Open Works Teen Maker Entrepreneurship Program

During my education and social justice Masters Program at Maryland Institute College of the Arts, I developed a trades-focused after school program for local teens in partnership with the Baltimore-based state-of-the-art MakerSpace, Open Works.  Each semester, participants gained shop certifications in up to the 7 trade-based studios, including woodworking, metal shop, laser cutting, sewing and construction, electronics, 3D Printing, and even graphic design from the expert studio stewards on staff, free of charge. 

I documented my work as part of my MICA program graduate program, and to help secure future grant funding, I created a program report showcasing my personally designed branding and recruitment pieces for the program along with the branded syllabi and action plans, as well as the demographic breakdowns of the participants the program were working with and their take aways via pre- and post-surveys.  This report later helped gain future funding through the Annie E. Casey Foundation, which allowed the Teen Maker Entrepreneur Program to run 3 cohorts per year (Spring, Summer, and Fall semesters), to keep the program running after my graduation, and to continue operating during the pandemic. 

DESIGN DELIVERABLES

Identity Creation
Created a logo system that grew across the 5 cohorts that I had the pleasure of organizing and program managing

Nacho Momma’s Action Plans
As an extension of the promotional branding, I created a whole workbook syllabus that would take each participant through what we would be doing over the program and a week by week planner, so they could count their hours for certification as well as had instructional references and schematics for the studios we would be working in.