The Incubator
Where intellectual curiosities come to life
What is the Incubator & What is its Mission?
The Incubator is a student-run, student-led initiative designed to facilitate and organize learning projects. Participation in projects allows students to take control of their own learning, by giving them the chance to choose what it is they want to learn, how they want to learn it, and ultimately, decide in what way they wish to apply the knowledge they have acquired in order to produce something meaningful for themselves and their community.
Working independently or with others, learners develop ideas, consider different perspectives, take thoughtful risks, initiate fund-raising projects, persevere through challenges, and reflect on their experiences thus building the confidence and sense of responsibility that support them as lifelong learners.
Vision
Students function as architects of their own learning as they pursue, fund and support their intellectual curiosities.
Join the Incubator Council
Every year, learners in Grades 7-12 are invited, following their nomination, to join the Incubator council and help shape the space and the experiences it offers.
Being part of the council is an opportunity to take initiative, build confidence, critical thinking skills, collaboration, and turn ideas into action!
Students are also welcome to submit an application by contacting the Director of the Learning Commons, Ms Mary-Ann Augoustatos
Innovation Summit & Fab Lab
The Incubator leads the ACS Athens Annual Innovation Summit, a yearly summit by students for students. Together, young innovators from ACS Athens and partner international schools share their intellectual curiosities. Learners work continuously throughout the first semester to design and lead interactive workshops, which they present to our entire 6-10 Middle School and Academy community
In addition, Incubator members have the opportunity to participate in the Hisar Fab Lab Summit in Turkey. The summit emphasizes design thinking, shared production, coding, collaboration, and peer-based learning.
Sustaining Excellence Colloquium II: Student-Led Research and Presentation
As part of the Sustaining Excellence Colloquium II, members of the ACS Athens Incubator conducted and presented an evaluation research project titled “From Incubator to Impact: Shaping Student-Leaders for Best-Fit Universities.” The study evaluated the impact of the Incubator’s ten-year initiative on students’ academic, leadership, and interpersonal development, examining how experiential learning and student-led initiatives foster essential competencies for lifelong learning and conscious global citizenship.
Through a mixed-methods approach, students collected and analysed quantitative and qualitative data from multiple stakeholder groups, evaluating the Incubator’s effectiveness in developing critical thinking, communication, collaboration, confidence, and student agency. The findings highlighted the positive impact of authentic learning experiences on students’ personal and academic development, while the research process itself provided students with opportunities to develop analytical skills, engage in evidence-based inquiry, and present their findings to the broader ACS Athens community.