Raising Makers: How Making Expands Choices for Education, Career and Life

Clair Whitmer is a product manager in the Bay Area and the former head of consumer experience for Maker Media. She has two teenagers, one starting community college this fall and one apprenticing overseas in metalworking. Both were raised in the maker community and the results took a different turn than she planned.

Sabrina Merlo is Managing Director of Maker Faire, the world’s largest family-friendly celebration of invention, curiosity, and creativity.  She is the co-creator of Maker Faire’s global event trademark licensing program, building a platform since 2010 that is now 220+ events in 48 countries worldwide reaching over 1.5M people annually.

Maura is Coordinator of MakerSPHERE at City College of San Francisco. CCSF offers makerspaces and innovative learning spaces where students can earn a Maker Studies certificate, and other degrees and certificates in fields related to making, like tech, art, design, and entrepreneurship, and prepare for careers related to making in the SF Bay Area.

I believe that Maker Education is the best way to get students excited about learning. It is amazing to watch their worlds open up when they start to view challenges through the lens of a Maker Mindset. I have been working for the past 6 years to build a Maker Space in my classroom where students are able to make anything they want.

Chris Peterson is a Senior Assistant Director of Admissions at MIT, where he oversees the recruitment and evaluation of technically creative applicants. He also teaches in the program on Comparative Media Studies, researches at the Media Lab. He once made BurgerMap.org to help keep track of the best burgers around the world.