Building Digital Skills Through a Culture of Giving Back
The Digital Skills program encompasses a series of initiatives designed to provide equitable access to opportunities created by emerging technologies, because developing digital skills is a common theme in our intervention, regardless of the age of the participants we work with.
The children and youth enrolled in our programs come from underprivileged families with limited access to the internet and functional devices that would allow them to develop complex skills. At the same time, they are part of the digital-native generations, for whom the future will be shaped by technology and rapid innovations across all aspects of life and social contexts.
Our intervention is designed to allow children and young people to harness their potential and become active participants in the digital world around them.
As we close the 2025–2026 school year, we’re taking a moment to thank the incredible volunteers who made AI Generation and Path to Code come to life. Because every lesson happens only because of a person who chose to teach it. This year, that person was always a UiPather who set aside time from a demanding job to stand in front of a classroom.
40 volunteers signed up for this whirlwind of a learning journey, teaching weekly lessons for the high schoolers in the Own Your Path program. Their reasons varied, but a common thread ran through all of them: when giving back is part of a company’s culture, volunteering becomes something steadier and more collective than a solo act of goodwill.
This is the story of the people who made AI Generation and Path to Code come to life, and what it means to teach through a community that believes in showing up.
One thing I’ve always admired about the UiPath community is its willingness to give back. Volunteering is deeply rooted into our culture, and through the work of UiPath Foundation, many UiPathers have the opportunity to share their expertise with the next generation. In projects like AI Generation or Path to Code, volunteers do more than teach digital and AI skills. They help young people discover new possibilities for themselves. A conversation, a lesson, or a piece of encouragement from someone working in technology can change how a student sees their future. That is what makes technical volunteering so powerful: its impact extends far beyond the classroom and can shape aspirations for years to come.
Their Effort in Numbers
Hours spent teaching kids in the AI Generation Level 1 & 2 Courses
Hours spent teaching kids in the Path to Code Level 1 Course
Volunteers taught Digital Skills courses to over 300 high schoolers
2025 Annual Report
About the Courses
In a world where Artificial Intelligence is rapidly transforming our lives, 28 trainers and 2 instructional designer stepped up to equip underprivileged students with the knowledge and skills they need to thrive in an AI-fueled world.
These passionate professionals, coming from technical and non-technical backgrounds, poured 2,628 hours of volunteering into teaching high schoolers the foundations of AI, machine learning, and responsible tech use. They taught two courses structured into 90-minute lessons, each taking place over 14 weeks (Level 1) and 12 weeks (Level 2).
The first course in the AI Generation curriculum is now available on our website for free, in English and Romanian.
Coding is a language of opportunity, and thanks to 7 trainers and 3 instructional designers, hundreds of students now speak it with greater confidence.
This school year, 670 hours of volunteering were gifted to the high schoolers, helping them explore programming fundamentals, develop advanced coding skills and build tech projects using MIT App Inventor and Python. They taught two courses structured into 90-minute lessons, each taking place over 22 weeks.
About the Experience: Volunteers’ Perspective
Ștefan Beldiman
Instructional Designer
Path to Code Level 1
Integration Engineer @ UiPath
Has this experience changed anything about how you see your day job?
Even small things: a new perspective, a skill you didn’t expect to develop, a shift in how you think about your work.
This experience helped me realize that the smallest change makes a difference. In my daily job, I experienced a change in mentality, in the sense that realizing that I can generate progress and induce changes, I began to set a constructive framework by creating a safe space, setting intentions, and by exposing honesty and the desire to build something. My working relationships with colleagues and partners have improved considerably, and this is only thanks to the experience of teaching and growing together.
A message to your students, the trainers:
A better world doesn’t just appear out of nowhere, it is made. And how better than with fantastic people like you? Thank you for being a piece of good, for choosing to take time out of your day to build future generations, and for having such contagious energy! Everything you do not only says a lot about you, but also says that you are a lot! Never lose the drive and the vibe!
Iulia Istrate
Trainer
AI Generation Level 1
Senior Director Product Management @ UiPath
What’s something you had to learn or figure out yourself in order to teach this course?
Whether it was simplifying a concept, adapting to the students’ level, or something more personal.
I remember that during one of the first classes, I had to explain the concept of the decision tree algorithm through a hands-on exercise using different types of pasta. The challenge for me was that I wasn’t very familiar with so many pasta varieties — so I had to not only make the explanation of decision trees as simple as possible for the students, but also learn the differences between the pasta types myself. By the end of the class, everyone was well-versed in Italian pasta cuisine and a little hungry — but, more importantly, they had a much clearer understanding of decision trees and their relevance in the world of artificial intelligence. We all learn together — that became a recurring theme throughout this teaching experience.
Natalia Constantinescu
Trainer
Path to Code Level 1
Product Manager @ UiPath
Why do you think learning to code matters for these students specifically?
Beyond the technical skill itself, what do you see it unlocking for them?
Here’s the thing that stays with me after teaching Path to Code for 22 weeks. These students weren’t just using technology the way we all do every day; they were on the other side of it, building something of their own, from scratch. And yet I’ve never seen this course as the thing that turns them into developers, because most of them didn’t come to us wanting to be programmers in the first place. They came to follow their dreams.
That’s exactly why it matters. What it really gives them is a way of thinking: the patience to take a problem apart, the empathy to ask who they’re actually building it for, and the curiosity to understand how things work instead of just accepting that they do. And honestly, building things isn’t the hard part anymore, especially with AI to help. What sparks the whole thing is connecting the dots: having ideas that come from genuinely paying attention to the world around you. That’s the part I hope stays with them, wherever they end up.
