OMO CEAD Innovation Center

Colonization has left countless indigenous communities ravaged by toxic environments where disparities and inadequate systems reinforce negative feedback loops and limit the ability of indigenous youth to explore their full creative/intellectual potential. To reverse these damaging cycles, we are proposing a holistic, multidimensional, culturally-informed solution in the OMO Culture, Ecology, Art, and Design (CEAD) Innovation Center.

On a 28-acre permaculture farm on the Navajo Nation, our innovation-focused programs cultivate and empower indigenous problem-solvers and innovative leaders through a pedagogical approach that centers project-based learning, indigenous philosophy, cultural knowledge, ecological awareness, artistic expressions, and creative design thinking. Here, students are trained to solve complex real-world problems by designing innovative solutions in studios and on the farm while emerging artists, designers, and scholars are invited to contribute new work and ideas. If scaled thoughtfully, similar pedagogical models could be built around the specific needs and cultural/ecological systems of other indigenous communities. 

Education and life-long learning are keystones to self-sufficiency, innovation, and prosperity. Unfortunately, indigenous students across all grade levels continue to struggle in western systems of education and face some of the lowest high school graduation rates in the nation. Sadly, even fewer enroll in and graduate from college, thus leaving many underequipped for life in the 21st-century. In a knowledge-based economy, a continuing gap in skill proficiency and access to higher education cripples the socioeconomic well-being, status, and mobility of individuals, families, and entire tribal nations. 

In the Navajo Nation, Diné youth with poor access to vital resources are tasked with overcoming intergenerational trauma in addition to high rates of childhood poverty (46.9%) in the lowest performing state public education system in the United States. Here, poor educational outcomes and academic deficiencies aren’t due to a lack of ingenuity, intellect, or ambition. Instead, inadequate infrastructure, environmental degradation, food insecurity, health disparities, and systemic deficiencies in current education models burden the mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual health and wellbeing of our youth.

While these issues are prevalent throughout Indigenous America, we will begin by working with students, professionals, and families in the Navajo Nation communities of northwestern New Mexico.

We are redefining how we educate indigenous youth by introducing a 21st Century education model that is inseparable from:

• inquiry, experimentation, and practical experience;
• holistic, interdisciplinary explorations;
• the local culture and community ecology;
• indigenous knowledge, values, methods, and technologies; and
• artistic expressions and creative design thinking.

We are introducing a full-time 6th-12th grade Innovation School, several Discovery Studios, an Educational Farm, Harvest Shares, and Creative Residencies for professional artists, designers, and scholars.

Our Innovation School immerses students in an environment based on an architectural design studio model and orients learning around multi-disciplinary, collaborative projects. Here, students are not given grades, instead they develop portfolios to demonstrate their experience and competency. At a smaller scale, our Discovery Studios introduce our pedagogical studio model to a broader audience throughout the year. In both programs, students integrate their knowledge through hands-on creative problem solving as they solve complex, real-world issues locally and globally. 

To cultivate new work and ideas, we will host professional artists, designers, and scholars from around the world in our Creative Residencies. 

Our Educational Farm will convey traditional cultural knowledge and experiment with modern and ancestral methods of cultivation through studio-integrated workshops, internships, and apprenticeships. The produce that is cultivated on our farms will then be distributed to local families through an affordable CSA Harvest Share program.

Headquartered in Hogback, NM, the OMO CEAD Innovation Center is an indigenous-led project that delivers innovation-focused creative education programs to the rural Navajo (Diné) Nation communities of northwestern New Mexico. For centuries, indigenous people, including the Diné, have conveyed knowledge and values through traditional architecture, agriculture, language, storytelling, ceremony, and practical experience in the environment. We focus on returning ancestral knowledge and methods of teaching to Diné communities in a 21st-Century pedagogy. 

Innovation School While our model can be adapted to fit the needs of all K-12 students and 574 Indigenous American communities in the United States, we will begin our work serving the specific needs of our local community. Our Innovation School will work directly with 32 marginalized Diné students between the ages of 11-18 years old struggling to reach their full potential in an education system where creativity, imagination, and divergent thinking is often quelled.

