Show notes, tools and resources: feisworld.com/blog/karen-fan-felege-gebru 

I have served on the Advisory Committee for Newton Public Schools Career & Vocational Technical Education Committee since 2011.

I met Karen Fan and Felege Gebru through InvenTeam, initiated by an incredible art teacher named Sue Brooks at Newton North High School. InvenTeam functions very much like a small design and technology firm, where every student on the team has a specific role such as a designer, engineer, product manager.

InvenTeam chose to participate in the Lemelson-MIT competition. After a year of hard work, their project was chosen to be presented at the White House Science Affair in 2014. President Barack Obama greeted the students and even asked questions about the project.

When I received an email from Mrs. Brooks about this update, I almost fell out of my chair at work. As you can imagine, I had to invite them to Feisworld.

Today, Karen is a Sophomore at MIT and Felege is a Junior at Brown.

In Part 1, we dive right into their visit to the White House:

• What was it like for them to meet with President Obama, presenting to him and then having an intellectual exchange?
• How was InvenTeam formed?
• Who was the key person to make it happen?
• What was the project they worked on? Who did they collaborate with?
• How has this experience changed both of their lives?
• What does design have to do with technology?
• Why does Mrs. Brooks go out of her way to help students who are interested in arts?