Education Stories

Roy Scott, Healthy Hip Hop; Ina Montgomery, Urban TEC; Tammy Buckner, WeCode KC; and Edgar Palacios, Latinx Education Collaborative

LEANLAB awards $50K in seed grants to 19 Black and Latinx innovators in education

Entrepreneurs should reflect the communities they serve, said Katie Boody — a charge even more critical when innovative work touches Kansas City’s diverse public school systems, she added. “I know firsthand how challenging launching a startup can be for anyone, and especially for founders of color,” said Boody, co-founder and CEO of LEANLAB Education, announcing the…

Goodwill

No Coast names finalists for KC’s premier tech champions; winners revealed Sept. 16

Inspirational leaders impacting tech aren’t confined to the coasts — nor to a pre- or post-pandemic world, said organizers of the No Coast awards, pushing forward with plans to honor significant contributions to Kansas City’s tech community virtually this fall. “We all know someone who makes waves everywhere they go — someone who, whether they’re…

Karen Hughey and Rob Hughey, Team Cura

Rewriting the playbook: Team Cura positions Gen-Z student-athletes for ‘college of their dreams’

For student-athletes playing the long game with their academic and athletic careers, Team Cura enhances scholarship odds and increases college readiness, said Rob Hughey, detailing an online training program that exercises professionalism like a muscle.  “We want to make the process really streamlined,” said Hughey, who co-founded the Kansas City-based startup alongside his mother, Karen…

LEANLAB Education team

LEANLAB boosting its K12 Fellowship with $2M in new Chan Zuckerberg, Gates Foundation grants

Buoyed by a fresh $2 million in high-profile grants, LEANLAB Education is resuming its innovation research program for schools — this year, focusing its K12 Fellowship search first on the needs of COVID-era pilot schools rather than matching them with already-selected entrepreneur solutions. “We’ve seen remarkable ingenuity and innovation from schools this past year,” said…

Oz Qureshi and Carlos Alonzo, Minddrive

Student who helped pioneer Minddrive paves way for Honeywell’s first Latinx engineering scholarship

Perseverance and transparency fueled Minddrive alum Carlos Alonzo’s award as the first recipient of Honeywell’s new four-year $20,000 Latinx engineering scholarship with guaranteed job placement upon graduation, said Oz Qureshi. Alonzo first applied for Honeywell’s engineering scholarship that has historically been allocated to African-American students and in partnership with the Black Achievers Society, said Qureshi,…