Lean Lab announces new, mature fellowship class

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: