Student Summit 2026: Celebrating Personalized Learning in Vermont

Habitat for Aviation had the honor of joining the annual Student Summit on Personalized Learning at the UVM Davis Center, where schools and programs from across Vermont gathered to share student work rooted in interests and real-world learning. The day kicked off with a keynote from our WOMEN BUILD PLANES team. It felt powerful to stand in a room full of youth and educators who believe learning can look different: more personal, more hands-on, and more connected to purpose.

A gallery-style project share highlighted the beautiful range of what young people are drawn to when they are given room to follow their curiosity. Projects ranged from wool production to rock climbing, doula and midwifery studies, art, literature, owl banding, whole-person-sized cardboard creations, revolutionary war clothing design and construction, and more. 

We also heard from Big Picture South Burlington alum Cyrus Brooks, who shared his own path from personalized learning to building Muriel’s of Vermont, a slow fashion knitwear brand named for his grandmother. Co-founded with his mother, the company supports local farmers by creating a stronger market for Vermont fiber and has grown enough to purchase industrial knitting machines and work with farms across the state. Cyrus’s story offered a powerful reminder that when schools make room for interests, creativity, and entrepreneurship–especially starting in high school–young people can build lives and livelihoods that are deeply their own.

In the afternoon, students led workshops on all kinds of topics, and later many joined us to build aviation keychains while trying some of the same skills we use in the hangar, including wire stripping, soldering, and heat shrink. We left UVM grateful to have met so many thoughtful, creative students and reminded, once again, that when youth are trusted to lead with their interests, beautiful things happen.