TKS Innovate is designed for high school students ages 13-17 years old. We run in-person programs for students in Ottawa, Toronto and Vancouver and the surrounding areas, and there is also a Global Virtual program open to students worldwide. We make exceptions for students taking gap years, to allow 18 year olds to join.
The fee for the in-person program is $589 CAD /month (+ $1000 deposit). If paid in full, a $500 discount will be applied, making the total $6390 CAD for the program.
The fee for the virtual program is $489 USD / month (+ $1000 deposit). If paid in full, a $500 discount will be applied, making the total $5390 USD for the program.
We offer financial aid (up to full-ride) for those who need it and merit-based scholarships for exceptional students who are accepted into the program. Students may apply for financial aid after they apply and are accepted into the program. There is no obligation to joining TKS if you submit an application and are accepted.
Students are placed in a cohort of 30-40 people. Each cohort meets every weekend for 10 months (September – June). You will choose your specific date and time after you’re accepted into the program.
Ottawa Program Times
Saturday 3 PM - 6 PM EST
Toronto Program Times
Thursday 6 PM - 9 PM EST
Saturday 10 AM - 1 PM EST[Cohort Full]
Saturday 2 PM - 5 PM EST
Vancouver Program Times
Saturday 12-3 PM PST
Sunday 4-7 PM EST
Virtual Program Times
Thursday 6:30 - 9:30 PM EST
Friday 9 AM - 12 PM EST or 3 PM - 6 PM EST or 5 PM - 8 PM EST
Saturday 9 AM -12 PM EST or 10 AM to 1 PM EST to 4 PM EST or 2 PM - 5 PM EST
Sunday 5 PM to 8 PM EST
“We do so many different things in sessions, ranging from global sessions, hackathons, challenges with real companies, science and technology and life discussions.”
Naila
You will develop the knowledge, skills, and mindset to make an impact in the world over 100 hours of live sessions, workshops, and activities.
Before the program starts, you will receive access to Slack and TKS.life, our online learning platform. The program is scheduled to kick off mid-September 2022.
TKS kicks off! At the kickoff, you'll have an introduction to TKS and how the program works, build relationships with students in your cohort, and understand the TKS mindset.
At TKS, we believe the best way to create the future is to predict it. You'll learn how to make jaw dropping presentation decks, and what it means to set high standards in life and your career.
Heading into October we dive into our first technology: Artificial Intelligence. Before the session, you'll be provided with a primer on AI so you can come prepared to discuss the implications of AI in various industries. We'll explore content creation, and show you how to develop a mindset of curiosity.
Another tech session is coming atcha! This week, we'll be exploring blockchain and cryptocurrency. You'll explore how blockchain can be used to solve global problems. You'll learn how to apply technology to solve real world problems. And we'll train you to develop a bias towards action (that means get things done!).
Excitement to finally build face-to-face communities is building. With the Reopening Ontario Plan we are optimistic that we will be fully back in-person by September this year. Impact Hub hosted TKS Ottawa Innovators for in-person sessions in 2021/2022. Programs will take place in-person if it is safe to do so, and if local schools and districts are also operating in-person.
During the week, this space is used by Ottawa’s startup community as a co-working space.
📍 123 Slater St. 6th & 7th Floor, Ottawa
TKS Innovators from Ottawa join us from a variety of high schools and student organizations.
Read real student reviews from TKS students in Ottawa below.
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Students join a global community of like-minded young people where they can meet their best friends and future co-founders among 1200 students and alumni from 20 countries.
Meet our incredible directors. They are here to support our students in discovering their interests and build meaningful projects. TKS Directors give kids the motivation and know-how to make things happen.
Ian Lockhart is an energetic entrepreneur and public speaker who started his own investment fund prior to joining TKS. During that time, he invested in dozens of young entrepreneurs to help them turn their ideas into profitable businesses, including multi-million dollar revenues. Early in his career, Ian was focused on a series of startups that raised over 15M dollars in funding. Ian has worked with Fortune 500 brands in media, manufacturing, automotive, and e-commerce. Previously, Ian was a part of a Private Equity Fund, managing portfolios and leading acquisitions. To this day he continues to invest in entrepreneurs financially and through advisory positions.
