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With EdCorps, students run a real business from their classroom.

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Like any other business, an EdCorp (a student-run Education Corporation) sells a product or service that you can buy. But unlike purchasing from any other business, with EdCorps, your purchase supports education and other great causes at the same time. How does this work? When purchasing from an EdCorp, every penny of your purchase is used by the students to support their communities-donating to local causes, expanding educational opportunities for , and engaging in social entrepreneurship. Double whammy.

Thank you for supporting the teachers and students going beyond what's expected of traditional classrooms. The teachers behind EdCorps have chosen to prepare their students for a world that doesn't yet exist, and your purchase isn't just preparing them for their next academic achievement; it's empowering them to be their best selves, today.

Ready to Support Student Creativity?

You've seen the spark in a student's eye when they've created something that has real value and purpose. What if that could happen in every class for every student from kindergarten to high school graduation? How prepared would your students be to solve real world problems, contribute to a changing workforce, or start their own businesses? The possibilities are endless.

Each year, Real World Scholars provides classrooms with funding to try new ideas and create value with their work. With EdCorps, students run a real business from their classroom. Because the profits belong to the students, they can direct them back to their classroom or to a cause they care about. If you'd like to learn more about EdCorps, or you're interested in building an EdCorp (no business experience needed!), drop us a line. We'd love to start brainstorming with you about how we can support your students!

"I begin with an idea and then it becomes something else."

- - Pablo Picasso

The EdCorps Community is made up of young creatives and life learners, community organizations and afterschool programs, incubators and industry mentors. People all over the country are coming together to create space and support for young people to explore their own ideas and make a difference in their communities-local and global. Learn more about some of the community partners that make this possible.

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Like any other business, an EdCorp (a student-run Education Corporation) sells a product or service that you can buy. But unlike purchasing from any other business, with EdCorps, your purchase supports education and other great causes at the same time. How does this work?

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Thomas R. Brown Foundations - TRBF - Tucson, Arizona

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A community of engaged, well-educated people and opportunities for quality employment for all.

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Imagine a 2nd grade teacher with the click of a button being able to find and connect with a local paleontologist or wildlife illustrator ready to collaborate with her students on a class project about dinosaurs.

Imagine an afterschool youth media program connecting with a local news reporter, photography studio, radio station, social media marketing firm, or university journalism professor, to learn the latest in journalism and new media.

Imagine yourself when you were in 5th grade...8th grade....or whenever that "community visitor" came into your classroom or took you on a fieldtrip that changed how you imagined yourself, your world and your career dreams. Or if that person or experience never came into your life here is your chance!

Imagine being that community visitor today.....What skills, passions and experiences might you share in our community?

Imagine if you and everyone else you knew in greater Tucson asked this same question and created an entire network of sharing in a way that supported our educators, youth and community?

Imagine if just 1% of the 1 million residents in the greater Tucson region shared their passions, skills and experiences 6 hours per year. Together we would create 60,000 hours of learning, opportunity, inspiration, understanding, and hope.

A little over three years ago, a small group of us - educators, entrepreneurs, artists, ecologists, nonprofit organizations, technophiles, and community leaders - came together to imagine just that! Since we all lived in Tucson, we began wondering what would the Tucson region look like if each and everyone one of us saw ourselves as stewards of a learning ecosystem. As potential mentors, educators, apprentices, and students, each of us holds unique stories, skills, passions, and experiences that only we can share and that our community depends on to understand who we are as a community, where have we gone and what kind of future we want to create. Whether we are 80-year-old grandmother or 16-old-gamer, we need each other to imagine our individual and collective futures. But how could we create something that could connect the skills and experiences of one person with the needs of another across an entire region? Could technology, something that in many ways has isolated us even more, help us weave our collective imaginations, passions, skills, and experiences into a connected learning ecosystem.

The search for answers planted the seeds for CommunityShare.

CommunityShare is a locally-based online network that connects the skills and experiences of passionate community partners - individual professionals, community leaders, organizations and businesses - in the greater Tucson region with the goals and needs of educators in schools and informal learning environments. As a community partner, you might introduce students to your career pathway, bring outside expertise to class projects, share cutting edge technologies, brainstorm curriculum ideas with teachers, mentor students, attend a career day, judge a student competition, or host field trips.

Together we can create "real-world" learning opportunities for youth to discover their own passions and illuminate pathways for transforming their passions into career possibilities.

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Imagine a 2nd grade teacher with the click of a button being able to find and connect with a local paleontologist or wildlife illustrator ready to collaborate with her students on a class project about dinosaurs.

