Happy spring to the MEITE community! We have been enjoying our time together and are beginning to close out the semester. Our courses remain online during this time, and we are looking forward to a time where we will be in-person again. That hasn’t slowed our students, though! They are taking a wide swath of courses from across Carolina’s campus!
Throughout this semester, we have continued our partnership with the members of the Innovate Ecosystem, including Innovate Carolina, Launch Chapel Hill, Honors Carolina, Gillings School of Public Health, UNC Library, the Eship Center, UNC Social Innovation Department, and more. This semester, they have hosted virtual events centered around social impact, creating spaces for Black student entrepreneurs, well-being sessions, and panels of professionals in the industry. They have also hosted pitch days and other opportunities for UNC-Chapel Hill entrepreneurs to receive funding, mentorship, and viable resources. Our students have had success, with some earning funding through the Innovate Ecosystem.
In the program, but outside of the classroom, our students continue to do well in their internship placement. This semester, our students continued to intern at companies and organizations, including Research Triangle Institute, MetaMetrics, Research Triangle Literacy Council, Emotionary, North Carolina Association of Public Charter Schools, Code the Dream, Teach for America – Charlotte-Piedmont, UNC Wilmington, Centervention, Young Founders Institute, Center for Racial Equity in Education, and NC IDEA. The MEITE team is looking forward to securing internships for the 2021-22 academic school year for our incoming students. In fact, we are happy to report that our recruitment season has been a success! We reached record-breaking numbers for our program in open applications and the number of students accepted for next year!
Lastly, we are proud to report that our current Khayrallah Fellows — Savannah Windham, Marvin Espinoza, Erika Murray, and Devon Young — have developed and launched Ed Tech Connect NC, a digital resource tool to support teachers as they implement technology standards in their classroom. When complete, this resource will feature curricular resources, classroom tools, and best practices for integrating technology standards into classroom instruction.