Conference Report: The New Awardee Program of the ITYC Summit
Executive Summary
The groundbreaking New Awardee Program, built on the inaugural 2025 ITYC Summit, engaged ITYC awardees whose awards (including the SEA-PHAGES awards) were made in 2025 after the ITYC Summit registration closed. The program provided an opportunity for these new awardees to learn about the range of ITYC projects, explore leadership and grant management strategies, examine evidence-based practices for strengthening STEM education in 2YCs, consider effective ways to communicate about their projects, and build connections across the ITYC community.
The New Awardee Program, which took place virtually between February 27 and May 8, 2026, brought together 46 participants representing 20 funded projects. It consisted of six 2.5-hour workshop days followed by an optional 30-minute open discussion and Q&A. Each workshop day included two related sessions and addressed topics of interest to participants, which included ITYC project leaders, collaborators, and staff.
- Day 1 - Getting to know you: Introductions & learning about your ITYC projects
- Day 2 - Grant management
- Day 3 - Leadership and partnerships
- Day 4 - Supporting student success: Strategies, outcomes, & evidence of success
- Day 5 - Leveraging project evaluation
- Day 6 - Communicating project outcomes and next steps
The interactive workshop sessions included the following activities:
- Micro-poster sessions: Participants discussed their projects, using their posters.
- Panels: Experienced 2YC faculty, administrators, and evaluators spoke and answered questions about the following topics: grant management, project evaluation, and generating partnerships for project work.
- Interactive presentations: Leadership and leveraging evaluative thinking
- Small-group breakouts: Participants spent part of each workshop day in small groups discussing their experiences with the topic.
The success of the New Awardee Program was demonstrated by participant responses to evaluation surveys (daily roadchecks and an end-of-workshop (EOW) evaluation) as well as through a one-page written reflection submitted after the full workshop series. The evaluation results show that each workshop day was rated highly, that participants felt strongly that the goals of the workshop were met, and that the workshop sessions were well facilitated. Responses to the written reflections provided insights about what participants got from the program, what they contributed to the program, and advice they would give to future cohorts of ITYC awardees; these responses were synthesized. The synthesis suggests that participant confidence regarding their project and their role increased as a result of the New Awardee program. Participants developed connections with others in the workshop and considered themselves part of a community of 2YC educators. By sharing practical knowledge, lessons learned, a variety of perspectives, and encouragement, participants helped build a community where new ITYC awardees could draw on the collective experience of their peers. The report includes a section highlighting what worked well and what could be strengthened. Participants expressed a desire for continued engagement through an ongoing ITYC community. The program created a supportive community in which participants shared strategies, learned from one another, and gained confidence in their roles as grant recipients and 2YC STEM educators.