)
When Global Entrepreneurship Week pulls into the station later this fall, Kansas City participants can expect a fresh experience inside one of the region’s most iconic landmarks, said Callie England, noting an intentional effort behind the scenes should help reroute the “best of the best” events onto custom agendas. “While you’ll see a few familiar…
Wichita program drives highway of resources to more KC startups; founders tout who they met along the way
Opening its doors to Midwest companies outside Kansas for the first time, a Wichita-based program that connects startups with the tools to better engage enterprise partners offered an added benefit to Kansas City entrepreneurs: a new ecosystem of support just a few hours from home. “The program’s Wichita location inspired us to broaden our outreach…