Undergraduate Blog / Career Development

Roxbury Innovation Center – Setting the Stage for a New EdTech Revolution in Boston

Happy Holidays Innovation Hub!  Last Friday, Boston’s Mayor Walsh announced the launch of the Roxbury Innovation Center in Dudley Square.  By Fall 2015, the Center will serve as the new headquarters for Boston Public Schools (BPS), relocating over 500 BPS employees from their downtown Court Street location.  In an exciting move, Walsh selected The Venture Café Foundation to manage the Center’s operations (the very same group that runs the dynamic spaces of District Hall and the Venture Café at the Cambridge Innovation Center) and Skylab (a group seeking to connect Roxbury-area entrepreneurs to resources to launch successful startups) to create and deliver impactful programming and spaces for Roxbury and local tech startups.  On the menu are plans to offer community education in web development, crowdsourcing, computer-aided design, and other technologies to provide local entrepreneurs with the tools they need to get their ideas off the ground.

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It doesn’t take long to read between the lines . . . Dudley Square is positioned to take off as the new hub of educational policy and thought leadership in urban education, making it a magnet for innovators and investors, particularly those in the EdTech arena.  It’s likely some of the most promising EdTech innovators would love to test their most promising products and services in some of Boston’s 128 public schools.  For them, a visit to, or ideally setting up office space in, the Roxbury Innovation Center is likely.  No doubt, it’s an exciting possibility — creating a dynamic, interactive space where the inventors of public education will rub elbows with EdTech startups and investors.  Sounds like the seeds for the beginning of another revolution in Boston!  And certainly an exciting new destination for CCD Start-Up Treks . . .