build to scale

From the Court to the Sky: How Basketball Taught Two Brothers Entrepreneurial Success
By: Sunnie Dawn Baker Basketball is about more than just dribbling, shooting, and passing the ball. It teaches lessons that can be…

Empowering Ada’s Workforce: A Digital Skilling Initiative for Economic Growth
By: Sunnie Dawn Baker Workforce Development is crucial to economic development in a community. Businesses cannot function properly, and the possibility for…

Hot Rodders of Tomorrow: Hands on Innovation at Pontotoc Technology Center
By: Sunnie Dawn Baker Five high school students stand behind a work bench, their hearts beating with anticipation. They wait for the…

From Coding to Core Values: The Comprehensive World of Lego Robotics
By: Sunnie Dawn Baker When Emily Denney first started teaching at Homer Elementary, she never would have dreamed that her world would…

Building a Tech Ecosystem: Ada’s New Wave of Community-Driven Meetups
By: Sunnie Dawn Baker Technology work can be isolating, but it doesn’t have to be. While much of the work is done…

Building Dreams: Inside Ada’s Entrepreneurship Accelerator Program
By: Sunnie Dawn Baker After serving in the Navy for ten years and then six years with the Chickasaw Nation, Matt Stephens…

Ecosystem Building Revisited: Learning, Sharing, Connecting
By: Sunnie Dawn Baker “Entrepreneurship drives economies, but the success of entrepreneurs depends on those around them. That’s why we build ecosystems—or…

Justin Berst’s Vision: Valor’s Pioneering AI-Driven Crime Prevention
By: Sunnie Dawn Baker “Hey, you in the blue shirt and ballcap! You’re trespassing and the police have been called!” The voice…

Global Collaborations in Water Policy: Ada, Oklahoma, Bondo, Kenya, and the World Beyond
By: Sunnie Dawn Baker “There are many things that you can afford to go without, but the three things that we need…

Cathlena Spencer: Technological Innovation Hiding in Plain Sight
By: Sunnie Dawn Baker Cathlena Spencer first became interested in camouflage when she was a little kid. She was eleven years old,…