The New Jersey Amistad Commission is providing 40 seats to future educators, pre-service candidates across the state, to attend the 2026 summer institute free of all charges. The institute will feature special breakout sessions for aspiring educators that will enhance participants content knowledge and performance-based proficiency in technology, interviewing skills, classroom and resource management, and effective demonstration lesson planning.
Interested parties are encouraged to visit the YouTube Channel @NJAmistad2026 for additional information and to review the 2025 NJASI promotional video.
The New Jersey Amistad Commission
(NJAC) Summer Institute
The 2026 NJAC Summer Institute will mark its nineteenth year of operation. This three day program features daily keynote speakers and break-out sessions for New Jersey educators to participate. The sessions are offered across three tracks, elementary, middle, and high school. They are designed and implemented by experienced educators after submitting a proposal to the commission.
The New Jersey Amistad Commission recognizes the gap in African American historical content instruction in teacher preparation programs across the country. Many of the programs that do, may fall short in encompassing the scope of the past and ongoing contributions in the development of this country by African Americans. It is then vital that future educators
be trained to be confident in their own knowledge
base and competencies to effectively teach this
subject matter that expands well beyond the slave trade and sanitized histories. To address the gap in New Jersey, the commission is launching a special Future Educators Track during the 2026 summer curriculum institute.
The commission strongly feels this new initiative will be highly beneficial for teacher candidates in their professional development subsequently strengthening their job pursuits. There will be breakout sessions tailored to pre-service college students centered on:
(1.) Professional Development/Effective Interview
Skills
(2.) Differentiated Instruction
(3.) Substitute Certification Processing
(4.) Demo Lesson Development
(5.) Behavioral Management.
Participation by future educators will be at no cost, and upon completion, receive 25-28 Continuing Education Units that can be applied to the full-time teacher requirement for completing 100 hours every five years.
Interested teacher candidates can sign up for the summer institute at ASI Future Educators Cohort 2026