TKS students get access to a network of senior leaders from the largest startups and the world's biggest
corporation to help with their technical projects
“I met some TKS students at the Collision conference, and it was ridiculous how smart they were. I had a conversation on particle physics with a 13-year-old, it didn’t seem unusual at the time – those kids are amazing.”
Tobi Lutke
Founder and CEO of Shopify
We're so glad you asked...
The first step to joining TKS is to submit a written application. There are five questions, designed to help us see how you think. We do not look at grades and there are no prerequisites to joining.
Applications are reviewed weekly and students are invited to interview on a rolling basis.We highly encourage you to apply early as there is limited Financial Aid and spaces in each program.
🗓. Regular Application Deadline: May 31
Apply Now
If you're invited to this next step, congratulations! Less than 40% of our applicants are invited to an interview. This is your chance to meet your Future Director and leave an impression.
This will be a group interview on Zoom with up to four other prospective TKS students. We'll send you some tips to prepare so you can crush it.
If you've made it this far, you'll definitely want to talk to your parents about the program if you haven't already.
Many students will be accepted or rejected at this stage.
But, we may want to see a little bit more from you before we make a deicsion. If you are asked to participated in a challenge, to write about a topic of your choice. We'll give you guidelines and a playbook on how to write a high quality article.
This is big news! If you crushed your application, your interview (and maybe the challenge), you may be offered a space in TKS.At this stage, you'll participate in an information session about TKS with your parents so you can have a forum to get all your questions answered. Joining TKS is a big decision, and we want you and your family to be fully informed.If you'd like to apply for Financial Aid, now is the time to do so.
At this stage, you will select your cohort, pay your deposit to secure your spot.
Before the program starts, you'll be invited to Slack, our internal channel, and we will send you some resources to help you get up to speed over the summer. We can't WAIT to help you grow, learn about technologies, and access all the resources you need to make an impact on the world!
TKS offers flexible payment options as well as merit- based and needs-based financial support.
Our application process is needs-blind. Requesting Financial Aid will not affect your admittance into TKS.
We will work with you individually if you're accepted into the program to ensure the program is accessible and affordable for your family.
If you can’t find the answer to your question, please contact us. Our contact information is located at the bottom of this page.
We believe that personal finances should not stop ambitious students from joining TKS. Accepted students can apply for needs-based financial aidonce they’re accepted into the program. We also provide merit-based scholarships for exceptional students who are identified during the application process.
TKS tuition helps fund a world class team and program experience, and unlocking exciting opportunities, like internships, employment opportunities and University scholarships, for Innovators in the program.
TKS offers merit-based scholarships and needs based financial aid to ensure the program is accessible.
We understand the risks of COVID-19. As an organization, we have taken the precautions that governments and authorities are advising to reduce the spread of the virus.
We are planning to have in-person city programs operating in September 2021. We will also offer the ability to attend any session virtually for students registered in a city program. This option is for those who might be uncomfortable attending in-person programs for a period of time.
In the event of regional lockdowns, we will host sessions online. We’ve worked hard this year to optimize our online delivery of sessions using our innovative platforms as well as new learning techniques to minimize screen time and maximize team building.
If more than 70% of the in-person sessions are held virtually, we will reduce the in-person tuition price to match our virtual tuition price. The refund of the difference between the in-person and virtual tuition will be provided in June 2022.
We’re committed to being the gold-standard of education (there’s a reason why the World Economic Forum recognized us as a “School of the Future”). From the beginning, we’ve made large investments in our digital platforms and online infrastructure. This means that we’re 100% prepared for any situation to happen, and if physical distancing continues, we believe that we’ll still be able to deliver an incredible experience. Here are some of the things we have in place:
We are fully confident that we will deliver a life-changing experience that will impact the trajectory of our student’s lives.
Our full COVID-19 policies and procedures are available here.
There are 3-hour sessions every week. Usually, these sessions are on the weekend.
