When I began this work, the traditional computer lab reflected an older model of technology education: students learned specific tools and skills largely in isolation from the rest of their academic experience. But technology was changing quickly, and so was the way students would need to think, create, communicate, and solve problems. The opportunity was not simply to modernize a computer lab. It was to rethink its purpose.
What if technology stopped being a subject students visited and became a tool for inquiry, creativity, design, and problem solving across the school?
I developed SmartLab as an integrated STEAM and innovation program where technology became one part of a much larger learning experience. Instead of beginning with a device or software program, we began with what students could question, design, create, test, and communicate.
Beyond isolated skills toward purposeful use of digital tools for learning, creation, research, and communication.
Iterative design, systems thinking, programming, robotics, and hands-on problem solving.
Creativity and visual thinking as essential parts of technical and academic work.
Connections between technology, science, classroom content, design thinking, and project-based learning.
Opportunities for students to make decisions, test their own ideas, troubleshoot, and develop confidence through productive struggle.
The program grew because the definition of innovation kept growing with it.
I led both the learning vision and the organizational systems surrounding it: designing and evolving interdisciplinary curriculum, launching new technology and robotics initiatives, coaching educators, guiding technology strategy, and overseeing areas spanning technology, science, library, and IT. I also worked with school leadership on strategic planning, accreditation, technology planning, grants, fundraising, and long-term program development. The same design principles that shaped SmartLab also informed new summer and after-school experiences I developed, creating a sustainable source of program revenue for the school.
SmartLab evolved from a traditional computer lab into a broader innovation ecosystem embedded in the school’s academic identity. The strongest evidence is not that the program launched — it’s that it continued to change. Across more than a decade, the work expanded alongside new technologies, new instructional practices, and changing student needs.
It is easy to make something feel innovative when it is new. The harder work is creating a culture that keeps questioning, experimenting, learning, and adapting long after the launch. Build the vision. Build the system. Then keep learning.