Krystal Chatman: Inspiring the Next Generation of Innovators as the Portia Powell STEM Teacher Award Recipient

Krystal Chatman, a dedicated advocate for STEAM education, reflects on her journey as the recipient of the Portia Powell STEM Teacher Award. As an educator within the Jackson Public School District, Krystal was driven by a passion to deepen her students' understanding of coding, robotics, and physical computing. This award not only enabled her to enhance her classroom but also connected her to a legacy of impact through Portia Powell, whose influence is still felt across generations.

"I didn't know if I met the criteria for the Portia Powell STEM Teacher Award. I knew a little bit about Miss Powell, because my husband was one of her former students. Listening to him talk about the impact that she made on him and how he could still remember experiences, lessons and key vocabulary from her science classes made me think a little bit deeper about the type of impact I was having on my students.

And so, with a little bit of encouragement from him and others, I did apply and later even learned that I had been nominated by one of the parents of my students. Receiving the scholarship was and is still one of the greatest rewards of my career. 

I taught computer science within Jackson Public School District. My students and I had a conversation about understanding how coding works specifically with robots and exploring physical computing…really trying to understand how things go from the computer to actually functioning in the real world as a physical object. Because of the award, I was able to buy a couple of robotics kits and a sphero, which is a ball that can program to move around. We were able to explore another side of computer science that we hadn't been able to before. It was so much fun. That probably wouldn't have been possible without this specific award. 

Earlier in my career, I had no intentions of becoming an educator. I wanted to be a physician. Even though I’m no longer in the classroom, I serve as a professional learning manager for the Computer Science Teachers Association, my commitment to STEAM education hasn’t changed. My focus is to help build and sustain communities within computer science spaces, but my general philosophy on education is that we should aim to give the students whatever it is that they need to be successful in whatever learning that they're trying to do.

So even now, years later, I’m proud to have this connection with someone that I’ve never met as a recipient of the Portia Powell STEM Award."