Summer 2022 Recap
As we wrap up our first summer of programming in the new Boston Innovation Center, we are so grateful to have the opportunity to work with an amazing group of students, our dedicated staff, and you. Your support and belief in what we do helps make the magic happen.
It has been incredible to watch our aspirations for our new space begin to come to life. We are bringing more students into our program, deepening existing partnerships, engaging more volunteers, and creating new connections with corporate partners and community organizations.
We are pleased to share these highlights from our summer and cannot wait for all that is to come this fall and well into the future.
Thank you!
The TPZ Team
Fashion Showcase
Our first ever Fashion Forward STEAM Camp came to a spectacular close with our Fashion Showcase! Students and their families joined TPZ staff and members from the community to celebrate students’ hard work. We even held the first Marketplace in our new Innovation Center, where students displayed and sold their stunning original designs!
“My favorite part has been designing, putting ideas to paper, and then actually getting to put them together,”
Eboni reflected on the experience.
To create their looks, students thrifted materials and learned how to use our laser cutters, direct-to-garment printers, 3D printers, new Bernina sewing machines, and more! Projects ranged from custom jeans and hoodies to light-up hats and 3D printed headbands.
Check out our Instagram story highlight to see more student creations and a video recap by TPZ student, Malaika.
Our New Theory of Change
After more than two years of hard work by TPZ’s Research and Evaluation team, we completed our new Theory of Change and Evaluation Plan! Our new Theory of Change reaffirms our longstanding commitment to advancing economic equity. Both the Theory of Change and Evaluation Plan will continue to evolve and improve as we carry out the work.
We also shared both documents with the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning’s Collaborating States’ Initiative, a collection of more than 40 states’ departments of education and leading researchers on social and emotional learning, that had expressed strong interest in learning from our new frameworks.
TPZ In the News
TPZ recently welcomed Jeaneth Santana, a reporter from El Planeta, to our Innovation Center for an interview and tour with our community partnerships lead, Juan-Carlos.
The resulting story highlights ways that TPZ supports teens and helps them become empowered learners, leaders, and young entrepreneurs.
Pathways to the Future
TPZ students have been busy this summer! In addition to creating their original fashion looks and learning about marketing, sneaker, and apparel design through a Deep Dive with Converse, students also participated in Pathways Camp to learn about potential future careers. Students toured a local business, interviewed a staff member who works there, and presented what they learned about the organization and their own career interests and aspirations.
Students formed important relationships with local professionals. As Farida said,
“We built a relationship with someone who has a lot of connections with small businesses, which could help us in the future.”
Some students discovered new career interests; as Aicha reflected:
“I never thought I would be into marketing, but after […] Pathways Camp, I realized that’s something I would be interested in.”
Others, like Cristiane, took away a new outlook:
“We might not realize it right now but what we do now will have an impact on the future.”
Now Welcoming Students for Fall 2022!
Registration is open for fall 2022!
In our entrepreneurship program, students design and launch a business through a real-world start-up process. They’ll begin exploring their passions and interests by identifying opportunities or problems in need of solutions.
Students receive a $22 stipend for every class they attend, get access to state-of-the-art technology in our professional makerspace, and may have the opportunity to earn high school and early college credit! And, there’s free food and healthy snacks.
Sign up your student for our program today, or share this information with a young person in your life who is ready for new opportunities.
TPZ In the Community
It’s a standing tradition that each Thursday of the summer, local community partners organize a cookout with free food and activities for families living in the Mildred C. Hailey Apartments. Last month, TPZ hosted this cookout! There was great food, live music, ice cream, water balloon fights, and, in true TPZ fashion, maker activities.
Recently, the Nubian Square Foundation held an awards ceremony at TPZ, honoring four students with scholarship funds towards furthering their college education. We look forward to continuing our partnership with the foundation, as their mission of creating pathways to success for youth of color aligns with our mission!
We also hosted community meetings with Urban Edge and Centre Street Partners, as well as retreats for the Chica Project’s staff and young professionals from the Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, a historically African American fraternity that supports bigger and better business, social action, education, and youth development.