REDI Lab at Colorado Academy

About REDI Lab

The REDI Lab @ Colorado Academy transforms education into a uniquely personalized, and creative learning experience. It is advanced preparation for college, career, and life.

Using innovative scheduling that creates time for deep work, the Lab positions students with the initiative and agency to self-direct their way through a project of their own design. By doing this, the Lab becomes an opportunity for students to develop a clearer sense of their why and recognize more of the value they have to share with the world. All of this happens alongside a traditional, college-preparatory education without adding more (and more) to student workloads.

Operating as a one-trimester “school-within-a-school” experience for CA Juniors and Seniors, the REDI Lab helps students generate the self-awareness they need to be successful in school and beyond. It does this by creating a learning community where feedback helps students incubate ideas that will distinguish them in the world. The Lab also uses principles and concepts taken from industry and the business world to further the thinking that students will need for whatever is ahead of them.

The Lab’s ability to distill student purpose into long-term potential has made it into a signature program at Colorado Academy with growing presence. The REDI Lab now offers two-week summer sessions that are open to high school students from any school in the Denver metro area.

With the 2023 opening of the REDI Lab Aimee & Jonathan Coleman Center, students are provided with an innovative space in central Denver's Mariposa neighborhood to design their projects. The Coleman Center also brings the program into the Denver community in new and bold ways.

The Coleman Center is also home to UnlimitED, a community-based education organization for people who believe that the role of schools must be redefined and educators who want to rethink what they do in the classroom.

There is no cost to participate in the REDI Lab. However, students must apply and be accepted to the program. To learn more about the REDI Lab, contact: Tom Thorpe

Tom Thorpe

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Director of REDI Lab at CA

Tom Thorpe is the co-founder and director of the REDI Lab @ Colorado Academy. A career educator and problem-solver, Thorpe helps learners of any age grow into their full potential using creative processes. As a program director, he is an active learner who uses storytelling to explore more of what’s possible in a situation and show our connected humanity. His leadership is informed by service as a trustee on boards and as an optimist who believes in our ability to creatively solve problems together.
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Thorpe holds a double major BA in Cultural Anthropology and Religious Studies from Connecticut College and an MA in Teaching from Fairfield University. He is currently completing his pilot’s license and loves his wife and four kids. Outside of work, Thorpe enjoys waking up early with a good cup of coffee to study the quiet for insights into the difference he might make in the world while dreaming about the next adventure he can take with his family and friends.

Prior to his appointment at CA, Thorpe worked at both St. Anne’s Episcopal and Graland Country Day schools in Denver and he is a co-founder of the design thinking and strategy firm, Fleissig Design, whose mission is to help organizations find creative solutions through essential processes and systems. Prior to working in Denver, Thorpe taught English and History at New Canaan Country School in Connecticut. He has served as a trustee for Stanley British Primary School Board, as a member of the Public Education Business Coalition (PEBC) Internal Review Board, and an advisory board member for Facing History and Ourselves. He currently serves on the Rose Community Foundation Community Impact Grant-making committee. A facilitator at national conferences and for schools, organizations, and companies around the country and an optimist who believes deeply that creativity can solve most problems, Thorpe tells the stories to help us discover more of what’s possible.

REDI Lab Faculty

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Martha Smith

REDI Lab Faculty
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Martha Smith was appointed as an Upper School science teacher in 2010 and is a chemist by education and passion. In her CA tenure, she has taught biology, and chemistry, and created the Python for Biologists course as an opportunity for students to learn coding in the context of DNA analysis. Smith joined the REDI Lab team during the 2019-2020 school year, initially attracted to the idea of rethinking students’ time in an educational context, as she experienced during her undergraduate work in Colorado College’s block plan. She now teaches Entrepreneurial Mindset, a REDI Lab elective, and describes Upper School role as one in which her science hat has gotten smaller, while her REDI Lab hat has gotten larger. She is a Denver native who received her BS in Chemistry from Colorado College. Her University of Colorado MEd is in Curriculum & Instruction, with a specialization in Secondary Science.
Amanda Zranchev

REDI Lab Faculty
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Amanda Zranchev joined Colorado Academy in 2019 as a part-time REDI Lab instructor while she was completing her master's in engineering at Colorado School of Mines. Since then, she has moved full time to teaching Physics and AP Physics and has enjoyed helping students experience the joy of "math in action." Outside of the Science Department, she has continued to work with the Junior REDI Lab program, where she is continually inspired by students' creativity, problem-solving, and community building. Prior to CA, Amanda taught Physics and AP Physics at Deerfield Academy and Trinity School. Outside of teaching, Zranchev loves to hike with her dog, Chef; play board games with her husband and friends; and experiment in her garden.