We welcomed 7 institutional teams to the beautiful campus of St. Mary’s College of Maryland for our first Summer Institute. The teams learned about and incorporated backward curriculum and sense of belonging principles into the development of new inquiry laboratory learning experiences. A key aspect of the CLC Innovators program is the intentional community building between chemistry instructors, students, bench researchers, and education researchers from different educational environments (community colleges, primarily undergraduate institutions, and research-intensive institutions). Border crossing is critical for community transformation and progress! ✨ For more information about the CLC Innovators see the website of our program.