Project Invent

I am applying to the Elevate Prize to empower the next generation as social entrepreneurs and innovators. I will use the funding to continue growing Project Invent, a national nonprofit making school about tackling unsolved problems in the community. Students identify issues, interview people, and design innovative solutions. Students in the program have built everything from smart wallets to help the blind detect bill denominations to football helmets to detect early signs of concussions. 

Through this invention process, students learn the skills and mindsets to succeed individually and impact globally. In a rapidly changing, tech-driven world, our students need to learn how to adapt to uncertainty and solve problems creatively. They won’t learn that through memorizing facts and bubbling in answers in a traditional classroom setting. Instead, they need to learn how to tackle messy, real-world challenges. We provide teacher trainings, curriculum, community connections, and more to support teachers in leading learning experiences that focus on real-world problem-solving. We will use the funding to grow our impact to hundreds of new underserved schools in the United States.

Project Invent was founded in 2018 by Connie Liu, a former engineer turned teacher. She studied at MIT and invented products like FingerReader, a camera on a ring to help blind people read on-the-go. After 12 years of memorizing facts and bubbling in answers in traditional public schools, she was struck by the idea that learning could be about solving real problems and making real impact. She became passionate about bringing empowering learning opportunities to all students. Just two years after its founding, Project Invent has launched at 50 schools across 14 states. 

Recognized as Forbes 30 Under 30, Connie continues to grow Project Invent with the goal of making innovation the norm in all schools. Project Invent aims to grow its impact to 100 schools next year, and ultimately bring Project Invent to every high school in the United States. Project Invent is on a mission to redesign all schools to support more meaningful, more empowering learning for the 21st-century.

There are 17 million students in high school across the US. These students are largely in schools with antiquated teaching models that are not preparing our youth for future success. The test-taking, fact-memorizing model of traditional school does not equip our students for a future that is increasingly automated and where 80% of jobs a decade from now do not yet exist. If we want our next generation to succeed, schools need to equip students with the creativity, resilience, and empathy to tackle real-world problems, not the ones found in textbooks. 

Through Project Invent, we’re transforming classrooms to empower students as innovators and real-world problem solvers. Our goal is to (1) develop strong 21st-century skills and mindsets, (2) increase teacher capacity to lead student-centered and project-based classrooms, and (3) increase diversity in STEM and entrepreneurship as we move into a tech-driven future. We are redesigning the school experience for the 21st-century, and we’re starting with the students who need it most.

Project Invent is the only national program where students design for real clients to solve social impact problems. Students innovate for problems that they are passionate about, and design solutions that make a difference. 

They build strong relationships with their client, who gives authentic meaning to their work. Students work to understand the challenges that their clients face everyday, and use their empathy and creativity to come up with impactful technology solutions. 

This student-client relationship is key to our success because students are not just creating an idea: they are helping a real person. Through monthly interviews and feedback visits, they are constantly working with their client to improve their invention. This powerful experience of innovating has translated into unprecedented student engagement. We have a 100% retention rate of schools year-to-year and 73% of students continue working on their projects even after the program. Working with a real client helps students see the value of persisting through hard problems and build the grit to succeed in the face of tough challenges.

In Project Invent, we know real-world problem-solving prepares students for success more effectively than rote memorization. Fortune 500 companies report that the most sought after skills in today’s workplaces are creativity, collaboration, and communication. They also report that these skills are the hardest to find. However, when students invent, they are creatively thinking, working on teams, and learning how to communicate their work.Invention is an all-in-one bundle for 21st-century skills, and we want invention to be taught in every high school in the US. We are paving the way for this future of education.

In order to pave this path, we do three things: (1) offer a free curriculum & online platform to guide invention, (2) train & support teachers to lead invention classrooms, and (3) showcase our students’ work nationally to inspire more classrooms to adopt this model.

Project Invent’s role is to set the standard for future-forward learning in a tech-driven, rapidly-changing world. By equipping every student as an innovator who tackles real problems in their communities, we will be able to drive our future generation to solve the most difficult problems of our world.