Pathfinders Summer Institute 2022: Reaching New Heights – and New Islands
October 10, 2022
This summer, Infosys Foundation USA took a very exciting and unique approach to our annual Pathfinders Summer Institute. Spanning four months and on three islands, the Pathfinders Summer Institute 2022 took place both in-person and virtually. With a total of 647 educators, the Institute had the highest number of attendees ever! Take a look below at some highlights of the unforgettable professional development experiences offered this summer:
Pathfinders Summer Institute2022 - USVI
On June 6 – 10, the Foundation hosted the Pathfinders Summer Institute USVI, in partnership with the University of the Virgin Islands and the Georgia Institute of Technology. This professional development experience provided 70 K-12 educators from St. Thomas, St. Croix and St. John the opportunity to dive deeply into computer science and maker education curriculum from Chibitronics, BirdBrain and Micro:bit in a fun, hands-on, meaningful way. The program broadened access to digital skills while equally appreciating the unique aspects of the US Virgin Islands culture, an underrepresented community in the computer science and STEM fields.
Pathfinders Summer Institute 2022
The Foundation hosted the Pathfinders Summer Institute 2022 virtually for 577 educators, who participated in at least one of 14 CS and maker education professional development courses offered May – August 2022 in various formats through registration on the Foundation’s digital learning platform, the Pathfinders Online Institute. A special thank you to our curriculum providers who made all this possible!
According to the post-Institute survey, 99.7% of the teachers said they were satisfied and would participate in another one in the future. We asked some of the teachers to share their personal experiences with us. Below is firsthand feedback of their experience – in their own words.
Kelly Parker – Lexington, SC
Kelly is an elementary coding and STEM educator who primarily teaches 4th and 5th grade. She attended both the Tynker Coding course and the Scrappy Circuits, and Invention Literacy course from Makey Makey. One of Kelly’s biggest take-aways from the 2022 Pathfinders Summer Institute is her ability to incorporate coding into other core subjects to make the them more accessible to her students. Now a distinguished Tynker educator, Kelly has been able to pass down her excitement and passion for STEM and coding to her students who regularly send her videos and pictures from their coding projects that they have developed on their own at home.
“The fact that I took these courses during the summer and plan on taking more courses through the (Pathfinders) Institute, shows my students that lifelong learning is important… it shows them the importance of education beyond the classroom.” – Kelly Parker
Margaret MonteLeon – Staten Island, NY
Margie is an AP high school computer science teacher. She attended the CSAwesome course where she learned tough Java with physical elements including letter tiles, Mr. Potato Heads, magnets, etc. Margie is now able to bring her CSAwesome curriculum to her students and inspire them to stay engaged with coding and computer science outside of the classroom.
“I’m an experienced AP computer science teacher but I’m always actively seeking to improve my practice… I wanted to learn how to ramp my pedagogical practices and my facilitator delivered.” – Margaret MonteLeon
Infosys Foundation USA would like to extend a gracious thank you to all the educators, PD providers and Foundation team members who made the Pathfinders Summer Institute 2022 possible. Follow the Foundation on social media to stay up to date with all our initiatives and keep an eye out for next summer’s opportunities.
