The Elizabeth Hackett Robinson ‘84 Innovation Hub works with students to bring their creative ideas to fruition. From tech, to the arts, to food entrepreneurship, the Hub is here to help—through funding, classes, workshops, mentoring, and dedicated workspaces for ideation and collaboration.
 
Students who come through the Hub have founded businesses that have continued past their time at Midd including Gnara, Skida, Illuminar Coffee Roasters, BiggaBed, Treeline Terrains, and more.

In Their Own Words

Students participate and engage in a variety of ways at the Innovation Hub. Commitments range from attending a reflection event over lunch to participating in a three-year funded Social Entrepreneurship Fellowship program. 

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  I participated in Jump/Start Collegiate, where I worked with four other students from a variety of Vermont colleges and universities, each with their own product idea. During the nine weeks, I had access to tool training classes and the equipment necessary to refine my MiddCORE innovation idea and use my MiddChallenge grant to develop a prototype of LiquidLights—a wireless, multicolored lighting system.

  Henry Mound, class of 2020

  MiddChallenge, MiddCORE, Launch VT Jump/Start Collegiate (outside program)

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  While attending MiddCORE last summer, I designed an education reform project in Rwanda to help represent youth voices in the movement. With the support of the Social Entrepreneurship Fellowship program, I led an enrichment program for children ages 7-12, where we spent two weeks exploring what it means to be a young changemaker in their communities.

  Francoise Niyigena, class of 2021

  MiddCORE and Social Entrepreneurship Fellowship program

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  Since its founding in 2017, Middlebury College Tea Club has grown to more than 100 student members. This is all thanks to the Old Stone Mill Annex, which has proved to be the perfect space for us to establish our student-run teahouse. Though we are constantly reshaping it—painting it, building, deconstructing, reimagining—to make it our own, we also appreciate the messy and mysterious history of this space we have come to love so much. 

  Ivy Geilker, class of 2019.5

  Old Stone Mill

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  At the Innovation Hub, I started off being coached and prepped to participate in the annual Spencer Prize competition but eventually became a coach myself. I spend my time prepping and workshopping with students to hone their oratory skills. If I am not coaching a student at the Innovation Hub then you can find me preparing for another Oratory Now event like Parker Merrill.

  Roni Lezama, class of 2022

  Oratory Now Coach and Spencer Prize in Oratory winner