NECSD Teacher 2020-2021 Amazon Cloud Ambassador

Mrs. Elizabeth Thomas-Cappello has been named a 2020-2021 Amazon Web Services (AWS) Educate Faculty Ambassadors. The 2020 AWS Educate Faculty Ambassadors cohort joins the 2019 cohort and contains 235 members from over 47 countries and more than 180 higher education and K12 institutions. Mrs. Thomas-Cappello is one of only two high school teachers selected for this honor in the United States.

AWS Educate Faculty Cloud Ambassadors are top-tier cloud educators who serve as ambassadors and evangelists for AWS Educate. These leaders share their knowledge and experience in teaching cloud computing with other educators at their institution, in their community, and around the world. Cloud Ambassadors are recognized in the education community, receive additional professional development, and are eligible for exclusive benefits for helping other educators provide cloud computing learning experiences for their students to prepare them for the modern workforce.  

AWS Educate Faculty Ambassadors are also recognized through special benefits, such as additional professional development and AWS Promotional Credit. The Ambassadors were selected through a process that included an application and video submission that showcased member accomplishments.

The full list of the 2020 AWS Educate Faculty Cloud Ambassadors can be found here. 

Educators are chosen to join the program who:

• Are experienced users of AWS academically or commercially
• Have experience teaching students cloud computing concepts
• Are willing to share their experience with the AWS Educate community
• Are excited about participating in an educator community focused on furthering cloud education and preparing students for the modern workforce

AWS Educate is used in more than 200 countries and territories. It connects 2,400 institutions, over 10,000 educators, and hundreds of thousands of students.

Through AWS Educate, students and educators have access to content and programs developed to skill up for cloud careers in growing fields. AWS Educate also connects companies hiring for cloud skills to qualified student job seekers with the AWS Educate Job Board.

More about Mrs. Cappello:

Mrs. Elizabeth Thomas-Cappello has taught at Newburgh Free Academy for four years. Mrs. Thomas-Cappello currently teaches the Computer Science Pathway offered through the Career and Technical Education (CTE) program at NFA and also teaches Digital Citizenship and Software Development to first and second year students enrolled in the NECSD Marist Early College High School (ECHS) program. Mrs. Thomas Cappello is also an adjunct instructor for the Computer Science Departments of Mount Saint Mary and Marist Colleges. Mrs. Thomas-Cappello has developed lessons in cloud computing which will be added to her Web Design I curriculum this year. Each year, Mrs. Thomas-Cappello coordinates her high school scholars to walk to GAMS, a local elementary school, for the Hour of Code event, where the older students teach the younger students how to code and engage in fun learning activities surrounding Computer Science. 

This spring, Mrs. Thomas-Cappello was scheduled to speak at the The 2020 New York Celebration of Women in Computing (NYCWiC), presenting her research, An Unspoken Barrier to Computer Science Instruction (2020). The conference was cancelled due to Covid-19. Last year, Mrs. Thomas-Cappello was selected to attend a prestigious National Air Force program as part of the 2020 cohort of the JROTC-CS Demonstration Project. Out of 2200 schools in the United States that offer JROTC, only 30 schools were accepted to be part of this national program. 

ATTENTION: Are your scholars or colleagues doing something great? Please contact the district Communications Team at communications@necsd.net. We’d love to visit your class or event and/or post your pictures and recap to highlight the amazing accomplishments throughout our district!