Mark Cuban Foundation on Scaling Equity in AI Education

Jeff Kavanaugh:

I'm Jeff Kavanaugh, Global Head at the Infosys Knowledge Institute. And we're here at Infosys Foundation USA, Crossroads 2025, where leaders from across education, technology, and social impact are bringing together, coming together, and shaping the future of global education. I'm joined by Charlotte Dungan, Chief Learning Officer at the Mark Cuban Foundation. She leads AI bootcamps for high school students and supports a national network of top-tier, tech-tier fellows in CS education. Welcome. Thank you. Well, first of all, what got you interested in AI education?

Charlotte Dungan:

So, 2018 I was a computer science educator and I wanted the cutting edge technology for my own students. So I attended a CSTA meeting, which is Computer Science Teachers of America. And there was an initiative there called AI for K-12. And they were looking for teachers like me to be involved. And they actually trained us in AI and also then thought about what do all students need to know and how can we teach them those skills. And that started with me. And so I actually developed an AI course for high school. Did you? At that time, in 2019, before Generative AI, and started working on an initiative called AI for Teachers so that I could share my knowledge with others as well. And it just filed from there. It was to make sure all of our students are prepared. And I think that's the same mission today.

Jeff Kavanaugh:

Great. Well, you've led camps in cities like New York, Dallas area, Richardson, and Raleigh. Can you share a story that highlights some of the most interesting experiences you've had?

Charlotte Dungan:

Sure. We had a lovely camp in New York City. It's an amazing facility because it's on the 79th floor of the World Trade Center. So, students come to our programs and they're all in high school, but maybe they've never walked into an office building before. And here they are meeting…

Jeff Kavanaugh:

And I've been in that. That's a drop dead view. It's incredible.

Charlotte Dungan:

It’s amazing. It's amazing. So students are coming into a building like Infosys, meeting people who work there and imagining themselves in that workplace. And then we're giving them practical AI knowledge for their future. We're not necessarily giving them every single technical skill, but we give them a foundation and we help them imagine the possibilities because it's not just, you know, AI for AI’s sake, it's AI in business. And what does that look like? And we do an AI in healthcare track and that sort of thing. So students came to that camp and after they graduate, they participate in that, we continue to work with them in our alumni network. And so those students who were alumni, we continue to send them opportunities and we have an ambassador program where we invest in some of our alumni even further with leadership and development. And so, International Women's Day happened at the New York Stock Exchange this past spring and two of our alumni were able to come and talk about their experiences with Infosys and the Mark Cuban Foundation. And we also just heard from one of our alumni who was just accepted to Georgia Tech and going into engineering with AI. And so, you know, just to help them along on their journey is the most exciting thing.

Jeff Kavanaugh:

Well that is great and I can tell the passion and support for that. To do all these things, how has support from the Infosys Foundation USA helped it? What are plans for the future?

Charlotte Dungan:

Yeah, so I've been involved with Infosys for quite a while actually. I've taught in the Pathfinders Institute. I have. And I received a grant that helped diversify some of my curriculum by working with subject matter experts in the Hispanic community. So, not just translation, anybody could do that, but thinking about cultural context and making sure that our programming was relevant for all of the students that we want to reach. And then aside from those, like being a part of hosting boot camps and I feel like Infosys has propelled my own career and I think maybe you can measure certain things but I don't think I would be here today without Infosys so I'm truly grateful.

Jeff Kavanaugh:

How do you see AI shaping the future of education, especially for students in underrepresented communities?

Charlotte Dungan:

I think it's an exciting opportunity. So students who may not have access to a tutor, for example, can learn things independently and get feedback in ways that they might not otherwise be able to. And I also think AI for accessibility is really exciting because you can potentially you're an English language learner, you can re-level a text. So you're reading the same thing, but maybe at a different level. You can translate it into your own language and then have another understanding of that text. And we can actually look for students with autism for example. They can use accessibility tools to think about the social parts of learning that may be harder for them. So I just, I think it's a great opportunity to level the playing field for students who are engaged and ready to take that next step regardless of where they're at.

Maybe even allowed it to be done at scale because you can reach more people because there are only certain number of you that go around.

Right, I think actually there are places in the world where there's a million teachers that aren't filling positions. I do think it lowers the floor so that more people can enter. I think we have to be careful that it also raises the ceiling, that we give opportunities for students to grow faster and take advantage of their own creativity to bring good things into the world.

Jeff Kavanaugh:

Well, in addition to times or places like this, you've contributed to national conversations on computer science and AI in education. How do you use stories, data, research to make your case for being inclusive and for more computer science?

Charlotte Dungan:

Yeah, the first thing is to actually start with people's lived experience and keep it genuine. Like it's always important to continue to stay connected to schools and teachers and students and hear their perspectives directly. So to that end, I do serve on a school board right now, and it's important for me to understand the challenges also in implementing this. And that makes our answers better. So we can be data driven, but we also need to like check in with our actual constituents and make sure what we're proposing will work in the real world.

Jeff Kavanaugh:

You know that's an example of hidden in plain sight or the blinding flash of the obvious because nothing happens on a local level without that school board and yet we don't often hear that mentioned. That's so critical. Some of the priorities they have aren't the ones that you have and maybe there's some good learning, maybe some education outreach for them.

Charlotte Dungan:

I think so too, and it is often overlooked. When we were working on AI education in the state of North Carolina, we actually did a listening tour across the organizations that run school boards, and that is one way that we were able to promote a CS graduation requirement in the state.

Jeff Kavanaugh:

Oh really? Congratulations on that. Looking ahead, what are your top priorities for the coming year and maybe just looking beyond as you try to take the success you've had and scale it?

Charlotte Dungan:

Yeah, the most important thing is we continue to reach students with meaningful experiences. And so we have tended to be a very in-depth organization where we're investing in a smaller number of students. And we're thinking about how we can leverage some of those to make sure we have a wider reach. And also, we just added teacher programming and professional development. So we have a teacher boot camp rolling out this year.

Jeff Kavanaugh:

A la pathfinders.

Charlotte Dungan:

Right, and it's so exciting that we get to continue to develop teacher programming and student programming and see that happen for more and more students.

Jeff Kavanaugh:

Are you seeing the recognition from the business community and society in general for the efforts? Because you've got some great examples and stories. Are you feeling that's coming back now with recognition and awareness?

Charlotte Dungan:

That's the most exciting thing is to see students get other students excited teachers get other teachers excited and you know building teacher leaders that they can do this work in their local community because what we need is not CS teachers, we need teachers. And so one of our initiatives right now is to make sure we're talking to school counselors and to…

Jeff Kavanaugh:

Because AI’s become part of everything.

Charlotte Dungan:

Yeah, it's everywhere. It's everywhere. Yeah. And it's actually way beyond generative AI. The reason our phones work, to take pictures in the dark, is because of AI and it's embedded…

Jeff Kavanaugh:

Machine learning, computer vision, all these other types. Even sensors and integration of the data behind the scenes. That’s underappreciated.

Charlotte Dungan:

It’s so exciting. And so, I do work in data science as well because they’re not separate. Computer science isn’t separate.

Jeff Kavanaugh:

You’re locked in. Right, exactly. Well, great. Well, I know you’d love to get back to the conference. So thank you so much for your time and until next time, keep learning and keep sharing.