On November 2, Mr. Wybrant’s Work Based Learning students were invited to present to a global audience during a live stream of a conference run by the company that makes the game design software they use in class. The class caught international attention because of the work they did last year for the Space Foundation, but over half of the team is new this year and has already helped make an app for a different partner organization. Yesterday, they participated in a panel conversation for about 30 minutes, and they talked about why education matters, how they want to change the world, and what empowerment looks like.

Each student was articulate, prepared, and shone on camera. The conference was expecting between 5,000 and 12,000 unique global attendees across the day; even with that potential number of viewers the kids were cool and collected, and that is a testament to the kind of preparation their teachers have done with them. 

If you see any of the following kids, please give them a pat on the back, because as one of the conference reps said at the end of our session, “They crushed it!”: Jackson Bonser, Shawn Brode, Keyshawn Burgess, Timothy Burns, Sasha Foelix, Emmalyn Goltz, Ashton Leonardo, Samantha Manuszak , Gray Prince, Yatziry Vargas Jurado

Also pictured is Diedre LaCour, who recently graduated from UCCS with a degree in cyber security, and she has decided to cofound a startup that is giving students at Palmer (and then beyond) internships for doing immersive technology programming. She is in the picture because she helped moderate the session and is helping give the students listed above their internship opportunities this year. She is an example of former Palmer students who are making a difference in the world.