Winners Announced for Internet2 Community Anchor Program's 2022 Distance Learning Scholarship

WASHINGTON, Feb. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Internet2 today announced the winners of the 2022 Community Anchor Program (CAP) Distance Learning Scholarship to provide free, interactive distance learning experiences for K-12 classes through the Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration (CILC). A total of 31 K-12 teachers across Connecticut, Illinois, New York, and North Carolina are being awarded CILC scholarships, which will directly benefit more than 1,200 students.

"We are thrilled for the opportunity to help teachers bring unique, interactive learning opportunities to their classrooms – and we are so thankful for their brave, selfless service, especially during the past two years," said Stephanie Stenberg, Internet2 Community Anchor Program director. "This program also highlights the importance of nonprofit state and regional research and education networks, which do so much more than provide schools with lightning-fast internet connections. Their mission-driven service means that connected schools get hands-on network help and a community of interest to share resources with other connected schools, libraries, museums, and institutions."

The scholarship program was open to K-12 teachers from schools that connect to Internet2's national network through their state or regional research and education network, which includes about 50% of all U.S. public schools. Teachers could choose from any of the over 1,900 professionally delivered programs offered through CILC, which connect students to unique subject matter, artifacts, and experiences.

Live, Interactive Learning Experiences

Cathy Shide is a teacher at St. George Elementary in Illinois, which is a member of the Illinois Century Network. For Shide, CILC's Mathimals program with the Saint Louis Zoo is the perfect opportunity to supplement what her sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-grade math students are learning – from the number system, to ratios and proportionality, to equations and expressions. The program offers videos, live animals, and hands-on activities that demonstrate the importance of math in the zoo world. "I can envision using elephants' weights to compute about how much hay an elephant would need," Shide said. "We could extend that to water and other foods and nutrients."

Lorrayne Bolger is a fifth-grade teacher at Roxbury Central School in New York, which is a member of NYSERNet. Bolger selected the Stewards of the Sea program to allow students to explore how essential a clean watershed is to the functioning of our planet, discover pollution sources and environmental effects, and hear stories of marine mammals that have been entangled in trash and rehabilitated. "We live in the NYC watershed, and it is important for our students to understand how our environmental decisions can impact others," Bolger said. "They hear adults talking about watershed regulations, but they don't truly understand what a watershed is or how it is our job to help keep it clean."

Michelle Bibeault is the media technology integrationist at Eastford Elementary School in Connecticut, which is a member of the Connecticut Education Network. For Bibeault, the Digital Citizenship: Handle Technology With Care program will offer the school's kindergarten and first-grade students a jumpstart on how to use technology safely and responsibly – ultimately leading them to become good digital citizens. "Many of our young learners may have a difficult time understanding the meaning of digital citizenship, depending on their exposure to different technology media," Bibeault said. "This program will explore the meaning in a fun, interactive mode which will keep our students engaged and interested."

Distance Learning Scholarship Winners

The 31 scholarship recipients connect to the Internet2 network via one of the following four state research and education networks: Connecticut Education Network, Illinois Century Network, NYSERNet in New York, and MCNC in North Carolina.

Scholarship winners are listed below, along with the state or regional research and education network that connects their school to the Internet2 network.

About the Internet2 Community Anchor Program

The Internet2 Community Anchor Program (CAP) is a community-driven program focused on expanding access to advanced broadband services and putting them to work to increase educational opportunities for everyone. CAP projects and resources include the Presidential Primary Sources Project, K-12 curriculum resources, and library broadband resources. For more information, visit the CAP webpage or follow @Internet2CAP on Twitter.

About Internet2

Internet2® is a non-profit, member-driven advanced technology community founded by the nation's leading higher education institutions in 1996. Internet2 serves 323 U.S. universities, 59 government agencies, 46 regional and state education networks and through them supports more than 80,000 community anchor institutions, over 1,000 InCommon participants, and 54 leading corporations working with our community, and 70 national research and education network operators that represent more than 100 countries.

Internet2 delivers a diverse portfolio of technology solutions that leverages, integrates, and amplifies the strengths of its members and helps support their educational, research, and community service missions. Internet2's core infrastructure components include the nation's largest and fastest research and education network that was built to deliver advanced, customized services that are accessed and secured by the community-developed trust and identity framework.

Internet2 offices are located in Ann Arbor, Mich.; Denver, Colo.; Washington, D.C.; and West Hartford, Conn. For more information, visit https://internet2.edu or follow @Internet2 on Twitter.

SOURCE Internet2