Spotlight On Growth: National Inventors Hall of Fame

In our “Spotlight On” interview series, we sit down with nonprofit leaders from across the education sector to dive deeper into how their organizations have unlocked innovation, built evidence, and achieved growth.

Our latest Spotlight On Growth features Emma Banay, Manager of the Inspired Minds portfolio, in conversation with Hannah Paulin, Chief Strategic Officer at the National Inventors Hall of Fame, a nonprofit dedicated to recognizing inventors, promoting creativity, and advancing the spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship.

“The need for hands-on STEM learning opportunities has always outpaced available funding. But we’ve seen that there has been a consistent national prioritization of hands-on STEM learning,” said Hannah. “Post-pandemic . . . the opportunity gap has widened even more, so the need to provide students with engaging, fun, in-school and out-of-school time STEM programs is greater than ever.”

Since 1973, the National Inventors Hall of Fame has worked in partnership with the United States Patent and Trademark Office to inspire young creators and entrepreneurs through its education programming and honor the history of innovation through Hall of Fame Inductees and a free museum in Washington, DC. Its signature program, Camp Invention, is a weeklong summer camp for students in kindergarten through sixth grade designed to spark creativity, build confidence, and ignite a love for learning.

In 2020, as schools nationwide transitioned to virtual learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, the National Inventors Hall of Fame team quickly pivoted Camp Invention to meet the changing needs of students and families.

“We had about six weeks to completely re-engineer what the model was going to be,” explained Hannah. “That included rewriting all of the curriculum, changing from classroom sets to individual materials that we could ship to one child’s home that could be freestanding for kids that didn’t have access to virtual programs. And then, also training teachers because Zoom is so natural to us now, but at that point, most teachers and staff didn’t have any idea how to use these platforms. So, we were learning alongside them to try to support what was happening.”

In the years following, the National Inventors Hall of Fame capitalized on this rapid innovation and the influx of federal stimulus dollars to expand its reach, growing from serving approximately 178,000 children in 2019, to 365,000 children in 2024. “Thanks to the ESSER funding, districts spent a lot of money investing in our programs, which allowed us to really rapidly expand the number of children that we could impact.”

Findings from a study conducted with researchers from Georgia Institute of Technology revealed an increase in science and math interest; an increase in problem-solving and inventing skills; and a lowering of science and math anxiety after just four days of Camp Invention programming for students who reported at least some room for improvement at the program’s start.

Watch the full interview to learn more about how the National Inventors Hall of Fame navigated its explosive growth in recent years, how it balances joy and rigor in educational programming, and how the organization is continuing to inspire the next generation of creators and entrepreneurs.