Sharing Knowledge and Celebrating Milestones at Our 2024 Annual Conference

Team members from Challenger Learning Centers across the country traveled to Colorado Springs for our 2024 annual conference. There, we shared best practices, celebrated major milestones, solved challenges, and looked ahead to the 2024-2025 school year.

Hosted in partnership with our team at Challenger Learning Center of Colorado, the three-day event included presentations and panel discussions from Centers and our Headquarters team. We shared updates about our product development and technology roadmap. Centers discussed how they each adapt programs for students with special needs and tailor each Mission to support the learners who are visiting on that day. Our education team and Center Flight Directors discussed our Missions – Operation Comet, Expedition Mars, Lunar Quest, and Earth Odyssey –and what is next for each of these experiences. We also celebrated the inaugural flight of Earth Odyssey. Our Flight Directors got to experience the Misson for the first time alongside former NASA astronaut and Challenger Center Board Member Dorothy “Dottie” Metcalf-Lindenburger!

The best conversations of the week happened between the Centers. This is the one time a year they are all in the same place and can discuss how they overcome obstacles in their communities, how they are raising their local profiles through fundraising and marketing, and what they are doing to ensure their future sustainability. The knowledge sharing is endless, and the energy and enthusiasm are contagious.

Special Guests

Several guest speakers shared their knowledge and expertise at this year’s event. Laura Maginnis, Vice President of New Glenn Mission Management at Blue Origin gave our educators updates about Blue Origin’s current and future initiatives, discussed the impact of the organization’s nonprofit, Club for the Future, and shared her own story of preparing her son’s class to fly a Mission at the Challenger Learning Center of Colorado.

Mel Narish, Learning Designer at Infiniscope (a NASA SciAct partner), presented to the group about the capabilities of Tour It, a virtual touring digital platform. The NASA-funded project is transforming STEM education and empowering educators through the creation of high-quality adaptive digital learning experiences, educator professional development, and creative tools for designing digital content.

Spotlights and Recognitions

We hosted our annual awards dinner on the second night of the conference and recognized Centers for major anniversary milestones. This year, those milestones included Centers celebrating anniversaries from 10 to 35 years! Additionally, we celebrated three Flight Directors who reached their own personal milestones by having flown 1,000 Missions. These Flight Directors include Mellisa Duncan, Challenger Learning Center of Paducah; William Figueroa, Challenger Learning Center of Tallahassee; and Lori Javier, Challenger Learning Center of Hawaii.

Dottie Metcalf-Lindenburger was the evening’s keynote speaker, and she shared words of inspiration and encouragement about the importance of Challenger Center’s mission and the work taking place at Challenger Learning Centers every day.

An American Flag

The Award dinner concluded with an emotional presentation from the Boy Scouts of America, Monument, Colorado.  On January 28, 1986, an American flag that had been ordered through the Troop’s congressional representative was carried aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger on its last flight. It was sealed in plastic and was next to other souvenir items flown by the astronauts. Miraculously, following the tragedy, the rescuers found the flag, still in its sealed plastic bag, intact and completely unscathed. Later that year, the Challenger flag was returned to Boy Scout Troop 514. Since then, the troop has maintained possession of it and displays it for certain public events and ceremonies.

On this special evening, the Troop formally presented the flag to June Scobee Rodgers and the Challenger Learning Center of Colorado. The flag will soon be displayed at the Colorado Springs Center so the story of this incredible flag can continue to be told for years to come.