About Us

After working in industry and 14 years of mentoring high school robotics teams , Jeanette and Mike became convinced there was a significant need for K-12 students to relearn the creativity and opportunity possible within the STEM career fields and to better prepare them for their future.  In 2011 we jumped in big to our passion by committing to a 5 year lease and personally invested in a physical makerspace for 5 years in Sugar Land, Texas.  The space was run similar to a makerspace with classes, programs, competitions and events with access to equipment such as 3D Printers, laser cutter, CNC and many LEGOS to inspire creativity.   Our programs also included robotics, Internet of Things(IoT), Arduino, Raspberry Pi, programming, Minecraft and many other technologies to inspire our community.  Our team members fluctuated between five to twenty-five team members over the five years and we were repeatedly asked whether we were going to open other spaces.

In the last two years that our makerspace was open, we saw the interest grow in schools, libraries and other community organizations to create their own makerspace education programs. So instead of continuing to grow our own community and wanting to focus on our family, we started our next chapter in our journey to inspire making and project-based learning by focusing on providing services to schools, libraries and other communities.

In 2017 even though we loved our Sugar Land community, we had enough of the humidity in Texas and especially not being able to play golf without sweating, so we moved to Monument, Colorado.  Our intent was to retire. 😉  But our passion for making, Techno Chaos’ makerspace and our efforts in the Houston Maker Faire connected us into the Colorado makerspace community such as Pikes Peak Makerspace, the Colorado Maker Hub and the Denver Maker Faire.  In addition, our oldest son was interested in joining D38’s Bearbotics FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) Team 4068.  So it didn’t take long before we were fully out of retirement.

Spin forward to 2024 when Mike retires as Head Coach of Bearbotics FRC Team 4068, but along the way Monumental Impact was founded and has evolved to a nurturing environment for high school students interested in technology, engineering and entrepreneurship with project experiences involving three FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) teams and a social enterprise with over 20 community members.  As we enter 2025 some things are off our platter and we hope to get back to our own maker projects of interest.  You may see a post soon about mechanical versus artificial intelligence (AI) software driven for MY planned LEGO sorter project as Mike, who is mechanically oriented, pushed the implementation towards a mechanical solution. Ah, the fun of difference perspectives in making…all in one household.

We look forward to sharing with you our journey of making!