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Prize Winners To Be Announced Tomorrow – Tune in Live!

We are thrilled to share that tomorrow, June 17th, the U.S. Department of Education will announce the CTE Makeover Challenge prize winners at the White House Champions of Change event. We would love for you to join this celebration that kicks off the National Week of Making by tuning into the livestream at wh.gov/live from 1:00 to 3:00 PM EDT.

We hope you are able to watch the live announcement and join the conversation on Twitter using #CTEMakeover and #NationOfMakers. We’ll be tweeting throughout the day from @EdPrizes and look forward to honoring the prize winners tomorrow!

Note: Prize winners were previously referred to as the CTE Makeover Challenge honorees.

Thank You to All Participating Schools

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!

The Honoree Announcement is Coming Soon – Meet Our Judges!

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 for Web

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 for Web

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 for Web

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 for Web

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 for Web

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 for Web

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 for Web

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.

Meet Our Review Panel

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:

Sylvia Aguinaga, DIY Girls & 9 Dots Community Center
Evan Allen, i3detroit
Richard Anderson, Fair Use Building and Research Labs
Tambira Armmand, MakeHaven
Tom Armstrong, Wheaton College
Sean Auriti, Alpha One Labs
Jessica Austin, Axiom Data Science
Douglas Baldwin, Piscataway Public Library (MiY Makerspace)
Alexander Bandar, Columbus Idea Foundry
Matt Barinholtz, FutureMakers
Leslie Birch, Adafruit
Erika Bjune, IOT Inventor
Sara Bolduc, CEC Makerspace & Media Studio
Scot Brees, High Desert Makers
Tara Tiger Brown, Los Angeles Makerspace
Christine Bue, LBKD Corp and MakerBiz
John Burke, Miami University Middletown
Joe Cantu, IDIYA
Colby Carpenter, Utah State University and 4-H
Karen Christians, Cleverwerx
Andria Davis, Chattanooga Public Library
Greta de Parry, Greta de Parry Design
Errin Dean, Arkansas Regional Innovation Hub
Ellen Do, Georgia Institute of Technology
Adarsh Ettyreddy, DukeMakers at Duke University
Saafir Evada, DesignIT Studios
Domenic Giunta, IDIYA Makerspace
Mary Glendening, Middletown Free Library | CreateSpace@MFL
Joel Gordon, Arkansas Regional Innovation Hub
Rebecca Grabman, Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh
Colleen Graves, Ryan High School Library Makerspace and Denton ISD
Stephanie Grimes, Digital Harbor Foundation
Deren Guler, Fatcatfablab
Georgia Guthrie, The Hacktory
Marybeth Haneline, Nova Labs
Rachel Hellenga, Conducty
Jessica Henricks, Girl Scouts of Northern California
Daniel Hidalgo, Idaho Art Lab
Kara Hidalgo, Idaho Art Lab
Scott Hill, Twin Cities Maker
Mack Hooper, FamiLAB
John Hopkins, Michigan Inventors Coalition / Jackson MakerSpace, Jackson Michigan
Rania Hoteit, ID4A Technnologies
Amy Hurst, UMBC
Dorothy Jones-Davis, NationOfMakers.org
Julia Kemp, Harvard Business School
Melissa Koch, MakerEx, LLC
Leah Kraus, Fayetteville Free Library
Gokul Krishnan, New York Hall of Science
Russell Lankenau, Workshop 88
Matt Lehner, Buffalo Lab
Aaron Leis, DIYcave
David Lin, Children’s Science Center
Jomie Liu, YWCA Pasadena-Foothill Valley
Amber Lovett, University of Michigan and Michigan Makers
Gina Lujan, Hacker Lab
Marissa Lynn, Harvard Medical School
Sarah Marshall, ADX
Sylvia Martinez, Invent To Learn
Nancy Mata, Make717
Xanthe Matychak, Rev Ithaca, Ithaca College
Scott McEvoy, DUhatch Start-up Incubator
John McNulty, Makers Square
Justin Merrell, Catalyst Space
Andrew Miller, Makerspaces.com
Jess Monette, Scoutmob
Steve Morris, Catylator Makerspace
Shuby Narayanaswamy, Rika Box
Liam Nilsen, JoyLabz (Makey Makey)
Maya Nitzberg, The Possible Project
Daisy Nodal, Moonlighter Makerspace
Jillian Northrup, Because We Can, Inc.
Paul O’Brien, Berkshiremakerkids-at-Southern Berkshire Regional School District
Sarah O’Rourke, Autodesk
Jumoke Osias, Morgan State University
Melissa Pardun, Maker’s Edge makerspace
Jessica Parker, Maker Ed
Diana Pincus, MakerBot
Stephanie Prato, Fayetteville Free Library
Henry Quach, Duke University
Daniel Rabuzzi, Mouse
Logan Rooper, Duke University
Margaret Roth, Yet Analytics
Molly Rubenstein, International Development Innovation Network, Olin College of Engineering
Derek Seabury, Artisan’s Asylum
Nathan Seidle, SparkFun Electronics and Open Source Hardware Association
Kira Seiger, Harvard Medical School
Kristin Shearer, The Grommet
Gene Sherman, VOCADEMY | The Makerspace
Caroline Solis, MakerBot
Talya Stein, The BCCP
Lori Ann Terjesen, Children’s Science Center
Andres Torres, Makerspace Forsyth LLC
Mark Van Holstyn, GR Makers
Michelle Walker, Walker Philanthropic Consulting
Nicholas Ward-Bopp, Johnson County Library and Maker Village KC
Susan Wells, TechTerra
Mary West, Sparkfun
Matthew Williams, MakerPoint Studios & MakerSpace
Christopher Wilson, Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago
Andrew Winstead, IDIYA, New Orleans Makerspace
Anna Young, Pop Up Labs and MakerHealth