APPLICATIONS OPEN ON 9.24.24

Sarah FitzHenry is an educator working to provide equitable and engaging learning experiences for all students. After ten years as a library media specialist and technology coordinator, Sarah now serves as the Director of Education and Mission for BirdBrain Technologies. She spends her days helping the BirdBrain team to reach their goal of inspiring deep and joyful learning for every student by supporting, connecting, and empowering educators all over the world as they bring creative robotics into their classrooms. Sarah is a tech geek, maker, writer, volunteer, and host of the Flocking Amazing podcast. A Jane-of-all-trades, she can be found in Charlottesville, Virginia making mistakes, learning new things, and asking a lot of questions.

For over three decades, Rich has been providing K-12 students with authentic, meaningful, and innovative learning experiences, while inspiring other educators to do the same. Rich has lived and worked in Canada, Venezuela, Brazil, Chile, and the U.S.. He is currently the Director of Academic Innovation and Design at The Alexander Dawson School in Las Vegas, NV. and serves as the Experiential Learning co-lead at Columbia University Teachers College’s Klingenstein Summer Institute. Rich was the co-creator and co-facilitator of the Principals Training Center's "Problem, Project, and Design Based Teaching" course for international educators, was a senior administrator for Exploration Senior Summer Programs, and served as a national faculty member for PBL Works from 2015-2020. Additionally, Rich’s “Problem Bank” concept was a 2017 Infy Maker Award winner. Rich loves music in all its forms, and is passionate about all things related to Project Based Learning, maker education, and design thinking.

Tom Pupo is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Moonlighter FabLab, a 501(c)3 Non-Profit STEAM Learning Center and Community Fabrication Lab. Under his leadership over the past 9 years, Moonlighter has provided an open and accessible space for developing and testing new projects that bridge academic inquiry and economic opportunity. To date, the organization has served over 15,000 youth, provided over $250,000 in scholarships, supported over 350 members, and built over 15 large scale social impact projects. Moonlighter FabLab placemaking projects have transformed public spaces in Miami while serving as an educational model for emerging makers and innovators. These experiences provide students with real-world projects where they learn fundamental design and technical/STEM skills. Other notable STEAM educational partnerships include programs with Maker Ed, The Fab Foundation, Make Magazine, The Nation of Makers, Fairchild Garden and NASA! Alumni of Moonlighter programs have pursued careers in design, urbanism, academia, education and tech fields. Tom has served as an adjunct professor at the FIU Honors College, FIU CARTA, and at The Idea Center at MDC. Tom graduated from The Honors College at FIU and earned his Masters in Architecture.

Jie Qi is an artist, inventor, and entrepreneur. Her mission is to combine art with engineering to create experiences of wonder, and empower creators of all backgrounds to make their own expressive and personally meaningful technologies. She is co-founder and CEO of Chibitronics, a company that produces creative learning toolkits for paper circuits. As a 2017 fellow of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at the Harvard University Law school, Jie created PatentPandas.org, a resource to teach patent law through friendly panda comics, share real life inventors’ stories, and connect independent creators to free legal counsel. Jie holds a B.S. in mechanical engineering from Columbia University and an M.S. and Ph.D. in media arts and sciences from the MIT Media Lab. Her work has been exhibited at the Exploratorium Museum, Ars Electronica, and is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art.