The CSIU's Professional Leadership Day (PLD) was held at Bucknell University on Aug. 1, 2023. Executive Director John Kurelja introduced a highlight video of the day's events, which included professional development and staff awards in the morning and employee milestone celebrations and a picnic in the afternoon. 

Assistant Executive Director/Chief Academic Officer Alan Hack and Chief Innovation Officer Jared Lehman introduced this year’s PLD award winners to the board.

Ambassador of the Year Award:
Shirley Bastian, special education executive assistant

Passion for Excellence Award: 
Brian Paulhamus, information security officer

Innovation Award:
Nicola Manning-Davenport, education data support services manager

Kudos Award:
Eric Shearer, telecommunications technology network coordinator

Summer Camps


The Center for Schools and Communities held three summer camps for Pennsylvanian students. Nearly 100 Migrant Education high school and middle school youth attended residential camps at Keystone College. The middle school sessions included time management, service learning, spoken word, poetry, social and emotional learning skills and entrepreneurship. The high school sessions included team building, mindfulness, writing skills, public speaking and broadcasting, Lego Robotics, chemistry and service learning.

The Build Your Best School Year 2023 Virtual Summer Camp was held for 50 middle school students experiencing homelessness. Each student received a camp kit that included an Amazon Fire 7 Kindle, a bookbag, school supplies, a journal, a sketchbook, a coloring book and other camp activity supplies needed for the weeklong experience. Students had the opportunity to go on virtual field trips, work on clay and painting projects, learn about career opportunities, engage in math and science games and learn health and wellness skills such as the importance of exercise and some yoga techniques.

Headstart: Daddy and Me

Group socializations are part of the Head Start performance standards for home-based programs. Families are provided with 22 opportunities throughout the year for events. The Early Head Start team chooses different themes that are developmentally appropriate, for each socialization. The “Daddy and Me” event was held on June 19, 2023, for all Early Head Start Families. Six families (8 enrolled children/16 siblings and their parents) chose to participate. The initiative aimed to engage more father/father figures in their children’s lives. The team planned art, literature, music and movement, sensory, and outdoor activities for the Daddy and Me Event. These activities were engaging and enjoyable for the children and their father figures.

AI Regional Task Force
 

Bernadette Boerckel, chief outreach officer and Jared Lehman, chief innovation officer, held the first of four meetings with a regional artificial intelligence (AI) taskforce on Monday, Sept. 11, 2023. 

The group included teachers, administrators, administrative assistants, technology directors and specialists, and public relations professionals. 

To serve on the taskforce, members were asked to:

• Complete modules 1-5 of a free course by The Neuron on AI fundamentals.
• Attend four monthly, one-hour meetings, scheduled in September, October, November, and December.
• Participate in a sub-committee aligned with your expertise and interest.
• Engage in exploration and collaborative work between meetings.

The AI Taskforce was divided into three key groups, each focusing on specific areas crucial to our region's advancement:

1. Productivity: Enhancing workforce productivity through AI integration.
2. Education: Exploring AI's role in classroom educational experiences.
3. Security/Ethics: Addressing AI's security and ethical implications.

Our collective effort aims to create a regional introductory resource comprising:

• Annotated resources showcasing AI applications for productivity, education, and addressing security/ethics concerns.
• Best practices and considerations for each of the three sub-committee areas.
• Recommendations for the next steps in our region's AI journey.

This summary was created with the help of ChatGPT.