CSIU Program Highlight: 2024 Professional Leadership Day (PLD) was held on Aug. 6, 2024 on the campus of Susquehanna University. 

Designed to provide an opportunity for reflection, celebration, and personal and professional enrichment for all CSIU staff, the 2024 PLD theme was Mission Possible Advancing Innovations. The CSIU continuously lives its value of Innovation for Growth by advancing innovations in education, technology, and business settings. The PLD highlight video shows a sampling of the day's celebrations, speakers, and fellowship.

Watch the 2024 PLD highlight video.

   Summer Camps  
Photo Caption: 2024 Girls STEM Camp participants showing off the electric skateboards they built during camp.

The CSIU held several camps throughout the region this summer.  

Girls STEM Camp, held in June, was another huge success! This year, Tanya Dynda (camp leader) partnered with Lectec, a company founded by local Southern Columbia graduate Jared Ebersole, to provide the week’s opening activity with the girls building their electric skateboards. The skateboards were incorporated into the subsequent days of camp where appropriate. Each girl walked away at the end of the week with their built skateboard and proper safety gear (i.e., helmet & wrist guards). Visits to Penns Cave, the Selinsgrove airport, and the Montour Preserve were offered to learn about all aspects of STEM applications and careers. The camp culminated with a slide show presentation of the girls’ learning for the week!

Migrant Education camps held in Hazleton, Scranton, and Harrisburg wrapped up in July. They provided vital academic support and enrichment for children of migrant workers. The two- to four-week camps served 200 students, offering mathematics, science, language arts, and STEM programs to prepare students for the upcoming school year. Cultural activities and field trips enriched the experience and contributed to improved student performance in key subjects. 

“Build Your Best School Year,” the first in-person statewide camp for students experiencing homelessness, was held by Youth Development (YD) at Susquehanna University in July.

Thirty-two middle-school-aged students were welcomed to a summer camp experience aimed at helping them prepare for the upcoming school year and providing academic enrichment, recreation and other activities to increase their interest in and exposure to college.

Photo Caption: 2024 Migrant Education Summer Camp participants.

Students interacted with Susquehanna University staff and faculty in activities including a student-led campus tour, creating vision boards and engaging in science projects, like exploring DNA and making clouds.

Academic sessions like money management and slime-making were also featured.

A first overnight camp experience for many, attendees received all the essentials to participate. Each camper received a pillow, sleeping bag, blanket and hygiene kit for their overnight stay, a backpack filled with school supplies, a water bottle, a 10” tablet, and a copy of The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind.

Campers also enjoyed dance parties, karaoke, game nights, arts and crafts, and movies.

   AI Leadership Team  

It’s no coincidence that the “Advancing Innovations” tagline of the 2024-25 PLD logo is abbreviated “AI.” 

AI at CSIU began in Sept. 2023 when the AI task force was formed to create CSIU’s Introductory Toolbox, followed by a team attending the Modern Teacher Conference in Hershey, where they learned more about AI in education and met PLD keynote speaker Greg Kulewiec.  

Inspiration from the conference led to contracting with three tech-savvy teachers from the Berwick Area, Selinsgrove Area, and Warrior Run school districts, who, along with several CSIU specialists, created and delivered four AI webinars that drew over 100 area teachers. The climax of this instruction was an in-person training day at CSIU in June. More than 40 educators and administrators attended to learn, question, and interact with AI tools and policies. 

The next question is, “How should CSIU use AI to improve its internal productivity and the experiences and outcomes of students, clients, and services?”

To answer the question, more than 20 employees representing multiple departments and roles have been invited to put AI to the test with their colleagues by researching, experimenting, and learning about the intersection of artificial intelligence with their specific work at CSIU. The group will meet monthly to share information and request resources as needed.

   WBRE Hunger-Free Summer  
As a sponsor of WBRE’s Children First Campaign, the CSIU partnered to ensure that regional families had food over the summer. 

WBRE reported, “We know that when cafeterias close for the summer, kids lose access

to meals they depend on, and parents are left struggling to provide. We can’t let kids go up to 90 days without reliable food. A lack of reliable nutrition during the summer months significantly affects children. Kids who struggle with hunger are more likely to experience “summer slide,” forgetting what they learned and starting the next school year months behind their more affluent peers.”

The campaign exceeded its goal by collecting more than 20,000 pounds of food! WBRE’s PA Live report, with CSIU’s Bernadette Boerckel joining the WBRE crew at Weis Markets in Muncy, can be seen HERE.