2021-2022 Agency by Design Oakland Fellowship Cohort

“Maker-centered learning resonates with me because of the inherent Indigenous pedagogy that it’s rooted in. Indigenous pedagogy is typically hands-on, working with and collaborating with the land, as well as with each other. It is also rooted in the preservation of culture, language, belief systems, and the four orders of life, not just human life.”

Reina Cabezas, Sustainable Urban Energy, Castlemont High School

“Humans are made to create! Using our hands, minds, bodies all at once to bring life to the intangible things we envision and experience is empowering. Maker-centered learning offers a way to guide students into more "aha" moments that fuel their desire to keep learning and growing.”

Elisabeth Barnett, Math Teacher, Community Day School

“Maker-centered learning supports students AND teachers learning. It provides space to express yourself, while also maintaining a critical and curious lens. It creates a liberating and healing experience for all those involved.”

Quinn Ranahan, Math Teacher, Montera Middle SChool

“The school "system" can cloud the purpose of education for both teachers and students [but] maker-centered learning pushes teachers to keep the learner at the heart of their work. The fellowship provides tools for us to re-imagine and redesign the system one classroom or school at a time so that more profound learning can happen.”

Fatimah Guienze, Art Teacher, Frick

“Maker-centered learning brings rigor AND joy to the classroom. My goal as an educator is to facilitate learning that will cultivate student agency, collaboration, and joy & healing.”

Andi Gonzalez, Second Grade Teacher, Garfield Elementary School

“[Hands-on] learning opens the door for our authentic selves to come through, to remember what it feels like to learn through active doing instead of just passive absorbing.”

Kara Fleshman, Arts & Sciences, Lazear

“I imagine making to be liberating for young people who have had their creativity and curiosity silenced throughout their years in traditional schooling.”

Linh Linh Trinh, Science, MetWest

“[When students create] they enter a zone that goes beyond "school" in the traditional sense, but a realm of limitless possibilities. Investigation becomes the natural way forward. Students own what they have learned because they are making the meaning themselves.”

Genevieve Leslie, Academic Literacy & Life Skills, Oakland International High School

“A maker-centered approach encourages students to more deeply understand the designed systems in our world, and imagine ways to redesign towards justice.”

Rachel Stone, 6th grade Humanities, Park Day School

“As a teacher focused on Ethnic Studies and Abolitionist teaching in my second year with the fellowship, I have started to internalize the Project Zero thinking routines and implement them more regularly in my teaching practice. Agency by Design Oakland has provided a community to support me through the pandemic.”

Cory Jong, 8th grade US Hxstory/Ethnic Studies, UPA

Photos by Nico Chen

2019-2021 LEADERSHIP TEAM

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2019-2020 FELLOWSHIP

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2018-2019 FELLOWSHIP

The 2018 - 2019 Agency by Design Oakland fellowship included educators from across the Bay Area. The leadership team was comprised of Nico Chen, Alia Ghabra, Paula Mitchell, Ilya Pratt, Brooke Toczylowski, and Susan Wolf. Click on photos to see bios.

2017-2018 FELLOWSHIP

The 2017 - 2018 Agency by Design Oakland fellowship included educators from across the Bay Area. The leadership team was comprised of Angi Chau, Paula Mitchell, Ilya Pratt, Brooke Toczylowski, and Aaron Vanderwerff. Click on photos to see bios.

2016-2017 FELLOWSHIP

The 2016 - 2017 Agency by Design Oakland fellowship included educators from across the Bay Area. The leadership team was comprised of Wendy Donner, Ilya Pratt, Brooke Toczylowski, and Aaron Vanderwerff, four Bay Area-based educators who led the West Coast component of the Agency by Design research project. Click on photos to see bios.