U.S. Department of Education
CTE Makeover Challenge

As we prepare to announce the honorees, we would like to take this opportunity to thank all participating schools for their hard work. Your passion for making is inspiring, and we received a wealth of creative makerspace ideas. It was wonderful to have so many schools join the Bootcamp, and take full advantage of the lesson plans, webinars, and office hours. We look forward to following along as your makerspace plans become a reality!

Please see here a list of all eligible schools that participated in the Challenge –  we hope you take this opportunity to connect with your fellow makers!

We are very excited to announce the CTE Makeover Challenge honorees later this month! Following the announcement, each honoree will receive $20,000 in cash and a share of in-kind prizes from the $375,000+ sponsor prize pool to build or renovate their new makerspace. Please check back here for details on the announcement timing.

In preparation for the announcement, our esteemed jury is finishing their review of the Blueprint submissions and finalizing their honoree recommendations. We’d like to thank them for generously donating their valuable time and considerable expertise to the Challenge. We’re honored to have this group of leaders in maker education, tech, and industry bring their expert knowledge and love of making education to the Challenge.

Meet the CTE Makeover Challenge Judges:

Kipp Bradford
Research Scientist, MIT Media Lab
Kipp Bradford is a Research Scientist at the MIT Media Lab. He has founded start-ups in the fields of transportation, consumer products, HVAC, and medical devices, and holds numerous patents for his inventions. Kipp cofounded the National Maker Faire and the first community Maker Faire, Maker Faire Rhode Island, and serves on numerous boards, including The Maker Education Initiative and MAKE Magazine.

Brent Bushnell
CEO, Two Bit Circus
Brent Bushnell is the CEO of Two Bit Circus, a Los Angeles-based experiential entertainment company. Most recently the team launched STEAM Carnival, high-tech entertainment combined with hands-on projects to inspire kids about science, technology, engineering, art, and math. Previously he was the on-camera inventor for the ABC TV show Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.

Kristin Fontichiaro
Clinical Assistant Professor, University of Michigan School of Information
Kristin Fontichiaro is a clinical assistant professor at the University of Michigan School of Information, where she studies learning in formal and informal settings. Editor of the award-winning Makers as Innovators series for middle-grade readers (Cherry Lake Publishing) and author of many maker titles for kids, she is the faculty founder of the Michigan Makers.

Limor Fried
Founder, Adafruit
MIT engineer, Limor “Ladyada” Fried is the founder of Adafruit. Her goal was to create the best place online for learning electronics and making the best designed products for makers of all ages and skill levels. Limor was the first female engineer on the cover of WIRED magazine and was recently awarded Entrepreneur magazine’s Entrepreneur of the Year.

Yvette Morrison
Vice President of Marketing, Snap-on Incorporated
Yvette Morrison is responsible for all marketing communication programming within the Snap-on Tools Group, including event marketing, advertising, promotional development, public relations, market analysis, and marketing functions necessary to extend customer connections, build the brand, and continue the profitable growth of the franchise network.

Bart Rocco
Superintendent, Elizabeth Forward School District
Dr. Bart Rocco has worked as a teacher, principal, assistant superintendent, and for the last seven years serves as the superintendent in the Elizabeth Forward School District. Dr. Rocco’s district has been recognized as a Digital Promise School District, from the League of Innovative Schools, and the middle school created a SMALLab, which is a multimodal, embodied, mediated learning environment, as well as a makerspace called The Dream Factory.

Ahmad Shawwal
Student, University of Virginia
Ahmad Shawwal is an advocate for education reform who promotes better STEM and career and technical education (CTE) across the United States. He served as National President of SkillsUSA from 2014 to 2015. He received the CTE Innovator award from the Department of Education and the opportunity to showcase his 3D Chocolate Printer at the White House.

See the judges’ full bios here.

Our sincerest thank you to the judges for their hard work and dedication reviewing the multitude of exciting makerspace plans from our participating schools.

We are delighted to share that we received an outstanding 298 second round Blueprint submissions from the schools participating in the CTE Makeover Bootcamp. Throughout the Bootcamp, schools further developed and refined their makerspace plans to turn their vision for a makerspace into a reality. They explored curated resources, readings, and assignments on a range of makerspace topics, including designing a makerspace, engaging the community, developing a budget, and creating projects that build making skills. At the completion of the Bootcamp, participating schools submitted their finalized plans to compete for the over $575,000 in cash and in-kind prizes.

To help the judges review the tremendous number of Blueprint submissions, we assembled a panel of making experts from across industry, academia, the arts, and makerspace leadership. Their knowledge of makerspace best practices has provided the judges invaluable insight as they make their recommendations for honoree selection. We are honored to have so many making champions join the panel, and would like to extend a huge thank you to them for generously providing their time to the Challenge.

Please join us in recognizing the esteemed review panel: