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Intentionally designing education for a sustainable future

Our priorities for learning are changing.

Through teacher professional development and consulting services with educators, leaders and local organizations, The Umi Project redefines learning to be authentic and intentionally designed.

The future of learning.

We believe that people of all ages should be able to work and live in systems that provide authentic experiences, meaningful outcomes, and contribute to a sustainable future.

Read Our Story

Dr. Kay Sturm

Lead Consultant

Kay founded The Umi Project in 2018 as a platform to bring people and ideas together to design better, sustainable systems for education. Kay has a Doctorate of Education from the University of Southern California; with a focus on leadership and teaching and learning in the Project-Based Learning (PBL) environment. She is an adjunct faculty professor for the University of Southern California, Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) program, and works as the lead education consultant with clients partnered with The Umi Project. She is also a National Faculty member for PBL Works and facilitates PBL workshops around the country.

In 2016, she was named Charter School Teacher of the Year in the State of Hawaii while working as a middle school teacher at SEEQS public charter school (the School for Examining Essential Questions of Sustainability). She has a background in high school special education, middle school general education, and secondary leadership and instructional coaching. She is passionate about teaching content through the lens of sustainability, project-based learning and place-based education.

Services

Contact us to learn more about our service offerings, and read about past project highlights.

Consulting Services

Support for school and organization leaders in developing and implementing intentionally designed deeper-learning models and systems (project-based learning, strategic planning, community needs-assessments and more)

Professional Development

Tailored professional development courses, online and in-person, designed to support individual teachers and school groups.

Curriculum & Project Design

From developing PBL planning tools to supporting other educators in developing project ideas, we help build capacity for teaching in the project-based and deeper learning frameworks.

What our partners are saying:

“Working with Kay and the Umi Project is a joy. Kay is professional and passionate about deeper learning and education in general.” -Megan Gatlin, Coach, Anchorage STrEaM Academy

“The Umi Project allows you to bring your ideas to life. Many school leaders have innovative ideas but too many responsibilities to implement them. The Umi Project provides school leaders step-by-step guidance on bringing all innovative ideas to life.” -Ryan Mandado, CAO, DreamHouse ‘Ewa Beach

Overall, (The Umi Project) really helped clarify for me that you can have a project based mindset through the practices that you implement in your classroom. And with the right mindset you can implement practices and structures that are intentional to developing student centered learning opportunities.” -Lance Nishimura, 4th grade teacher, Project-Based Practice Course Participant