Before they take their place alongside Yale graduates like Eli Whitney, David Bushnell, and Samuel Morse ‒ and even before they take their first science classes on campus ‒ some of Yale’s future innovators are already at work imagining and building solutions to challenging problems of all kinds. In the Yale alumni community, regional clubs like the Yale Club of Hartford are there to help find and encourage these future Yale innovators even in their earliest days as school students!
The Connecticut Invention Convention held its 42nd annual State Finals Competition on May 28th, celebrating the hard work and achievements of student inventors at the elementary, middle, and high school levels. This year, over 400 of these inventors were invited to showcase their inventions at the finals event held at the University of Connecticut, where students were eligible for a range of awards presented by the many core supporters of CT Invention Convention, all of whom help nurture and inspire the next generation of innovators and problem solvers from Connecticut.
One of these core supporters is the Yale Club of Hartford, the Yale regional club covering Greater Hartford and all of Northern Connecticut. Since 2018, the Yale Club of Hartford has been unwavering in its support of CT Invention Convention, providing dozens of judges for the competition in connection with Yale Day of Service for both the semi-finals and finals phases of competition, and recognizing some of the convention’s truly standout students and inventions through sponsorship of aptly-named awards. This year, the Yale Club of Hartford sponsored two awards: the Samuel Morse Award and the David Bushnell Award, respectively for elementary school and middle school awardees, which are designed to award inventors whose innovation is emblematic of the genius of their Yale graduate namesakes. In addition, the Yale Club of Hartford further supports CT Invention Convention by identifying and fully funding an intern each year from the Yale College student body to provide valuable program development support to the CT Invention Convention team over the summer. This internship is funded entirely through the club’s Frank O.H. Williams Fellowship program. The Yale Club of Hartford has even helped CT Invention Convention find talented Yalies to serve in leadership roles for their organization.
Katherine McCormack ’81 MPH, Vice President of the Yale Club of Hartford, noted how meaningful the collaboration is among CT Invention Convention, the Yale Club of Hartford, and the Yale community from Connecticut, saying, “Our Yale Club and I have always been committed to promoting initiatives that benefit and encourage children, and we’re especially grateful to have this kind of impact with young people from such a broad reach of schools and communities right in Yale’s backyard. Given how powerfully STEM skills can create new possibilities and opportunities both for these students and for everyone these students will reach throughout their lives, we see our engagement with CT Invention Convention as a terrific way to help these students build, hopefully, lifelong aptitude and interest for STEM from a young age.”
Eric Fleischmann ‘83, President of the Club, added that, “Our relationship with the Invention Convention has grown over the years, and has been successful in several ways. First, it gives our members a chance to support young students interested in the sciences. Secondly, it has allowed us to support local schools. And perhaps most importantly, it has helped us plant the seed in the minds of young engineers that Yale, with its renewed commitment to the sciences, offers them opportunities that can exceed those at other excellent schools with a more engineering-centric identity. We want to get the word out that Yale is a leader in cutting-edge technology, research, and scholarship.”
The Connecticut Invention Convention (CIC) is an internationally recognized educational organization that started in 1983. Throughout the year, educators use the CIC curriculum to develop creative problem-solving and critical thinking skills through invention and entrepreneurship. This culminates in the final competition event, where students are recognized with awards and prizes for their hard work. Today, the program is open to all K-12 students across Connecticut, is rapidly growing, and serves a broad base of Connecticut’s schools and communities.
Congratulations to this year’s recognized students, and we hope to see many of you in New Haven one day!
