Business Partners
Business Partner - IA Tour
Are you a current or prospective Business Partner? We offer business tours on Wednesdays from 2 to 4 PM. Reservations are required. Email Connie Michel at MichelC@fultonschools.org.
Making F.U.N.
Innovation Academy’s Engineering Program is excited to host a special creativity challenge inspired by the Netflix show Making Fun. In the show, kids imagine fun, wild, and imaginative inventions and engineers try to build them. Now, our IA engineering students want to do the same with the ideas from students at Alpharetta Elementary.
Date: February 27, 2026
Time: 9am – 3:00pm (times can be flexible based on volunteer availability)
Role: Support, guide, help with design and fabrication as our students create their builds. See introduction video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFdrSPRMBJc
We are inviting local industry professionals to join us for a hands-on, imagination-fueled event where your expertise will help guide students as they bring elementary students’ ideas to life. Our visiting elementary students will submit invention prompts such as:
• “If you could build a machine to make life easier, what would it do?”
• “What is something that could save the planet?”
• “Invent a toy that is half animal, half machine.”
Our IA engineering students will spend the day sketching, designing, and building these ideas, and we would love your support as they work. We are looking for volunteers with experience in design, fabrication, and engineering to help guide students in specialized areas including:
• Textile Room
o 3D printing
o Sewing
• Machine Shop
o Welding
o Fabrication
o Lathe work
• Wood Shop
o CNC routing
Your support will help students understand tools, materials, and processes as they turn creative sketches into working prototypes. Please see the attached flyer for details. We would be grateful if you could join us for this exciting event!
If you are interested in volunteering, please fill out the form here: IA Making F.U.N. Engineering Event – Fill out form
Phoenix Project - Moonshot Kickoff Sponsors
Our Sponsors
Chris Raymer, Corps Officer at the Salvation Army
Lori Wood, Vice President, System Emergency Management at Grady Health System
Brad Bicknell, Program Execution Manager at AT&T Mobility
Michael Pitchford, Network Disaster Recovery for AT&T
Alice Turner, Manager, Social Impact and the UPS Foundation at UPS
“This past Friday, Innovation Academy launched our Phoenix Project with a powerful Moonshot Kickoff—and what an incredible start to the semester it was! Our theme, “Think Globally, Act Locally,” came to life as students explored real-world challenges related to natural disasters and global citizenship. From drone-based rescue systems to mental health support for disaster survivors, our learners are diving into meaningful, community-driven problem solving.
Our students heard from specialist from UPS, Convoy of Hope, The Salvation Army Georgia Division, American Red Cross, AT&T, iVue Robotics, Grady Medical System, City of Alpharetta, Southern Company and Georgia Army National Guard about their experience in preparing and responding to natural disasters. Our students then crafted problem statements in the categories below based on the information they learned in the morning that they are excited to continue to study throughout the semester:
Technology & Innovation
Healthcare & Emergency Services
Infrastructure & Engineering
Food & Resource Distribution
Social Impact & Equity
We are excited for our students to begin the process of ideating, prototyping and working with our business partners to create solutions in the categories above!”
IA Foundation Website: https://foundation.fcsia.com/
If you are interested in becoming an Innovation Academy Business Partner, please reach out to Laura Taylor at taylorLs@fultonschools.org.