The students who grow the most in our program invest the most time outside of the sessions into the projects they create while in TKS. Typically, this is usually 6-10 hours each week.
There’s no homework in TKS. But, we’ve built our own learning platform for students to dive into emerging technologies/sciences and build their own projects. Students participate in project-based learning at their own pace.
TKS isn’t just about STEM; our goal is to train the world’s next thought leaders, CEOs and innovators to impact billions. This isn’t a tech boot camp. We’re a human accelerator.
We believe leveraging exponential technologies is the best way to scale impact. TKS trains students on developing both hard skills and soft skills.
We provide students with guidelines, resources and mentors to build expertise in fields of emerging technologies and sciences.
Our secret-sauce is the emphasis on soft-skills. We model our curriculum after top innovation institutions like MIT, Google and Stanford. Students learn about:
TKS has 40+ internal learning modules where students can learn about a variety of emerging sciences and technologies.
Each student can “explore” these learning modules. They include a few hours of hand-picked learning articles and videos.
After some exploration, students choose a “focus” area. We provide them with guidance on how to complete a “focus.”
Within each focus, students develop depth of knowledge in the topic through our project-based learning approach. This includes creating articles and videos around technical research, building algorithms/computer projects yourself, or interviewing researchers in the field. By joining TKS, students have access to our learning frameworks, guidelines and approaches.
Students typically complete two focuses in one year of the program. Some examples of topics we offer:
Students can study whatever interests them. If the topic they’re passionate about isn’t available, they’re still able to complete a “focus” in it.
Our priority is to prepare students for the real world. During the program, students work on unique projects and create a personal portfolio that can be used when applying to university.
Some TKS students have gone on to attend world-class universities, and many have gotten incredible scholarships. We do not have a university feeder program, but TKS focuses on building skills to prepare students for life.
Examples of schools our students attend:
TKS has partnerships with companies that may provide internship opportunities to select students. During TKS, we work with students to secure internships with leading companies like Microsoft, Deloitte, and KPMG, while also training them on how to be successful in these positions. This enables students to add tremendous value to the organizations they work with, while also maximizing their learning experience. Internships must be earned by their portfolios and the work they put into the program by the students and are not guaranteed.
However, throughout the program, we teach students value skills like networking and building their own projects.cold-emailing got a slight negative impression from a parent.
Our students are re-defining what teenagers can do. Some examples are:
To learn more, check out our student spotlight page.
TKS doesn’t stop after the 10-month program. We want to support our alumni during their journey towards impacting billions.
We have an online platform and global community for our past and current students. They have access to our TKS resources, learning modules and mentors.
We are also building an investment fund for startups founded by TKS Alumni, while also creating relationships with top-tier organizations to help them recruit talent to solve hard problems.
There are 4 types of sessions:
Sessions are ~3 hours. We typically do them in-person, but are able to deliver the same quality online.
We’ve designed these sessions to be interactive. These sessions involve:
For more information, please check out our program pages.
Sessions are held at various times throughout the week and weekend and accomodate for students living in different time zones. Once you are accepted into the program, you will choose which cohort time works best for you.
Check out each program page to view the exact sessions time for the 2022-2023 program.
There are 2 steps before being accepted into TKS. First, you’ll need to submit a written application. Then, based on your application, we may request additional material like a video or article before moving to the group interview step. The group interview is over video chat. If we think you are the right fit for TKS after your interview, we will extend an invitation for you to join the program.
Any high school (or gap year) student that is ambitious, driven, curious, and wants to make an impact on the world.
If you aren’t a great presenter or you don’t have technical programming skills, don’t worry. Those are skills we train.
But you DO need to be open to learning new skills by pushing yourself and committed to putting in the effort! (Seriously, this isn’t going to be a random extracurricular you go to once a week).
We don’t have a “quota” for the number of students we select. We only select students who we think can grow exponentially in our program and have a high degree of drive and curiosity. As a result, acceptance rates vary based on the number of applications and the city. Historically, the average acceptance rate has varied from 10-20%.
We have a Global Virtual Program that is fully online! Students from around the world are able to join our Virtual program and learn together.