Innovation Center St. Vrain

Student learning at the Innovation Center transcends the traditional classroom and provides experiential opportunities that are developing today’s students into tomorrow’s leaders, innovators and change makers. In addition to rigorous extended learning and mentorship opportunities, students gain valuable experience through employment that focuses on designing and engineering technology solutions for industry and community partners. In providing real work for real pay, offering professional/technical certifications for advanced careers, and supporting the excellent coursework at each of our focus high schools, the Innovation Center (IC) offers a distinct and unique competitive advantage for the students in our district. This iconic building provides an agile space for the intentional collision of ideas and projects and, therefore, an ideal space for innovation. We believe that where you learn matters, and the IC was designed in partnership with students, educators, community members, board members, and professional partners over the course of many months. IDEO, the design firm for the Innovation Center, hosted a two-day workshop with stakeholders across all of those areas in order to help us not only craft an incredible space but also sharpen programming so that both might exhibit the values and beliefs we hold about student possibility and community collaboration. The architects, Anderson Mason Dale out of Denver, added more detail and thought to that vision, and developed the professional space we now enjoy as a community. The ability of the space to change and adapt to the needs of the users mirrors the agility and adaptability we strive for as a system. At the IC, we see students and educators as a catalyst for innovation in a large district. We embrace strategic risk-taking while supporting educators and learning environments throughout the district with implementation of innovations as they move toward mainstream use.