The person at the bench
Meet
Coach Tia.
Letia Blanco started Design Your World in 2012. Since then more than 1,300 children have come through the studio, and she has coached nearly all of them personally.
The short version
An engineer who wanted children to meet engineering properly.
Letia Blanco holds a patent for a nanoparticulate delivery system, a smart bandage, and has presented at multiple technical symposia. In 2018 she was the international winner of the Society of Women Engineers Distinguished New Engineer Award. In 2023 the Corridor Business Journal named her in its 40 Under 40. She works as a Value Stream Leader at one of the largest aerospace companies in the world, and she is the mother of two girls who are now busy inventing things themselves.
None of that would matter much on its own. Plenty of accomplished engineers are poor teachers. What makes the credentials relevant is the specific thing they let her do in a room full of nine year olds, which is to recognise the exact moment a child is about to learn something and to stay quiet through it.
Why the studio exists
Letia founded Design Your World in 2012 because the STEM options available to young children were mostly demonstrations. A child watched something impressive happen, said wow, and went home knowing no more about how the world is made than when they arrived.
The alternative she built is slower and much less tidy. Children arrive at a bench with real components and a problem, and things go wrong for a while. The studio's whole philosophy sits in what happens during that while. An adult who steps in too early gets a working robot and a child who has learned nothing. An adult who steps in too late gets a frustrated child who has given up. Judging that gap is the craft, and it is not something a franchise binder can teach.
Fourteen years of formats
Over that time the studio has run a great deal more than the four programmes currently on offer. There have been Design Your World STEM conferences, an Electronics Fashion Camp where students built wearable circuits, and a Secret Life of Robots camp. More than 1,300 children have taken part in one form or another.
Alongside those, Letia currently coaches teams for the Junior State Science and Technology Fair of Iowa, FIRST LEGO League and Invention Convention, and Magic Pets Robotics returns in 2027. Formats come back when there is demand, so it is always worth asking about something you remember from a previous year.
What she believes about teaching children engineering
Three things, repeated often enough that students end up saying them back to her.
The first is that a child who cannot explain their build does not yet understand it, which is why every programme ends with the student presenting rather than the coach. The second is that the useful part of a project is the part where it does not work, so studio sessions are designed to leave room for failure rather than to prevent it. The third is that children are far more capable than the tasks usually set for them, and that handing a nine year old a real tool and a real expectation is a form of respect they notice immediately.
What this buys your child
Continuity is the underrated part.
At a chain, your child gets whichever instructor is rostered. That instructor may be excellent, and they may also not remember what your child was stuck on last week.
Here the same coach sees the whole arc. She knows which student rushes and needs slowing down, which one gives up ninety seconds before it would have worked, and which one has quietly understood something the rest of the group has not. That knowledge accumulates, and it is the reason small cohorts and a single coach are worth the constraint they impose on the business.
Talk to her directly
The fastest way to work out if this fits is to ask.
Coach Tia answers the enquiries herself. Tell her your child's grade and what they love doing, and she will tell you which programme fits, when it runs, and whether it is worth waiting for a different one.