Marissa Lucero

Founder, Maker Studio and Project Fashioneer

San Francisco

Out of a desire to do something meaningful with skills in fashion design and product development, Marissa started teaching fashion art workshops in 2015 at a local Recreation Center. She was troubled by the lack of confidence in math that plagued after school program students at a young age. Marissa made a connection between this lack of confidence and the resulting gender gap in STEM fields. This problem is compounded by lack of external educational help for students in undeserved districts and communities; including students with learning disabilities. These students became entrenched in the "I can’t" mentality every time they were presented with new challenges. Students began to grasp concepts better when they were presented in a more relatable context. Having struggled with dyslexia during her entire education, Marissa decided to explore the possibility of incorporating skills based learning in art and math to support creative freedom in these students. In 2016, she formed "My Fashion Design Kit" and hosted workshops throughout the Bay Area. Then in May of 2017, Marissa opened Maker Studio SF, a dedicated makerspace for girls to learn about my curriculum she developed called Fashion Engineering. There is a lot excitement for the launch of Project Fashioneer in 2018 - which is a culmination of all the things Marissa learned from first starting out on her entrepreneurial journey.