Discovery Studios Our Discovery Studios offer several programs under the continuing education, higher education, and K-12 domains. The continuing education domain presents 2-week open studio design challenge sessions that can accessed by local community members throughout the year. Each season, studios present a different theme with different problem statements. Here, youth, adults, and elders alike will be guided through the design process and principles of Diné philosophy as they tackle real-world problems. Within this domain, we will also offer semester- and summer-based immersive residential intensive studio enrichment (IRISE) programs for students enrolled in undergraduate architecture, engineering, and design programs. Here, we hope to immerse participants in the culture of the community as they develop their own design abilities in a curriculum that meets accreditation requirements of partner universities. Lastly, we will offer summer and afterschool Discovery Studios to K-12 students so that those who are not enrolled in our Innovation School have the opportunity to learn how to become creative problem-solvers in short 2-week studio design challenges reminiscent of what's presented to our Innovation School students. 

As students navigate through the design process in each program, they will implicitly and explicitly develop technical and socio-emotional skills that translate immediately across all disciplines. These skills include the ability to think, empathize, strategize, communicate, collaborate, problem-solve, and reflect effectively. As students prototype new solutions they learn technical skills that are relevant in major industries - thereby preparing them to become productive individuals that can make something out of what others perceive as nothing.

Farm and Food Our local community is the largest agricultural community on the Navajo Nation, but unfortunately, while the number of operating farms and traditional Diné farmers continues to decline, food insecurity and a weak food system prevails. Therefore, on a 28.5-acre permaculture farm, we will offer a host of Farm and Food programs that provide a source of affordable, healthy, fresh foods and future farmer training. 

Creative Residencies We will foster a community of reciprocity, diversity, inclusivity, and creativity by empowering marginalized and underrepresented talent throughout the year. Visiting artists, designers, and scholars will become immersed in the local community ecology with the time and space to focus on their work. Residents will have the freedom to devote weeks to deep thinking and explosive creation in our studios, workshops, and fabrication labs. Professionals and post-graduates from all over the world will be encouraged to join us in our community. Residents will be selected to attend for free, but we will ask that they contribute a small portion of their time to the exploration of creative new ideas on our farms, our Innovation School students, and our Discovery Studio participants.

Ultimately, we will cultivate a productive and creative environment where innovative ideas are born. Thus, our interrelated programs are all designed to facilitate a reciprocal relationship between our students, the environment, the local community ecology, and visiting artists, designers, and scholars. 

Instead of centering our pedagogy around rigid 20th-Century education models and methods, the OMO CEAD Innovation Center fundamentally redefines how marginalized indigenous youth and their communities are educated. Instead of classrooms, students learn in multidisciplinary, collaborative environments based on an architectural design studio. Here, our culturally-informed pedagogy centers hands-on, project-based learning; portfolio-based assessment; creative design thinking; social/emotional learning; and holistic systems thinking. To ensure we maximize our impact, we have designed interrelated programs that work together to serve specific age groups.

As a whole, we are currently in the late-concept/early-prototype stage because we have not yet procured funding for our organization. We are developing our Innovation School's curriculum alongside educational leaders while we prototype scaled versions of our pedagogical model through our Discovery Studios and Farm and Food programs.

In our Discovery Studio prototype, up to thirty Diné students in the Navajo Nation communities of northwestern New Mexico will be offered the opportunity to participate in one of four design/build/grow projects on 4-acres of an organic, permaculture farm. Studio projects include a 300-sf chicken coop, a 500-sf passive solar greenhouse, a vermicomposting system, and an aquaponics system. Each studio project accommodates varying age groups in their scope and complexity. The completion of these projects will introduce new elements that will enrich the experience of the community and future students. 

How our children are raised, educated, and cared for is critical to the success of our communities, and our nations. Without a connection to the ancestral philosophies and practical methods of education that have guided indigenous communities for eons, our youth will continue to struggle. Thus, we are proposing a unique studio-based pedagogical model that indigenizes the educational movement to build K-12 curricula around creative design-thinking and project-based learning.

Our pedagogical model is inseparable from the holistic teachings of the ancestral philosophy of the Diné. Embedded in the four sacred cardinal directions, this philosophy is expressed in concepts and values associated with natural elements, cycles, and processes. Here, life is placed in a harmonious relationship with the natural world and uses this to teach holistic principles of health, well-being, and personal development. We also discovered clear connections between the modern understanding of the design process and the Diné process of knowledge internalization. Therefore, we have centralized this philosophy in our pedagogy and encourage our students to absorb the teachings of our ancestors and explore them through their work.

