{"id":61298,"date":"2026-06-03T21:51:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T21:51:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/61298\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T21:51:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T21:51:09","slug":"colin-kaepernick-sparks-philly-students-creative-storytelling-with-ai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/61298\/","title":{"rendered":"Colin Kaepernick sparks Philly students\u2019 creative storytelling with AI"},"content":{"rendered":"

Love Philly? So do we. Let\u2019s be friends. Sign up for the Billy Penn newsletter today<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick joined students, teachers and officials from the School District of Philadelphia Wednesday morning to celebrate creative storytellers who were assisted by his artificial intelligence platform, Lumi.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cEvery time I\u2019m in Philly, the energy that y\u2019all bring, the spirit, y\u2019all inspire me.\u00a0 I love being here,\u201d Kaepernick told students from Louis H. Farrell School, Richard R. Wright School and Clemente Roberto Middle School.<\/p>\n

\"\"Former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick poses with students from Louis H. Farrell School, Richard R. Wright School and Clemente Roberto Middle School at the School District of Philadelphia headquarters. (Nick Kariuki\/Billy Penn)<\/p>\n

During the storytelling showcase, select students from the three schools presented the visual projects they developed with the help of the AI, adding their creative touches to stories about baseball player Jackie Robinson, Peter Pan, Typhoid Mary, the COVID-19 pandemic and the women\u2019s suffrage movement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kaepernick highlighted how Lumi\u2019s goal is to build agency in the students who use it and instill ownership and pride in their work.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t want them to just be consumers of content. We want them to be creators. We want them to be builders.\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"\"Richard R. Wright School third grader Karter Ray describes his story project and how the Lumi story app helped him create it. (Nick Kariuki\/Billy Penn)<\/p>\n

Kaepernick spent six seasons in the NFL as a quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers. Along with helping the team to Super Bowl XLVII, he shot to national prominence in 2016 after kneeling during the playing of the national anthem, in protest of police brutality and racial inequality.<\/p>\n

Chief Deputy Mayor Vanessa Garrett Harley praised Kaepernick for his activism and his continued philanthropy and work in his career after professional football.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you for demonstrating the importance of courage, conviction, and using your voice for something larger than yourself,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd then more importantly, rather than simply sharing your story, you\u2019ve chosen to help other young people learn how to tell and share theirs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kaepernick, the founder and CEO of Lumi, revealed the AI to Philly students and educators back in March,<\/a> during National Reading Month. The school district\u2019s partnership with Lumi is part of its Accelerate Philly five-year strategic plan<\/a>. Garrett Harley said it was also a part of Mayor Cherelle Parker\u2019s Extended Day\/Extended Year initiative<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re making some significant progress and we\u2019ve got an awful long way to go, but we\u2019re going to get there together and we\u2019re going to continue to get there with partners who help us to instill a love of reading,\u201d School District Superintendent Tony Watlington said.<\/p>\n

\"\"Former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick (center) poses with Associate Superintendent Brenda Elliott (from left), Philadelphia\u2019s Chief Education Officer Debora Carrera, Chief Deputy Mayor Vanessa Garrett Harley and School District of Philadelphia Superintendent Tony Watlington. (Nick Kariuki\/Billy Penn)<\/p>\n

For Kaepernick, the project also offers students an opportunity to prepare for a future where artificial intelligence is more prevalent in their lives, and the potential pitfalls<\/a> that may come with that.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we think about the future that we\u2019re preparing them for, having the AI-ready skills is part of that. And not offloading cognitive ability, but using AI is something that can help push them further, help develop their creativity and voice further, and be a supporting partner in that process,\u201d Kaepernick said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Love Philly? So do we. Let\u2019s be friends. Sign up for the Billy Penn newsletter today. Former NFL…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61299,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[24,25,111,76,155,2485,35139,900],"class_list":["post-61298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ai","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificial-intelligence-ai","tag-education","tag-featured","tag-nfl","tag-school-district-of-philadelphia","tag-sport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61298\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}