When Tresia Allen walked into her school’s new technology classroom for the first time, she pulled out her cell phone and started snapping pictures.

Simply put, the state-of-the-art center for 21st Century Project-Based Learning did not feel much like a classroom at all to Tresia. It felt like a dream come true, as though her school – Samuels Elementary – had won the Powerball jackpot.

“I didn’t know this was possible,” Tresia said as she looked at the room, a bit in awe and short on words.

Specifically, the new Samuels Elementary School classroom is a SmartLab, a technology classroom equipped with the latest computers, coding software, engineering games and real-world math projects. It was fully funded by a former DPS student – Marco Campos – and his small business, Campos EPC.

“It’s really kind of an emotional moment,” Campos said. “To see young students – particularly young women – excited about STEM, it’s exciting to engage them and get them motivated to take on that career path.”

Campos, founder and managing principal of Campos EPC, recently committed an additional $457,000 to help bring SmartLabs to six additional DPS elementary and middle schools. The donation covers half of the cost of the SmartLabs and will be matched by Denver Public Schools and the DPS Foundation.

By 2017, Campos will have donated more than $650,000 to fund the SmartLab at Samuels Elementary and the six additional labs.

“When we think about how these labs will make a difference, it’s this idea we can start with kids very young and expose them to ideas and careers they may not even know exist,” said DPS Acting Superintendent Susana Cordova.

The Denver community has also played a significant part in that exposure through its approval of the 2012 DPS Bond. Funding from the Bond has helped build dedicated spaces for technology across DPS, including two new labs at John F. Kennedy and Denver West High Schools.

These STEM investments are not about having the coolest new gadgets in class; they are preparing our kids for the careers of the future while inspiring students to reach for anything they want to do – and be- when they grow up.

“I live in Denver, I have kids in Denver. It’s important that students are given the same opportunity here as kids across the state and the country have,” Campos said.

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