Celebrating 20 Years at the 2025 Annual Conference
On November 7-8, fifty-five K-12 public school teachers serving as Yale National Fellows attended our Annual Conference at Yale University. Also in attendance were five students who presented their work, eight school officials from across the country, and more than a dozen faculty from Yale and other universities. The Annual Conference celebrated the achievements of the Yale National Fellows as it marked the end of the 2025 program cycle.
The program began on Friday morning in the Lecture Hall at Sterling Memorial Library with a panel of teachers presenting on the curriculum unit they created as Yale National Fellows. Presenters included: Alyssa Lucadamo of Delaware; Jiang Wu of San Jose, CA; Tara McKee of Tulsa, OK; Courtney White of the District of Columbia; and Amanda McMahon of Richmond, VA.
The highlight of the Annual Conference is always the student panel. Moderated by Valerie Schwarz of Richmond, VA, the panel featured five students from across the country presenting on what they learned from curriculum units developed by National Fellows. The students included: Pepper Young, a sixth-grade student on the Navajo Nation; Sema'j Scott, a tenth-grade student from Hearne High School in Hearne, TX; Lauren Jackson, a tenth-grade student from Richmond, VA; Amra Tesfaye, an eleventh-grade student from the District of Columbia; and Ameen Fleming, a twelfth-grade student from Philadelphia, PA.
Watch students present at Yale
On Friday afternoon, the Fellows and school officials participated in break-out sessions. Then Fellows met for national seminar reunions, and school officials attended a caucus meeting for an open discussion of the ways that the Yale National Initiative and local Teachers Institutes support and help retain teachers. Friday concluded with a reception and dinner in the Presidents' Room at the Schwarzman Center, which featured an inspiring and rousing performance by Shades of Yale.
On Saturday morning, the conference resumed with a plenary session featuring presentations by Yale faculty of the national seminars they plan to lead in 2026. The presenters included: Rod Ferguson, Paul Turner, Mary Lui, Feisal Mohamed, and Gary Brudvig.
Watch Yale faculty present 2026 seminars
After a session of team meetings, the conference concluded with lunch and remarks from school officials moderated by Dorrell Green, Superintendent of Red Clay Consolidated School District in Delaware.
Watch school officials remarks at Yale
The Yale National Initiative would like to thank all the presenters and attendees who helped make the Annual Conference a memorable celebration of our National Fellows and a fitting conclusion to our 2025 program.