Learn with Lumi: the backstory
~ Evan Marie Carr, DarkViolet.ai co-founder and Learn with Lumi co-creatorEvery revolutionary idea begins with a simple truth. For me, that truth was discovering that education isn't one-size-fits-all—it's as individual as each child who embarks on the learning journey.
As a homeschooling mother of two extraordinary children, I've witnessed firsthand how traditional educational approaches often fall short of nurturing each child's brilliance. My son, now in high school with his beautiful mind on the autism spectrum, shows me daily how intelligence and empathy can manifest in wonderfully unexpected ways. He's pursuing quantum physics with a focus on astronomy. My daughter, with her remarkable intellectual gifts, continually pushes the boundaries of what I believed possible in young minds. She's set her sights on surgery, particularly neurosurgery.
My journey with education began long before I became a mother. As a former opera singer and voice coach, I understood the power of harmony—how different elements come together to create something magnificent. This appreciation for harmony would later shape my approach to education.
From the very beginning, I taught my children through curiosity rather than force. I showed them what exists and encouraged them to explore what they could do with it. Both read actual books by age 3 and started learning computer programming at age 4. Learning was never a chore—it was an adventure.
When my husband developed long-Covid and became disabled, I pivoted from my career as a performing artist to software development. This unexpected career change would prove pivotal in ways I couldn't have imagined.
For years, I spent each summer meticulously crafting personalized curricula for my children, pouring countless hours into lesson plans that would span the entire academic year. Then my husband, watching me wade through Google Docs yet again, asked a simple question: "Why not create a web application to organize all of this online?"
Evan Marie Carr is the designer and educational strategist behind Learn with Lumi. With degrees from Vanderbilt and Georgia State and postgrad study at Universität Mozarteum, Evan combines a strong artistic and academic foundation with over 20 years of experience in education, design, and technology. She leads Lumi’s user experience and curriculum design—creating engaging, inclusive, and effective learning environments for students across all grade levels. As the majority founder of DarkViolet.ai, she is passionate about building technology that empowers teachers and makes high-quality learning accessible for every student.
Dustin Carr holds a Ph.D. in Physics from Cornell University and brings over two decades of scientific innovation and engineering leadership to educational technology. With more than 25 patents across advanced sensing, data systems, and software design, Dustin now applies his expertise to help schools harness the power of AI for learning. He leads the development of Learn with Lumi’s intelligent backend systems—ensuring that every student experience is powered by rigor, personalization, and reliability. His academic background and technical vision make him a trusted architect of next-generation education tools.
That question sparked the vision for Learn with Lumi. What began as a personal solution transformed into a powerful educational platform that celebrates individual learning styles and harnesses artificial intelligence to adapt to each student's needs.
During the 2024-2025 school year, my children and I used Learn with Lumi version 1.0, and the results were remarkable. But here's what makes this even more exciting: the entire time we were using 1.0, we were simultaneously building version 2.0—and it is leaps and bounds better. Version 2.0 is now available to the public.
We now offer two learning paths: Independent Study, where students work through lessons with Lumi as their personal guide, earning skills points toward mastery; and Teacher-Guided, designed for homeschool parents and classroom teachers who want to assign specific activities while students still benefit from Lumi's support. Our growing catalog includes ACT/SAT Intensive Math Prep, ACT/SAT Intensive English Language Prep, Life Skills and Critical Thinking for Modern Adulting, Python: Beginner to AI, and much more. We're constantly developing new courses, with complete AP courses and AP Exam Prep coming next.
As we welcome students to the platform, I'm reminded of why this journey began—a mother's desire to give her children the best possible education, transformed into a mission to revolutionize learning for all children. Learn with Lumi is proof that the most meaningful innovations come not from trying to fix a broken system, but from the desire to help children thrive in their own ways.
Join us as we reimagine education—one child, one lesson, one breakthrough at a time.