In a multi-disciplinary environment based on an architectural design studio, students explore ambiguous, open-ended, real-world problems by developing a solution through an iterative process. As they develop studio projects, students are taught to integrate and apply different realms of knowledge from varying disciplines. Instead of grades, standardized tests, and compartmentalized classes, students are evaluated on their ability to think critically and creatively; observe and analyze systems and environments; empathize with people and whole systems; identify existing or eminent problems, or needs; understand nuances; brainstorm creative solutions; express and convey complex ideas, thoughts, and emotions; prototype new contextually-relevant systems, products, or experiences; present solutions to the community; receive constructive criticism; and reflect upon lessons granted by the design, its process, and the community's response.

Here, our pedagogy teaches students through an indigenized lens how to innovate within the limits of the means available with a critical, yet respectful regard of a specific region and its context. With our transformative approach, we hope to break cycles of intergenerational poverty and trauma by teaching students how to holistically design systems, experiences, and products that foster abundance, generational health/wealth/wellness, and ecologically healthy environments for themselves, their families, and their communities.

At the moment...

Approximately 30 students ranging in age from 12-17 years old have already expressed a strong interest in participating in our summer and afterschool CEAD Discovery Studio prototypes; 2 professional artists, 2 architectural designers, and 1 biologist expressed interest in participating in our Creative Residencies; and approximately 12 families are eager to join a yearly CSA Harvest Share program as soon as possible. However, these numbers are a result of brief conversations in the local community and with individuals in the founding team's professional network.

On the horizon...

By the end of year one, we hope to implement a finalized Innovation School curriculum and portfolio-based assessment and serve at least 20 students aged 11-18 years old through a partnership with local Navajo Nation public schools in the Central Consolidated School District. In our Discovery Studios programs, we plan to serve at least 60 people. In our Farm + Food programs, we plan to supply affordable healthy and nutritious fresh to at least 20 families through CSA Harvest Shares and employ at least 4 interns and 2 apprentices on our Educational Farm and partner farms. 

In our vision...

In five years, we will house our program in our own facilities and serve at least 1,000 people annually across all of our programs. We will also use our position as an expert in our unique pedagogical model to provide professional development opportunities to other educators in public schools. This will manifest in trainings that cover topics like innovation program design, indigenous teaching methods, culturally-responsive curriculum design, design studio methods, creative design-thinking, portfolio-based assessment, project-based learning, digital design tools, and fabrication/workshop equipment expertise.

Our Board of Directors was recently joined by 8 highly experienced and knowledgeable individuals. We are currently in the process of formalizing the Executive Director position as well as several key staff positions. While we do not have any staff yet, over 20 volunteers are ready to assist us.

Our team is well-positioned to deliver this solution because we truly understand the challenges our community. We are all committed to making a meaningful contribution to a reconciled planet where decolonized and indigenized systems guide the lives of our youth, communities, and nations. Half of our founding team grew up on the reservation lands of the Navajo Nation in the communities that will be directly impacted by our solution. Our other half represent empathetic, supportive individuals from India, Lebanon, Mexico, and the United States who wish to see historically marginalized voices placed at the forefront. As holders of graduate and undergraduate degrees in architecture, engineering, and environmental science, we have all experienced and wholeheartedly believe in the educational potency of project-based learning, culturally-informed pedagogies, creative design thinking, and the architectural design studio model.

To ensure this we deliver a high-quality, innovative service to our community, we formed remarkable leadership and advisory teams who have a proven, measurable record of success as well as decades of experience in community development, various indigenous philosophies/pedagogies, educational leadership, business management, fundraising, curriculum development, and entrepreneurship.

The MIT Solve Equitable Classrooms grant will be an explosive catalyst for the implementation and growth of the OMO CEAD Innovation Center. Although still in its infancy, our solution has received an extraordinary level of support and is in a unique position to redefine education in marginalized indigenous communities and beyond. Visibility gifted through this program will help us propagate the movement to build culturally-relevant K-12 curricula around holistic design thinking, design studios, project-based learning, and social/emotional learning. Through this, we hope to inspire new solutions and mutually-beneficial relationships. We will also look to identify additional funding opportunities that will help us serve the wonderful people of our community.

