About Us

"Learning is the only thing the mind never exhausts, never fears and never regrets."

- Leonardo da Vinci.

 

Hello! My name is Peter Romero, and this is the story of how I created the world's first online long-distance educational program - and how that program has evolved to become the inspiring school of thought known as The Academy of Leonardo's Apprentice.

 

Like most inventors, I didn't set out with the goal of inventing. I was simply bothered by a common problem and seeking a solution. In the early 1990s, I worked as a math and computer programming teacher at a technical school for boys. The problem I faced was universal: students were uninspired by math and, subsequently, very bad at it. Many were flunking out of my class or turning to resources like after-school tutoring with little success.

 

Seeing them wrestle with their equations took me back to my own experiences as a struggling math student many years ago. I remembered how the realization that mathematics was more about patterns and connections and less about numbers and fractions had shifted my perception and opened new doors of understanding to me. What if it was possible to teach my students to think through their problems instead of calculating? I wondered.

 

I grabbed hold of this idea and pursued it. Starting with topics that interested me as a youngster - computers, robots, and the space race - I lifted dull equations off textbook pages and applied them to real-world problems. My class soon became an experimental space where we fired cannons, spoke to firefighters about the math of fire, and discussed the equations behind the movements of asteroids with real astronomers. I watched the light of inspiration come over my students as their grades started to climb, and I knew at that moment that I was on to something big.

 

How big? As big as the International Space Station - which is where my interests drew me next. The year was 1994, and I had just finished reading a gripping book about the International Space Station by Gene Meyers. Inspired by the idea that a functional space station could be constructed from the parts of a destroyed space shuttle, I approached AOL with the idea of setting up a virtual schoolhouse that would allow students from all over the world to participate in my thought experiment. At the time, I didn't realize that I was pioneering a path that no one had gone down before. I named my creation "Space Island".

 

By 1996, the Los Angeles Times, AOL, and a congressional group documented that my humble program had reached over 2.3 million students and teachers in forty nations. Before long, I received a phone call from the Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, who told me that the U.S. Congress was placing my program and me into the Library of Congress. This historical event marked the launch of the first online long-distance educational program in the world. In retrospect, all of today's online educational programs can be traced back to the Space Island program.

 

The Space Island program concluded in 2000 as I moved on to new teaching projects. Still, the challenge remained: students were making their way through the school system with subpar math and science skills. I witnessed as the U.S. government and private businesses invested over $5 billion into STEM programs every year while math, science, and reading scores continued to drop. The issue was clear: STEM subjects alone could not teach students the critical thinking skills they needed to solve complex problems or digest new material.

 

My dissatisfaction with the status quo inspired me to launch a series of summer programs called "Thinking Like Leonardo" in a bid to present hands-on projects that would engage students while teaching them the fundamentals of engineering, science, and art. I was inspired by Leonardo da Vinci's legacy as an engineer, scientist, poet, and artist and felt that it underlined my belief that the arts are an essential component of learning. In 2010, I changed the summer program name from "Thinking Like Leonardo" to "Leonardo's Apprentice."

 

In 2012, I left my teaching post to develop my online presence and focus on the program I was creating. In 2018, I filed for non-profit status and was awarded a 501(3)c under the name of "The Academy of Leonardo's Apprentice."

 

My vision is to grow my student-directed program to include a working lab where students can experiment and build models using computers, 3D printers, tools, and other supplies. I am also developing online workshops for teachers looking to build similar programs or looking for ideas that will engage and motivate their students. Everything I do is motivated by my belief that inspired and engaged students have the power to exceed their own expectations and solve problems in the real world. By nurturing the young minds of today, we are ensuring the future of humanity - one project at a time.