Sparking Inspiration and Innovation in the Midst of COVID-19 | Teach For America

Innovation stems from a product of motivation and desperation. The yearning to fill a need is sparked by a wave of fresh ideas on how to fill that gap.

As the coronavirus pandemic exacerbates the vast inequities that plague our nation, including disparities within our education system, it also surfaces new opportunities to deconstruct, re-evaluate, and create ground-breaking approaches to address problems facing us.

This is exactly what took place during Spark Lab, our inaugural education inequity innovation lab.

What is Spark Lab?

Like many organizations, TFA’s face-to-face events and experiences were canceled or had to be restructured due to COVID-19 safety precautions. Collegiate leaders who were slated to attend RISE Leadership Experience and IMPACT Spring Break were looking for meaningful, engaging, and inspiring ways to connect with like-minded individuals while practicing self-isolation and social-distancing. Spark Lab was created to give young change agents the unique opportunity to virtually collaborate with their peers to discuss, dissect, and develop innovative solutions that tackle real-time challenges that negatively affect marginalized students impacted by the coronavirus.

In this digital experience, collegiate leaders from across the nation were able to increase their knowledge of social and educational inequities, participate in a first-class social Innovation training from Co-Founder of SEEDSPOT, Courtney Klein, and increase their leadership and problem-solving skills while learning human-centered design.

To make things a little more interesting, students had the chance to share their solution to win up to $2500 and chat with our Teach For America’s CEO, Elisa Villanueva Beard, about their idea! Students also had access to pathways that allow them to continue working on their solutions with IDEO and with SEEDSPOT.