After an unsuccessful search to find a hands-on, high-quality STEM summer program for his daughter, Ethan Berman – a former JP Morgan Managing Director and founder of RiskMetrics Group – founded i2 Learning.
i2 partnered with over 20 of the world’s leading STEM organizations to develop a series of project-based STEM courses in topics not traditionally found in middle school. i2 began with tuition-based summer programs and expanded to tuition free programming to serve more students.
Partnering with the Lynch Foundation
The Foundation was introduced to Ethan in 2014. We were excited about a transformative opportunity for middle schools and partnered with i2 to pilot STEM Week in 6 Boston public schools, 5 charter schools, 3 parochial schools, and two independent schools.
STEM Week converts middle-school classrooms into STEM learning labs by replacing regularly scheduled classes with STEM courses. During the week, teachers and students work in teams to solve real-world problems in a classroom where hands-on experimentation, critical thinking, and collaboration are encouraged and used as teaching techniques to engage and inspire students.
Based on the success of the pilot, the Boston Public Schools implemented Boston STEM Week across all their middle schools in October 2016. This was the first ever district-wide STEM Week in the country. In 2018, Governor Charlie Baker declared Massachusetts STEM Week across all schools. By 2019, i2 worked with 78 partner schools in 34 districts in Massachusetts. i2 now reaches 100,000 students in 48 states and 86 countries across the world.
The Lynch Foundation has continued to support i2 each year since the initial gift as they expand their curriculum through STEM Month and the full-year program, which launched in 2021.