Maker UniDIVersity: The First Cohort

In early August, the KCI Underground MakerSpace hosted the first Maker UniDIVersity program, which was designed to support women, women of color, and women of special needs in becoming Makers. The idea for this program came from a conversation the team from KCI had with some of the people from Infosys corporation. The team from Infosys was talking about how they had just completed a series of YouTube videos to support making with the hashtag #whyimake. The first three videos on the site were short vignettes with Adam Savage, Nick Offerman, and Nolan Bushnell. The Infosys team then said they had an "oh no" moment, when they realized that all three of the videos profiled "three middle-aged white guys with beards."

The following day, Lisa DeLapo, the KCI Innovator in Residence, came into the next morning and said we have do to something better. Lisa and Kyle Brumbaugh, the KCI Professional Learning Network Director, had been working on the development of a MakerSpace Coordinator Certificate, that would be backed by the California State Chancellor's office. Lisa wanted to develop a cohort of women who would go through the program together, with the ability to have constructive and collaborative conversations and workgroups, without the worry of being self-conscious or feeling less capable because there were men who had a backgrounds in building or making. Lisa also knew that to encourage women to enroll in the program, we needed to reduce the cost as much as possible, so that we could allow any woman, regardless of their financial situation to take part in the program.


 Out of this set of circumstances, the Maker UniDIVersity program was born. Gay Krause, the KCI Executive Director, reached out to Becky Morgan, a former California State Senator, who was immediately sold on the program and decided to fund the program for the summer of 2018. The 22 women, who took part in the summer 2018 cohort, earned 10 of the 18 required units for the MakerSpace Coordinator certificate and will earn the remaining 8 units over the course of the Fall 2018 and Winter 2019 quarters at Foothill. The MakerSpace Coordinator program is unique to KCI / Foothill College and will prepare candidates to run and lead educational MakerSpaces.

  

If you are interested in finding out more about the KCI Underground MakerSpace and/or the Maker UniDIVersity program, please contact Lisa DeLapo or Kyle Brumbaugh