About The Innovative Learners
A Chicago-based creative enrichment company on a mission to teach kids real skills and remind them what it feels like to actually be in a room with each other.
Our story
The Innovative Learners was built on a simple belief: that the best thing you can give a young person isn’t a worksheet or a grade. It’s a room full of people who believe in what they’re capable of and a creative experience that proves it.
Gabriell Itima (formerly Gaiter) founded The Innovative Learners over a decade ago as a certified teacher who kept seeing the same gap — students who were smart, curious, and full of ideas but had nowhere to put them.
What started as a tutoring company evolved into something bigger: creative enrichment programs that use nail design, entrepreneurship, storytelling, and career exploration to build confidence, community, and the courage to show up for yourself and for each other. Today, we partner with schools, after-school programs, and community organizations across Chicago to bring those experiences directly to students, in person, in the same room, building something together.
Our story
The Innovative Learners was built on a simple belief: that the best thing you can give a young person isn't a worksheet or a grade. It's a room full of people who believe in what they're capable of and a creative experience that proves it. Gabriell Itima (formerly Gaiter) founded The Innovative Learners over a decade ago as a certified teacher who kept seeing the same gap — students who were smart, curious, and full of ideas but had nowhere to put them. What started as a tutoring company evolved into something bigger: creative enrichment programs that use nail design, entrepreneurship, storytelling, and career exploration to build confidence, community, and the courage to show up for yourself and for each other. Today, we partner with schools, after-school programs, and community organizations across Chicago to bring those experiences directly to students, in person, in the same room, building something together.
The Innovative Learners was built on a simple belief: that the best thing you can give a young person isn't a worksheet or a grade it's a room full of people who believe in what they're capable of, and a creative experience that proves it to them.
Gabriell Itima (formerly Gaiter) founded The Innovative Learners over a decade ago as a certified teacher who kept seeing the same gap: students who were smart, curious, and full of ideas but had nowhere to put them. The classroom was focused on catching up. Nobody was focused on opening up.
Over time, that belief became a company. The Innovativeg Learners was initially a tutoring company transforming students'lives through academic support. But once the tutoring work sunsetted, we gave way to something bigger: creative enrichment programs that use nail design, entrepreneurship, storytelling, and career exploration as the vehicle for the things that really matter confidence, community, identity, and the courage to show up for yourself and for each other.
Today, The Innovative Learners partners with schools, after-school programs, and community organizations across Chicago to bring those experiences directly to students. Not online. Not through a screen. In person in the same room, building something together.
The mission
After-school programs give kids something to do. We give them somewhere to belong.
Childhood anxiety is at an all-time high. Screen time is up. And the skills that come from being physically present with other people; collaboration, empathy, creative risk-taking, the ability to look someone in the eye and say "here's what I made"; are going untaught.
The Innovative Learners exist to change that. Every program we design puts the community at the center.
We believe enrichment should do more than teach a skill. It should build the kind of confidence that sticks. The kind of community that lasts. And the kind of experience that a student remembers long after the program is over.
Meet Gabriell
Founder, CEO, and the person who will show up to your school and change what your students think they're capable of.
Gabriell is a certified educator with more than 15 years of experience working with young people in classrooms, community organizations, and creative spaces across Chicago and beyond.
She holds master's degrees in Education and Public Administration and has spent her career at the intersection of both: understanding how systems work, and how to get inside them to do something meaningful for kids.
Gabriell created The Innovative Learners and used it to facilitate workshops across Chicagoland Area including the University of Illinois, Governors State University, and Foster Progress. She knows what it takes to walk into a room full of students who don't want to be there and leave with a room full of students who don't want to leave.
She is based in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood and when she's not building programs, she's training for her next race, tending to her plants, and reminding herself that rest is part of the work.
Trusted by schools and organizations across Chicago
We've built programs alongside some of the most respected institutions in the city and we bring that same standard to every partner we work with.
Serving Chicago communities including Hyde Park and Bronzeville, plus surrounding suburbs. We come to you.
What we believe
We've built programs alongside some of the most respected institutions in the city and we bring that same standard to every partner we work with.
Community is the curriculum
Every program we build puts in-person connection at the center. The skills are the vehicle. The community students build together is the point.
Enrichment should open kids up, not catch them up
We're not here to remediate. We're here to ignite. Our programs are for students who are ready to discover what they're capable of.
Creativity is a life skill
Whether a student goes on to be an artist, an entrepreneur, or an engineer — the ability to think creatively, communicate clearly, and collaborate with others will follow them everywhere.
Cultural relevance is non-negotiable.
Our programs reflect the students in the room. Their stories, their references, their world. Learning sticks when students can see themselves in it.
Kids need to be in the room with each other.
In a world designed to keep kids isolated and anxious, we make a deliberate choice to do the opposite every session, in person, together.
Ready to bring The Innovative Learners to your students?
We partner with schools, after-school programs, and community organizations across Chicago to bring creative, hands-on enrichment directly to your students. We come to you. We handle the curriculum. You get the outcomes.
WHAT YOU GET WITH OUR PROGRAM...
A Pre and Post Diagnostic Reading test
This allows us to tailor the curriculum to meet your child's specific learning needs while providing you with evidence of learning.
Fun, Live intimate personalized instruction
Your child will be taught by a trained, experienced reading teacher with engaging lessons.
Personalized Culturally Relevant Reading Curriculum
Your child will receive a culturally responsive curriculum tailored to their specific needs in decoding, reading comprehension and reading confidence.
Access to the Parent Portal
You have access to resources and recordings you can view with your child to increase their learning and always know what is being taught in the classes.
What you won't get from our program
Here’s a list of things we don’t do in our program:
- A ton of worksheets: Our curriculum is engaging and we update curriculum for each student's class daily to ensure accurate practice of decoding, fluency, comprehension, spelling and writing practice
- Large class sizes: Our classes are capped at 4-6 students per class
- Taught by college kids or adults who are not teachers: Unlike other large tutoring agencies, we only employ experienced teachers who have lead teaching classroom experience.
- A White Washed Curriculum: Cultural relevancy and diversity are a part of our mission. Our diverse student community is reflective throughout our curriculum.
- Boring: Our children are engaged with our constantly changing curriculum that incorporates all different learning styles.
- An Anxious Environment: Our teachers are trained to make student's feel comfortable to read out loud. Children are placed in a class with other learners on their same level so they feel comfortable practicing reading around other similar leveled readers.
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What Families and Partners Say
We’re proud to be trusted by families, educators, and community partners.