The Innovus Innovation Center is an initiative of the Florida Conference Instititute for Leadership and Innovation, the research and development arm of the Florida Conference Office of Education (FLCOE). It is a state-of-the-art facility that offers a variety of programs and experiences to foster the development of innovation, leadership, and entrepreneurship skills among students, educators and the community.

The Innovus Story

The story of Innovus began in 2010 with a father searching for a better way to engage his son in learning.

While his oldest child was a student at Orlando Junior Academy (OJA), Robert Henley recognized that the traditional classroom environment was not engaging his son in ways that allowed his interests, abilities, and potential to fully emerge. Rather than simply accepting that reality, Henley began exploring how hands-on learning, technology, engineering, and authentic problem-solving could create a different kind of educational experience.

In response, Henley launched an after-school robotics program at Orlando Junior Academy in 2010. The goal was initially very personal: to create a learning environment that would engage his son in ways that the traditional classroom experience had not. However, it quickly became apparent that his son was not the only student who benefited from this approach.

What began as a solution for one child became an opportunity to rethink how students learn.

The robotics program provided students with opportunities to build, design, program, collaborate, solve problems, and apply academic concepts to authentic challenges. Through those experiences, Henley began to see the potential of an educational model that did more than deliver content—one that could help young people discover their interests, develop their abilities, and uncover their God-given gifts.

From an After-School Program to a School-Within-a-School

In 2012, the program moved to Forest Lake Education Center (FLEC) and became the FLEC Robotics Academy, a school-within-a-school program that integrated robotics, engineering, technology, and hands-on learning into the educational experience.

By 2014, the program had expanded into an interschool school-within-a-school partnership between Forest Lake Education Center and Forest Lake Academy, creating a pathway that allowed students to continue developing their skills and pursuing their interests across multiple grade levels.

From a Program to a Conference-Wide Vision

In the spring of 2017, Frank Runnels, Superintendent of Education for the Florida Conference Office of Education (FLCOE); George Carzana, Associate Superintendent for Education; and Robert Henley began discussing a much larger vision:

What if the lessons learned through the robotics program could be used to help reimagine education throughout the Florida Conference?

Those conversations led to the establishment of the Florida Conference Innovation Initiative. In the fall of 2017, the FLEC–FLA Robotics Academy transitioned into the Florida Conference Innovation Initiative, with a vision to cultivate a culture of innovation across the Florida Conference and ultimately help its schools become hubs of innovation.

As part of that effort, the Florida Conference Innovation Lab at Forest Lake Academy was established to serve as a laboratory for developing, testing, and refining new approaches to STEM+C education, innovation, and authentic problem-based learning.

Establishing FCILI

In 2018, the Florida Conference established the Florida Conference Institute for Leadership and Innovation (FCILI) to serve as the research and development arm of the Florida Conference Office of Education.

FCILI provided an organizational structure through which new educational models, programs, partnerships, and learning experiences could be developed, tested, evaluated, and ultimately shared with schools throughout the Florida Conference and beyond.

The Vision for a New Kind of School

By 2019, Frank Runnels, George Carzana, and Robert Henley began exploring another important question:

What if innovation were not simply a program within a school? What if the school itself were built around the framework?

The success and impact of the Florida Conference Innovation Program demonstrated what was possible through a school-within-a-school model. The next step was to imagine an entire learning environment designed around the same principles—personalized learning, STEM+C, authentic problem-solving, innovation, collaboration, entrepreneurship, and the development of each student’s God-given gifts.

That same year, FLCOE acquired a 15,000-square-foot facility that would become the permanent home of FCILI and, eventually, the home of the Innovus Innovation Center and Innovus Microschool.

Innovus and AE4

In 2024, FCILI/Innovus opened the doors of its new facility, creating a dedicated environment where students, educators, researchers, universities, and industry professionals could collaborate to explore new approaches to teaching and learning.

In the fall of 2025, the Florida Conference Innovation Program evolved into AE4—Adventist Education in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. AE4 represents the culmination of more than a decade of experimentation, refinement, and learning that began with one father trying to create a more engaging educational experience for his son.

Today, Innovus serves as a laboratory for the continued development and implementation of the AE4 Framework. Through Innovus, students engage in personalized, mastery-based learning; STEM+C; authentic problem-based learning; Design Thinking; research; entrepreneurship; and multi-year Innovation Scholar pathways that connect them with university researchers, industry professionals, and real-world challenges.

What began in 2010 as an effort to reach one child has grown into a broader movement to reimagine Adventist education.

At the heart of Innovus remains the same belief that inspired its beginning: every young person possesses God-given gifts and potential that education should help uncover, cultivate, and connect to purpose. Innovus exists to create learning environments where students can discover those gifts, recognize the calling God has placed on their lives, and develop the knowledge, skills, character, and confidence to use them in service to God and humanity.