Excellence Lab

The Excellence Lab is an initiative that represents years of vision, collaboration, and commitment to supporting Cambridge youth at a critical stage in their development. Our purpose is simple but powerful: to create a space where middle school students—especially those in grades 5 through 8—can thrive, explore, and connect deeply to their city, their peers, and their future pathways. The Excellence Lab is designed not just as a program, but as a community-driven experiment in possibility. Together, the lab will explore Cambridge as a living classroom, engage with partners across the city, and learn through hands-on experiences. The Excellence Lab’s executive director is Steven Flythe.

Background

The Excellence Lab is deeply informed by the long history and tradition of the NAACP, the oldest and most enduring civil-rights organization in the United States. From its founding in 1909, the NAACP has worked to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons. Education has always been central to this mission. From Brown v. Board of Education (1954) to today’s ongoing fight for equitable school funding, the NAACP has demonstrated that education is both a civil right and a public good. As W.E.B. Du Bois, a founder of the NAACP who studied in Cambridge, reminds us: “The cost of liberty is less than the price of repression.” Ida B. Wells, whose fearless investigative journalism exposed injustice, declared: “The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them.” These words continue to ground the Excellence Lab: our young people deserve truth, opportunity, and the tools to shape their futures.

The Urgency of Now

The time for programs carrying forward the NAACP tradition is critical. Many of the protections and supports that earlier generations fought for are now being dismantled. The Excellence Lab stands as both a safeguard and an innovation—helping students build resilience, develop leadership, and imagine possibilities in a changing world. This urgency calls us to action: to provide Cambridge youth with experiences that cultivate agency, strengthen identity, and build the habits of participation and creation.

Excellence as Youth

The Excellence Lab sees youth as the future—and the present. This section anchors the entire handbook. We focus intentionally on grades 5–8, honoring this period as a pivotal bridge from childhood into adolescence, where voice, identity, confidence, and curiosity take shape.

“You are never too young to lead and never too old to learn.” — John Lewis