☃️ End-of-year Snowy (or Sunny☀️) Splash Updates!
Happy Thanksgiving and Native American Heritage Day, Splashers! While you nurse your food baby, read about Splash successes at chapters across the country, new faces at LU, and a web updates summary.
✅ tl;dr: LU-wide announcements
9 Splash programs were held this Fall!
We waved a teary goodbye to our former CEO, Ben Horowitz as he passed the reins to our new CEO, Zoe Lee.
Mentoring and Chapter Services are now combined into Program Services, led by Miles Calabresi (LU), with a growing team of mentors. Ellis Burgoon Miskell (LU) will transition away from her role as Mentoring Chair in the coming months.
Julia Wang (Yale) and Zoe Lee (LU) step down from the Board of Directors, and we welcome Paola Milbank (Yale) and Tiffany Hu (Yale) as two new members! Jordan Hines (Berkeley), Sofia Sepulveda Pizarro (Princeton), and Paola Milbank (Yale) are the new Chair, Vice Chair, and Secretary of the Board.
Share with us any new Splash! strategies that you might have tried, or a really nice teaching and learning moment that happened in your class or program.
Share with us your challenges, victories, and anything Splashy— email us at newsletter@learningu.org!
🌊 SplashCon 2025 will be held at Yale from January 17th - 19th!
Attend SplashCon25 to meet fellow splashers from across the country to discuss all things Splash, in the historic buildings at Yale University!
If you haven’t signed up yet but would like to join, email Miles (miles@learningu.org). We have limited ability to cover travel, but housing and food will be provided!
Get ready to learn, laugh, and Splash!
🕵️ We need YOU! 🫵 Recruitment alert!
Join LU! Tell us about your interests here, or reach out to us at info@learningu.org.
🤖 Resources and communication
Check out these classroom resources that can help you design a super engaging class! Also, here’s a self-guided lesson planning worksheet.
Check out the LU handbook and Website documentation on Github.
📢 Tell us your experiences! Spread the news!
Fill out this short survey to share your teaching experiences—a cool class you have taught or seen, your secret teaching tactic, or golden moments of learning you witnessed!
Have any news, tips, or comments to share? Email us stories to be featured on our next newsletter, or send us feedback.
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🚗 News From the Road
This Fall, 9 Splashes were made at Yale, Brandeis, Northeastern, Cornell, UC Berkeley, Johns Hopkins, Stanford, and Clark University. Here are some of the wins big and small that were reported during this Splash season:
Yale Splash hosted their first Sprout session since 2019! Sprout is a 2 week program that gives motivated students a chance to dive deeper into their favorite subjects!
Stanford Splash had a successful year of admin recruitment, with four new admin members and many more to join in the coming semesters!
Cornell Splash invited their beloved mascot Touchdown to meet some of the kids and staff for pictures!
The Cornell Splash E-Board posing next to their beloved mascot Johns Hopkins Splash had an amazing turn out this year! As a traditionally small program they had over 80 students register for this year!
Brandeis Splash got the support of local teachers to advertise Splash! in their classrooms. This was done through connections to teachers the members of the E-board had.
Congratulations and thank you to everyone for creating such meaningful impacts!
Share with us and the nationwide Splash community the victories at your program by emailing us at newsletter@learningu.org.
🛹 News from the Board
Over the past few months, LU has welcomed many new volunteers to lead initiatives in supporting Splashes, including mentoring programs, resource management, and communications. While we are sad to see familiar faces go, we are eager to introduce some new faces that you’ll see around town!
🔛 Leadership transition: CEO!
We waved a teary goodbye to our former CEO, Ben Horowitz as he passed the reins to our new CEO, Zoe Lee:
As I step down as Executive Director, I am filled with gratitude for the incredible journey Learning Unlimited has taken me on. My relationship with this organization began back in 2008, when I first attended MIT Splash as a high school student. While back then I didn't even know about LU and the community of Splash Nationwide, I quickly learned all about it when I entered undergrad at Yale and joined like minded students to start a new program there. I've always loved mentoring new programs, leading eventually to join LU as director of development and then as executive director in 2015. Over the years, I have witnessed firsthand the transformative power of student-led learning, and I’ve had the honor of working with some of the most passionate and dedicated people I’ve ever met.
I am incredibly excited to hand over the reins to our new Executive Director, Zoe Lee, whose leadership, energy, and vision will undoubtedly take the organization to new heights. Having worked closely with her via the LU Board, I know she is the right person to guide this next chapter. While it is bittersweet to leave, I do so with full confidence in their ability to lead and with great anticipation for the future of this nonprofit. Thank you all for the unwavering support and for making these past years some of the most rewarding of my life. I hope to continue to be involved as LU enters this exciting new chapter.
- Ben Horowitz
I still remember the excitement and inspiration I felt at the first SplashCon I attended in 2019 as a UCLA Splash admin, thinking that I would like to be a part of LU someday in the future. Now, after teaching and organizing at my local Splash chapter, volunteering with LU for Rainstorm during Covid, and serving on the Board, I am honored and grateful to have been entrusted with the role of CEO, a position I had admired from afar but never imagined I would hold.
During my term, I hope to foster a LU-Splash community where everyone feels welcomed, inspired, and empowered to expand Splash’s positive impact in education and beyond. Your input will be invaluable in this journey— please don’t hesitate to reach out to me (ceo@learningu.org) to share your feedback, concerns, and insights, which will always be at the heart of the work that we do at LU.
I’m excited to work alongside you to tackle challenges, explore new ideas, and celebrate our successes. Looking forward to all that we will accomplish together!
- Zoe Lee
🎉 Welcoming the New LU Board of Directors!
After two years of service, Zoe Lee (LU) and Julia Wang (Yale) have stepped down from the Board, welcoming two new members: Paola Milbank (Yale) and Tiffany Hu (Yale)!
The Board leadership has been passed, from Zoe (Chair), Julia (Vice Chair), and Vivian (Secretary) to Jordan (Chair), Sofia (Vice Chair), and Paola (Secretary). Congratulations!
Here is our latest organizational chart:
🔥 Join the LU Team!
We are always looking for new people to join the LU community. We’re seeking new team members to join our mentoring program, oversee finances and resources, craft marketing and communication strategies, recruit and manage volunteers, and contribute to web development magic!
Please send us an email at info@learningu.org or fill out this form so we can find the best role for you!
🖥️ Web Updates from the Wizards of the Web! (Will, Katherine, and Miles)
“I am not worried Harry, I am with Will, Katherine, and Miles” - Dumbledore (The greatest wizard of all time)
These are some of the updates that have been made in the past few months.
🌈 Themes have gotten even more customizable!
🧑🎓 Students and Teachers can add pronouns!
💳 Credit card payments now work with partial financial aid!
🛑 All emails will be sent with an unsubscribe link
For details and other updates, check out the GitHub page!
Thanks for reading Learning Unlimited’s Newsletter! See you again soon!