The Moonshot Innovation Space
FORMERLY KNOWN AS THE MOONSHOT FELLOWSHIP
The Moonshot Innovation Space is a 9-month program for innovative leaders in the Metro Denver area who are working to positively impact youth* across a variety of sectors such as education, healthcare, local government, environment/sustainability, housing, food, the arts, and more. Moonshot Fellows’ solutions are responsive to and inclusive of the intersectional identities of youth; address the root causes–rather than symptoms–of a problem identified by the impacted community; and are co-designed with the community most impacted.
During the program, Moonshot Fellows participate in a variety of weekly workshops and hands-on learning on subjects like leadership, planning pilots, creating budgets, designing practices of self-care, and collaborating with community members.
Learn more about the Moonshot Innovation Space:
Features of the Moonshot Innovation Space
The Moonshot Innovation Space supports leaders by providing access to resources and opportunities. Our newly redesigned program focuses attention on four pillars**:
SQUADS
As a member of Moonshot Innovation Space, you'll gain an invaluable network comprised of a cohort of values-aligned leaders focused on community solutions design, alongside access to mentors and coaches dedicated to fostering a sense of belonging, bridging community connections, and providing personalized guidance and support.
Moonshot Fellow Miles Iton (Cohort 6) reflected, “My biggest takeaway from the Moonshot experience thus far would have to be embracing the transformative power of community when it comes to building your own thing.”
SKILLS
Through the Moonshot Innovation Space, you will develop liberatory leadership knowledge, skills, and mindsets essential for leadership in learning and continuous improvement, strategic and operational excellence, and effective people leadership, equipping you to lead transformational change with confidence and agility.
Leaders like Destiny Hardney (Cohort 5) are able to build their vision, and then empower others to do so. “Right now our team is really excited to scale because we have so many opportunities coming our way,” she shared. One of the components I’m really excited about is to hiring on participants to facilitate throughout the community.”
SPACES
As a Moonshot Fellow, you'll access specially curated design spaces that serve as enabling environments, where you can build trust, deepen your political analysis, ideate, and take risks. These spaces, supported by strategic partnerships, provide the ideal setting for exercising creativity and passion, ensuring both your success as a leader and the impact of the community solutions you're designing.
SUSTAINABILITY
Upon completing the fellowship, Moonshot Fellows continue to receive sustainability support. First, through our Alumni Services, which includes access to mini-grants, mental health resources, and consulting services with a panel of experts.
Secondly, Fellows engage with an extended community of support across cohorts, ensuring both the personal well-being of our leaders and the enduring impact of their solutions on youth outcomes. For example, Moonshot Fellow Cristina Chacon (Cohort 2) began her Moonshot journey exploring the idea of starting her own program. A few years later, she’s now working for another Fellow-founded organization, YEBO. Whether formally or casually, online or in-person, frequently or on occasion, Moonshot Fellows have co-built and sustain an enduring community.
“Moonshot helped me take my school idea and turn it into an actual design. Through Moonshot, I have gained confidence in my ability to start a school and succeed. I can’t wait to see how the Moonshot family transforms education first in metro Denver and then the world.”
Logistics and Details of the Moonshot Innovation Space
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The Moonshot Innovation Space is a 9-month, part-time fellowship where individuals explore the idea of designing and launching a solution to community-identified problems.
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The fellowship is a 9-month, part-time experience that is pay-what-you can. Part-time looks like weekly workshops (typically a few hours on Thursday evenings) with one weekend per month for summits, travel to site visits, and community-building.
The fellowship is unpaid. Once accepted into the program, we ask that each Moonshot fellow contribute a pay-what-you-can investment as a commitment to joining the Moonshot Innovation Space. There is a one-time suggested $500 tuition fee with sliding scale options available.
Moonshot Innovation Space alumni have access to full-time residency programs where they receive a stipend.
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The Moonshot Innovation Space offers Fellows a unique experience to work on 1) their own leadership practice, and 2) to build their solution.
Fellows will assess and explore their leadership readiness. Modules for this part of the Innovation Space include management, partnership development, and mental health, among many others.
Moonshot Fellows will work to design and implement equity-centered solutions that positively impact youth (Moonshot defines youth as individuals ages 0-24). They can dream, design, and launch their ideas from scratch. Fellows are supported every step of the way, from ideation and planning, to operational and logistics execution, to team support and solutions piloting.
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We are proud to share that over 90% of Moonshot Fellows stay in their industry after completing the program, many citing their Moonshot experience as part of the reason they were reinvigorated and avoided burnout.
About 50% of Moonshot Fellows choose to full-time launch a venture, such as a school, nonprofit, consulting practice, or app development company. About 25% stay in their field, but elevate their career by pursuing (and receiving) promotions and building new projects within existing organizations. The last 25% move on to new organizations where they are able to have more leadership responsibilities (such as taking on a VP role at another Moonshot Fellow’s organization!).
To learn more about the experience, explore some of our blog posts below:
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What makes Moonshot unique?
We invest in local, underrepresented leadership.
Working harder, faster, more efficiently with the same overrepresented leadership won’t close the opportunity gap for youth of color.
We believe it is imperative to invest in leaders who come from the communities they want to serve to ensure long-lasting, sustainable change.
We care deeply about the leaders themselves, and about their growth.
A strong solution design is necessary but insufficient. We invest equal amounts of time in the leader as we do in the design of an idea. Even if a Moonshot Fellow ends up deciding to pursue a different path than what they originally set off with, we believe that the lessons they’ve learned here will help sustain and empower them on the journey to create lasting positive change for youth in our communities.
We co-create with youth and families.
Our Fellows have good ideas. So do their communities. We create opportunities for Moonshot Fellows to source community need and co-design their ideas with youth and families, and frequently solicit feedback from them to make ideas better.
Watch this video to get an inside look at one of our early pilot days, or read how Beau Houston designed two pilot programs for high school Black female athletes.
Join the Moonshot Innovation Space
Applications for the 2024-25 Innovation Space closed in April 2024.
We typically have a three-round application process (written application, recorded video interview, group in-person interview) in the spring, resulting in the selection of 18-20 Fellows, who will start the program at the end of the summer and go through the academic year.
To stay in-the-loop about our next application cycle, please subscribe to our newsletter!
Meet Miles Iton (Moonshot Fellow, Cohort 6) and get to know his venture, Lo-Fi Language Learning, and how he’s creating unique opportunities for learners in Taiwan, Colorado, and around the world.