At Kent Denver, students are given the freedom to pursue their passions—whether that be in the art room, recording studio, science lab or on the playing field. For many, the home they’ve found to start stretching their creative legs is the Impact Studio.

With a dedicated space for Upper School students below the Duncan Center and a middle school-specific spot housed in the Visual Arts building, the Impact Studios provide everything students need to design, build and create. 

“This space is open all day, and we have a lot of students who will come down here and pursue projects, whether that’s independent studies or just something they’re doing for another class,” said Cody Candler, an Innovation Coordinator who works in both the Middle and Upper School Impact Studios. 

Cody’s team is actively working to make sure every student feels comfortable and confident in the Impact Studio—starting with the newest students in 6th grade.

“Our working philosophy has been kind of modeled off of Erikson’s Stages of Development,” he said. “For our early middle school students, they’re in a stage where they’re really just needing to form their confidence around feeling like they can belong in a space like this.”

To help with that, the Innovation team has created a set of standard operating procedures for the various tools and machines middle school students can use in the Impact Studio. From soldering and 3D printing to laser cutting and woodworking, students take quizzes and get in-person training for these machines, so they can take their creativity to the next level.

“So it’s like, ‘Can I belong here?’ ‘Can I do well here?’ And then actually feeling like, ‘OK, I know I can do things. What can I do that is going to be meaningful to me?’” It’s a mindset Cody said he hopes students will grow to feel when walking into the Impact Studio.

A Dedicated Team of Experts

While the spaces themselves are amazing hubs for students to learn, discover and explore, the teachers who staff the Impact Studios are the greatest resources to help elevate what students can do. From Cody’s product design experience—he was an engineering graduate who started his own company and went on to work at another startup before joining Kent Denver—to others with backgrounds in architecture, sustainability, engineering and more, the school’s Innovation team brings an incredibly diverse collection of professional expertise to support students in their pursuits. Now, the leader at the helm is Staci Lapis, who steps into the newly created position of Dean of Information and Innovation.

“These are the people who have the knowledge to support your vision,” Staci said about the benefits her team brings to students in the classroom. “Them being content area experts in a very niche world is something that is very unique.”

In her new role, Staci is focused on keeping Kent Denver on the cutting edge of responsible technology use, especially when it comes to AI. She leads a Middle School seminar focused on cyberbullying, social media and students’ digital footprint, as well as an Upper School seminar focused on AI integration in schools. She’s also been holding twice weekly “tech chats” to give faculty and staff a space to ask questions and discuss technology in the classroom. 

“I think it’s been really cool to take on that responsibility here and recognize that this is the world we’re living in and something that I want to get ahead of,” Staci said. “We want to make sure that our students are prepared with the 21st-century skills they’ll need beyond Kent Denver, in college and after that.”

When it comes to goals for her first year in this new position, one of Staci’s big focuses is making sure students and faculty take full advantage of everything the Impact Studios—and her team—have to offer. 

“I think as students start to get to know all of us and they start to see what we can do, they are reaching out more and more for the ideas that they have.”

Opportunities to Explore

Aside from using the Impact Studios to work on a project during students’ free time, Kent Denver offers specific courses and programs to help students hone their entrepreneurial skills. 

Starting in middle school, students can participate in the Innovation Scholars elective, where they use class time to pursue a passion, learn a skill or create a product. This program expands in the Upper School, where students can also take part in an Independent Study, and culminates in an Innovation Symposium at the end of each semester, where students showcase what they have learned or created with our community.

These programs guide students through structuring a project, formulating a plan and executing their goals, alongside mentors and professionals who provide personalized coaching and encouragement. Staci and many members of her team have already been approached to mentor based on their talents and backgrounds.

“We’ve had fashion design and sustainability,” Staci mentioned as recent examples. “I’m getting ones with app design and working with different kids who are starting to get to know me through seminar and are approaching me like, ‘Hey, I heard you did X. Can you help me with this Y project?’”

Cody also teaches a course in the Upper School called Principles of Entrepreneurship: Product Design & New Venture Launch, which provides students a practical and design-focused introduction to developing a product and building a viable business around it. Students spend class time bringing their ideas to life and then submit their ventures to startup competitions run through MIT and CU Boulder, as well as the newly launched Kent Denver Innovation Creation Competition, which is held during the Fall Innovation Symposium each year.

“The goal is, by the end of the year, they should have the skillsets to form a company around any idea they have in the future and execute on it,” Cody said. 

With state-of-the-art resources and expert staff mentorship, Kent Denver students have never been more equipped to confidently design their own futures.