December 22, 2020
Wesleyan students Michayla Robertson-Pine ’22 (top left) and Elizabeth “Liz” Woolford ’21 (top right) are among five college students from four institutions who are spearheading Tin Can Learners, an after-school and winter-break program for school-aged children. Also pictured are Tin Can participants Nico and Dominic.
When hometown friends Michayla Robertson-Pine and Tessa Levenstein found themselves frustrated with online learning at the college level, they suspected school-aged children were also suffering in the world of online education, and that young people were actively looking for fun creative ways to engage with each other socially.
That’s when Wesleyan junior Robertson-Pine ’22 and Amherst College junior Tessa Levenstein ’22 decided to create a remote, project-based, community-oriented program with the intent of spreading joyful learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. Named Tin Can Learners, the program aims to take the load off of parents