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About Us Local First Arizona is building a better Arizona

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Way back in the day...maybe 2007, Brooke was a student at the UA Eller College of Management.

Brooke took a class that changed her life.

It was a management communication class where the professor incorporated experiential learning through community consulting projects. Having a voice, completing a school project that had the potential for real impact (Brooke wrote a grant for Big Brothers, Big Sisters), made a difference in how she related to her work, herself, and her community. Brooke's grant wasn't awarded-welcome to the real world, but her eyes were opened.

Fast-forward a few years, Brooke has graduated and stayed in Tucson working at a community hospital. Her experience completing a community project had pulled her off campus and into the community where she developed relationships that helped her put down roots. Most of her classmates left town (Tucson has real brain drain). But like many Millennials, Brooke wanted more. She took every leadership opportunity that came her way, considered getting her MBA, searched out of state for new positions, but nothing looked that exciting. She wanted something different. She needed hands-on leadership and learning all at the same time.

Yes, Brooke is a little dreamy, but that's vision-the ability to imagine more and DO more.

So, long story short, in 2013, Brooke convinced her former professor (Robin) to leave her position at UA and start a business-the opportunity Brooke imagined. Ouila, LeadLocal! LeadLocal's first few years were dedicated to Leading for Good, a semester-long leadership program for college-age students. Leading for Good brought on apprentices to learn innovation and leadership strategies while completing a project for a local business. The twist...the program added a mentorship component that provided participants with a project mentor who was a young professional in the community. In exchange for mentoring a team of college-age students, the young professional participated in LeadLocal's Leadership C-Suite. Leading for Good allowed Brooke and Robin to meet amazing young people and help community organizations and small businesses. The program opened doors to work with teachers and schools in the K-12 system, libraries, and other cultural institutions-and it was here that we recognized a larger need.

While technology continues to drive market shifts and we move deeper into a network economy, "business as usual" just doesn't exist anymore. Long standing industrial models and institutional practices are becoming out-dated and institutional trust is eroding (think big banks, Volkswagen, Wikileaks). Institutions find themselves managing with fewer and fewer resources, struggling to adapt. In communities, where public institutions (schools, libraries, and museums) are the only real access to knowledge and education, these institutional challenges impact everyone-especially the most vulnerable. So, we asked ourselves:

How can we help people in organizations lead change from where they are?

How can we support smart growth within institutions so all people in our community get the good stuff?

Our answer: pivot our practice and share what we've learned about leading and learning through change. Change itself isn't a bad thing, but it can be scary. And fear can lead to inaction or wrong action. We humans are creatures of habit. If things aren't working, we double-down on the same behaviors and thought patterns that got us into trouble in the first place. When it comes to change and growth, everyone needs a little help.

So, in July 2016 we accepted our last cohort of Leading for Good apprentices. Since then we have been focused more broad scale change, working with schools, libraries, museums and other orgs in the learning ecosystem. We are sharing all of the practices we've used here at LeadLocal and in Robin's 25+ years of teaching. We offer our tricks and tools for growth (authentic learning, innovation, and leadership) through workshops, trainings and retreats that help reveal the intrapreneurial potential of individuals and organizations that seek to adapt with the times.

It took us almost four years, but LeadLocal found its calling. We are a think, learn, and DO tank that provides workshops and professional learning opportunities to make a positive impact. With a mission focused on relevant, authentic learning and leadership development, we work with educators, libraries, and cultural institutions to expand possibilities.

Our hands-on, innovative approach emerged from our work designing successful programs and regenerative solutions for our partners and clients. Our methods draw inspiration and tools from design thinking, lean startup, and participatory research and design. Both locally and nationally, we've had the opportunity to work with a variety of organizations such as Starbucks, Maine State Library, Sunnyside Unified School District, Tucson Unified School District, Nogales Community Development, Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, Pima County JTED, IBM, and Macerich Properties, among others. Our favorite (and most successful) projects are those we co-create with our clients and their stakeholders, because tapping into local interests and funds of knowledge uncovers situated and relevant solutions that can take root and grow.

While life pre-LeadLocal is sometimes hard to remember, the truth is we both accrued extensive consulting and organizational development experience before jumping into this adventure. That experience (Brooke's years in development and experience design plus Robin's years of consulting, coaching, and teaching-from Pre-K to Executive MBA) creates our foundation of knowledge and expertise that we are excited to share to help catalyze growth for individuals, teams and organizations that make the world a better place.

And no matter what we are working on, it's always fun, delicious, and surprising!

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Way back in the day...maybe 2007, Brooke was a student at the UA Eller College of Management. Brooke took a class that changed her life. It was a management communication class where the professor incorporated experiential learning through community consulting projects.