⚡TL;DR

🌍 Global learning movement explodes. Originally started in Armenia in 2011, the TUMO Center for Creative Technologies (TUMO) has exploded on to the global scene. 🚀 Their innovative take-charge-and-create model turbocharges 30,000 teens weekly, at locations in Armenia, Lebanon, Europe, and soon Japan, South America, and Los Angeles.

🤖 🎨🎵🧑‍💻 Tech meets creative freedom. As a nonprofit, TUMO offers completely free programs in 14 creative and technology tracks - from robotics to animation to music. Alumni are 350% more likely to enter tech and earn salaries 3x the Armenian average.

🚀 Talent factory. The quality of student work is jaw-dropping. By unlocking creative and technical talent - often in places where opportunity is scarce - TUMO’s model shows what the future of education should look like.

🔥 Teens love it, even though their parents do too (🤔). When these groups agree on afterschool activities (🤯), you know TUMO is doing something special.

At TUMO, students do real learning after school

A novel way of learning - let motivated students lead

TUMO started in Armenia in 2011 with a bold, beautiful idea from Sam and Sylva Simonian: What if teens, especially those far from big cities, had free access to the world’s most coveted creative and technical skills? What if they learned not from dusty textbooks, but by making real things—with mentors from Pixar, Google, and beyond?

The answer? Teenagers wanted this. A steady stream of self-motivated students showed up after school, hungry to learn and build. So CEO Marie Lou Papazian designed something radically different: a choose-your-own-adventure education built on self-learning, workshops, and project labs across 14 creative + tech tracks.

The 14 creative and tech “learning targets” where TUMO students can engage.

Impact, not grades

This isn’t school where students are required to learn a specific curriculum about math, science and language arts. This is something different and better. Here, students learn real-world skills. Students set their own pace, choose their own focus, and grow by making.

👍 Self-Learning: Hundreds of short, interactive activities and exercises that teach fundamentals.
👥 Workshops: Led by industry pros, ranging from beginner to advanced and culminate in portfolio projects.
🧪 Project Labs: Real-life collaborations with over 100 top tech and design professionals from around the world.

Together, these form each student’s Path, a personalized learning journey that evolves with their curiosity. The goal is a portfolio of doing. Proof of skill, creativity, and grind.

And while these extracurricular projects might not necessarily contribute to a class GPA, you can bet these skills are setting these motivated students up for life.

Check the student portfolio. Are you kidding, you wouldn’t hire some of these students?

Let badasses be badasses. Give them the tools, and get out of the way.

Example visualization of a student’s path.

Maximizing their reach via Hubs and Boxes

Set up as a nonprofit, the goal was always to reach as many students as possible, especially those in outlying, rural areas. To address, TUMO set up an innovative development model - beautiful, inspiring centers (Hubs) in cities with large student populations…

They seriously got the most beautiful, iconic building in Albania as their upcoming Tirana HQ.

Wassup LA! Rendering of the Los Angeles TUMO center coming soon.

… and connected Boxes (essentially souped up shipping containers) strategically placed within a 30-40 minute radius from Hubs. This brings learning opportunities closer to home (and into rural areas). No more long commutes or unaffordable taxi rides after a long day of school.

With a total of 37 Boxes deployed (and more on the way), distance is becoming less of a barrier between teenagers and opportunity. Obviously, this flexibility in center design also influences TUMO’s expansion strategy so they can make the right choices about new markets.

Education anywhere.

Check out the reach this has given Tumo in Armenia:

TUMO locations within Armenia.

Box learning at night.

❝

“I’ve learned things I never thought I would,” says Andranik, a student at TUMO Box in Jermuk. “I’m excited about what’s next because now I feel like I’ve got the tools to go after it.”

This model works. TUMO students do better

The results don’t lie. From TUMO’s impact report (conducted by third-party Dalberg):

🎓 25% of TUMO alumni were attending top Armenian universities with a STEM or creative focus, compared to just 6% of comparison
📖 80% of TUMO students reported teaching themselves a new skill/subject in the last 3 months and spent significantly more time in extra-curricular activities than other students
💼 6 in every 10 alumni highlighted that TUMO helped them develop their profile for job applications, especially by providing a portfolio of work; over half of the alumni felt that TUMO’s network was helpful in them securing a job

And… it’s just freaking cool. The creative output from these students is jaw-droppingly good.

Honestly, go down the rabbit hole and spend an afternoon viewing their online portfolio of selected work. These kids are incredibly creative and talented. Here are a few of our favorite examples

❝

💡 Oh and did we mention: it’s 100% free. Like, actually free. Funded by public/private partners, not student debt.

⚡Why we said hell yeah!

We’ll be honest, we didn’t expect to get emotional about an after-school program. But TUMO got us. Mainly, it seems almost too-good-to-be-true for such an idealistic vision come to life, and then get executed on global scale. Its only possible due to the fortuitous combination of:

Visionary entrepreneurs
Progressive educators
Scrappy infrastructure
Smartly deployed philanthropic and public capital
And.. most importantly… brilliant, motivated teenagers who choose to spend their free time learning and creating.

The model makes so much sense it’s actually frustrating this type of education can’t be the norm everywhere in the world. Specifically, we should absolutely be encouraging teenagers (who aren’t yet burdened by 9-5 jobs and other “real world” commitments) to be bold and courageous and create giant, audacious projects. These projects - their portfolio - will inevitably resonate more deeply with a college admissions officer than only a high class rank.

Specific to after school programming - There are studies how access to quality afterschool programs improves communities. They keep kids away from mischief and take the burden off of working parents.

Bored, unmotivated kids usually lead to trouble. Now, get off my lawn.

And any US working parent will attest to the annoyance of spending lots of $$$ for inferior programs their kids don’t want to go to, just so they can until 5pm. So for now, we’re holding our breaths until when TUMO opens locations near us.

All in all, an հսկայական-sized hell yeah from us.

Getting the community involved. In Feb 2024, the Gyumri Center brought the town together to celebrate Barekendan (a traditional Armenian festival marking the start of Lent).