For parents, the rapid rise of artificial intelligence can bring plenty of questions: How much technology is too much? Is AI helping kids learn or doing the thinking for them? How do we prepare our children for a future being shaped by tools that many adults are still figuring out themselves?
A new St. Louis-based educational program wants to give families another way to approach those questions: Teach kids how the technology works, empower them to use it, and even inspire them to build it themselves.
Ellie’s FutureMinds Academy, founded by husband-and-wife duo Jason and Domonique Henderson, was designed to introduce kids to artificial intelligence, coding, robotics, cybersecurity, game development, web development, and other technology skills.
“We don’t want our kids merely consuming the technology of the future,” Jason says. “We want them learning how to create it.”
Discover fun things to do with the family
Subscribe to the St. Louis Family newsletter for family-friendly things to do and news for local parents, sent every Monday and Thursday.
That might mean programming a robot or building a simple website. From the beginning, Jason says they wanted students to make something they can take home and show their families. “They can show Mom and Dad—hey, look what I did today,” he says.
Affordability is also central to the academy’s mission. “If I built the greatest educational program in the world, but the family who needs it the most can’t afford it, I certainly have not solved the problem,” Jason says.
Making AI a tool, not a crutch
For parents wondering whether AI will help kids learn or simply do the work for them, the academy is built around a different approach.
Ellie, the program’s elephant character and AI learning companion, is designed to guide students through problems rather than simply supply answers. “She’s not going to just give you the answer,” Jason says. “She’s going to make you think about it.”
The experience also adapts based on a student’s age, experience, and interests. A 5-year-old who’s new to computers, for instance, won’t receive the same instruction as a teenager who has already experimented with coding.
Students aren’t locked into one subject either. A child might arrive wanting to build a robot and discover an interest in web development along the way.
“Nothing is limited,” Jason says. “There’s nothing saying, ‘You can only do this one program.’”
What about AI safety?
The academy is also trying to address another question that’s likely to be top of mind for parents: What happens when you give a child access to AI?
Jason says student projects operate in a “sandboxed” environment rather than an outside network, and Ellie is specifically designed not to respond to requests that could be harmful. The system also monitors for patterns that could indicate potentially harmful or illegal activity, and it’s designed to alert the academy and parents, who can follow their children’s progress through the program.
The goal is to give kids room to experiment without turning AI into an answer machine. “I watch students building things, solving problems, experimenting, earning confidence, and realizing, ‘Hey, I can actually do this,’” Jason says.
Why access matters to Henderson
Jason’s focus on affordability comes partly from his own experience. He says he was interested in medicine and often encouraged to become a doctor, but the expense and years of training made that path feel financially out of reach.
“The only reason I never became a doctor, even though people always told me, ‘You should have been a doctor,’ was because it cost so much to become a doctor,” he says.
The academy combines online learning with in-person Saturday programming and regularly offers complimentary STEM experiences for families to try the programming.
Meet Ellie
Even the academy’s AI companion has a family story behind her. Ellie was inspired by Domonique’s lifelong love of elephants. Over time, the character also came to represent the kind of child the Hendersons hope to reach: curious and imaginative, but perhaps not yet aware of what they’re capable of doing with technology.
“She is not meant to feel like a corporate mascot,” Jason explains. “She is meant to feel like a friend walking beside a child as they learn, create, make mistakes, try again, and begin to see a future for themselves that they may not have imagined before.”
That mission is also tied closely to St. Louis. Jason moved here and eventually met Domonique, an experience he says changed his sense of home. “I fell in love with her, and I fell in love with the city of St. Louis,” he says.
The academy now holds its in-person programming at A Willing Vessel COGIC, where the church provides a physical home for its STEM programming.
From a first project to a future career
The Hendersons’ vision goes beyond teaching a kid to code one Saturday.
One upcoming project, an Ellie’s FutureMinds Academy Christmas special, is designed to let students apply what they’re learning to a larger project they can eventually share with their families.
Jason imagines a student sitting down at the computer and saying, “Hey, I wanna show you what I’ve been doing. And then they open their computer and just blow their family away,” he describes.
Longer-term, Jason says the academy is developing mobile access and pursuing accreditation and credentialing pathways. The couple’s goal is to eventually create a program that can grow with students and help prepare them for technology careers.
For now, the starting point is simpler: Find something a kid is curious about, and give them the opportunity to try it.
For families wondering what role AI should play in their children’s futures, the Hendersons aren’t betting on keeping kids away from the technology; they’re betting on teaching them what to do with it.
“These kids are our future,” Jason says. “We have to practically prepare them for the future we’re facing, with opportunities to learn, build, create, and dream bigger than they thought possible.”
What families should know
Ellie’s FutureMinds Academy offers online and in-person technology learning opportunities in subjects including artificial intelligence, coding, robotics, cybersecurity, game development, and web development.
In-person Saturday programming is held at A Willing Vessel COGIC (1900 Whittier). Families can visit the academy’s website for current program, registration, and upcoming event information.