OMO CEAD Innovation Center is at a point in its development where our success largely depends on our ability to effectively expand our network, build an innovative curriculum, and acquire resources for our program prototypes. This also means the direction of our organization is still malleable. Here, we look forward to guidance and mentorship from MIT Solve's remarkable group of experienced leaders.

Should our team be selected to pitch our solution at the MIT Solve Challenge Finals, exposure to a global audience would be a monumental contribution to our mission to sow the seeds of decolonized, indigenized, and reconciled planet. We hope that others join us in our pursuit of a harmonious 21st-Century cultural and ecological consciousness that nurtures and protects rather than exploits. Like a cell and a city, we are out of many, one.

Business Model and Legal

As a new organization/proposal, there is still much work to do with legal questions waiting to be asked and answered. This also means our ultimate direction is still relatively malleable. OMO CEAD+'s complex, interwoven program structure poses a lengthy list of challenges. However, our team openly welcomes critique and mentorship that will inform our legal and organization strategies.

Monitoring & Evaluation

As a new educational approach, we are seeking innovative ways to analyze the impact of our programs on the health, well-being, and prosperity of our students, participants, guest residents, and local community ecology. While we are developing a portfolio-based assessment system that addresses state standards for our Innovation School we are also open to ideas in our other three domains. 

Financial

Access to capital is a challenge on ALL Indigenous American reservations. Therefore, we are seeking to improve our ability to articulate our pitch to a wider audience (read: potential supporters). We are also seeking to build meaningful connections to donors, partners, investors, and sponsors who are willing to provide resources that will allow us to build out our programs and, in the near future, our facilities.

Technology

Our team will spend a considerable amount of time and effort procuring software, computer equipment, studio materials, fabrication equipment, IT infrastructure, and a well-designed web UX/UI. With no other institution offering similar services and facilities in the Navajo Nation, we hope that our work will greatly contribute to the prosperity of our community's renowned makers and problem-solvers. 

Primary/Secondary Schools

• Native American Community Academy (NACA) Inspired Schools Network (NISN)
• NuVu Studios - NuVuX
• Central Consolidated School District

Colleges/Universities

• Diné College
• University of New Mexico School of Architecture and Planning
• Kansas State University, College of Architecture, Planning and Design
• Harvard University Graduate School of Design
• MIT Center for Bits and Atoms FabLab
• MIT Media Lab
• Stanford d.school

Organizations

• Change Labs
• Shiprock Office of Dine Youth
• The Edible Schoolyard Project

Technological experimentation and the development of digital skills are tantamount to the success of anyone participating in our Innovation School and Discovery Studios. Students in our programs will become familiar with and skilled in various digital design tools as they explore a wide range of topics and craft unique solutions to real-world problems. This method breaks the rigidity of the current education system by rewarding and nurturing divergent thinking as well as the unique passions, interests, and abilities of students in marginalized communities.

To establish ourselves as a leader in 21st-Century creative education, we must present professional development opportunities to educators unfamiliar with our pedagogical approach. This will manifest in trainings that cover topics like innovation program design, indigenous teaching methods, culturally-responsive curriculum design, design studio methods, creative design thinking, portfolio-based assessment, project-based learning, digital design tools, and fabrication/workshop equipment expertise.

We will use the ASA Prize for Equitable Education to hire and train a Discovery Studio Coach and help our team acquire digital design tools, fabrication equipment, and design studio materials for our students.

On the Navajo Nation of northwestern New Mexico, the OMO CEAD Innovation Center is a solution that cultivates problem-solvers, change-makers, and innovative leaders. We introduce students the cognitive frameworks with indigenous philosophy and design-thinking to develop smart, safe, sustainable, and regenerative solutions in their own communities. 

With our transformative approach, we hope to break cycles of intergenerational poverty and trauma. Our students will learn how to holistically design systems, experiences, and products that foster abundance, generational health/wealth/wellness, and ecologically healthy environments for themselves, their families, and their communities. Our curriculum inherently provides an accessible and equitable STEM education, but our approach also teaches students how to integrate knowledge in design projects that address real-world problems in their environment. 

We will use the GM Prize to hire and train a Discovery Studio Coach and help our team acquire digital design tools, fabrication equipment, and design studio materials for our students.