MakerUSA

MakerUSA’s mission is to partner with the communities that have been most marginalized by unequal access and opportunity, including rural regions, and support their goals to leverage maker education to drive innovation and maker career pathways. MakerUSA is a new organization (founded in Ridgway, CO) that is incubated within the National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship (NACCE). 

In partner communities across the country, from rural Iowa and Wyoming, to New Orleans and Atlanta, efforts are underway to invest in making as a tool to drive economic mobility. However, there is an acute need for unique human talent and capital that does not exist at scale. 

MakerUSA is designed to deploy that human capital in support of models that are engaging K-12 and post-secondary learners. MakerUSA’s model is built on community agency and the process begins when prospective Innovation Sites submit a letter of interest (LOI), through which they share their goals at the intersection of maker education and maker career pathways. Our role is to serve as capacity builders to help achieve those goals, in ways that cultivate and retain local talent and culture.

On April 22, 2022 MakerUSA opened a public Letter of Interest process. Six weeks later, by June 1st, MakerUSA had received 52 LOIs from across 24 states, including the District of Columbia. Submissions came from community and technical colleges, HBCUs, tribal universities, Hispanic-serving institutions, rural-serving public universities, community-based makerspaces, and nonprofits. Over 1 million students are served by the submitting organizations and 58% are rural-serving.