Constantin Albu
Trainer
AI Generation Level 1&2
Software Engineer II @ UiPath
AI literacy is still a pretty new concept. Why do you think it matters?
What do you think changes for a student who understands how AI works versus one who just uses it without questioning it?
Measuring the relevance of a subject by how new it is seems like a risky approach. A far more meaningful metric is the impact it has on our lives.
The most intuitive parallel I can draw is with the internet, which is woven into the fabric of everything around us. With AI, I believe the impact is, and will be, even more profound, unfolding over an even shorter timeframe. The transformation is already underway. The only real choice left to us is whether we engage with it actively, as participants in shaping it, or stay on the sidelines.
AI literacy, alongside critical thinking, is therefore essential. I see no reason to treat it as any less fundamental than reading, mathematics, or science literacy.
The essential distinction is between reacting and interacting, between merely consuming what is served and having the possibility to create. The clearer a student is about both the possibilities and the limitations of AI, the more capable they will be of bringing their ideas and creativity to life. Using AI has a cognitive and emotional impact on us, individually and as a society, whether we perceive it or not.
I believe understanding how AI works is necessary for any person, regardless of age. But time spent with a young person is all the more precious, as they have the chance to become a torch that shares its light with others through everything they do.
Lucian Popa
Trainer
AI Generation Level 1
Principal Project Manager @ UiPath
How does volunteering for the Foundation, which is founded by UiPath, feel different from volunteering on your own?
Does the fact that the organization is supported by your employer change anything about the experience?
Volunteering on my own is rather challenging. I’ve enrolled in many projects, and got very few positive replies, if any. Being an employee of UiPath I have the advantage. Instead of me enrolling, the UiPath Foundation is actively looking for volunteers within UiPath.
Opportunities to give something back to the community and for the causes that are close to my heart are a lot easier to grasp. The Foundation has many ongoing programs and it’s great to get all the details and information around the activity first-hand, well in advance. The regular sessions with volunteers are also a big plus: we’re levelling up our volunteering skills with each opportunity we enroll for.
Călin Toader
Trainer
AI Generation Level 1
Senior Renewals Specialist @ UiPath
What keeps you coming back to teaching this course?
You’ve been doing this for a while now. What about this experience made you sign up again?
I’ve signed up to teach this course for a second time because I felt a sense of duty. The Foundation had already spent time and resources preparing me for it, so I needed to reward their trust. Also, I’ve had a really good chemistry with my teaching partner, so once I heard that he was signing up again, I knew that we needed to team up for one more semester.
Their Messages to the Students
AI Generation Volunteers
Trainers
Alex Dinică – Senior Business Development Representative
Andreea Tomescu – Senior Marketing Community Manager
Călin Toader – Senior Renewals Specialist
Iulia Istrate – Senior Director, Product Management
Lucian Popa – Principal Project Manager
Roxana Iftime – Business Process Manager
Alexandra Petroiu – Senior Analyst Finance
Anca Iordache – Business Analyst
Andreea Băloi – Director, Sales Enablement
Corina Băcanu – Senior People Development Manager
Diana Dinică – Commercial Desk Manager
Elena Cipu – Associate Financial Analyst
Iunia Dobre – Revenue Recognition Analyst
Mara Nuță – Senior People Development Specialist
Constantin Albu – Software Engineering II
Andrei Erghelegiu – Senior Software Engineer
Constantin Negruț – Senior Director, Escalation Engineering
Denisa Nine – Senior Customer Success Manager
Mircea Mocanu – Senior Technical Program Manager
Ninett Iancu – Principal Forward Deployed Engineer
Dana Ionescu – Marketing Communication Manager
Andreea Veronica Trandafir – Finance Admin Specialist
Ruxandra Colțea – Application Functional Solutions Lead
Olivia Dicu – Senior Accountant
Florentina Fifială – Talent Acquisition Partner
Robert Pisică – SAP Technical Lead
Adrian Ghioculescu – Software Engineer II
Ana Tipuriță – People Operation Manager
Instructional Designers
Larisa Săulescu – Senior Manager, Sales Ops, Strategy & Programs
Alin Copoiu – Senior Product Manager
Path to Code Volunteers
Trainers
Andrei Franciuc – Principal Integration Engineer
Mira Stroie – Senior Software Engineer
Natalia Constantinescu – Product Manager
Ovidiu Mihalcea – Senior Site Reliability Engineer
Vlad Coteanu – Senior Software Engineer
Elena Buchir – Senior Product Manager
Roxana Unc – Senior Automation Developer
Instructional Designers
Ștefan Beldiman – Integration Engineer
Andrei Ghiocel – Software Engineer II
Diana Ionescu – Senior Software Engineer
To Every Volunteer: Thank You
This year, 40 UiPathers chose to spend their time differently. Over 3,200 hours of it, to be exact. Hours that could have gone anywhere went to a classroom, to a lesson plan, to a student who needed someone to believe in them.
That choice is what this article is really about. Not just the skills taught or the courses completed, but the decision to show up, week after week, and the culture that makes showing up possible. When a company builds giving back into how it works, volunteering stops being a solo act of goodwill. It becomes something steadier, something shared, something that lasts.
You did more than teach. You mentored, motivated, and empowered. You were patient guides through new concepts, role models in a field these students rarely see themselves in, and steady sources of encouragement.
Every lesson you delivered, every story you shared, and every hour you invested helped build a more hopeful future for children who need that belief the most.
And we know the impact runs both ways. Many of you have said this experience changed how you see your own work, your colleagues, and what’s possible when you set out to build something together. That is the quiet power of volunteering through a community like this one: it shapes the people who give just as much as the ones who receive.
From all of us at UiPath Foundation: thank you for believing in these children, and for being part of their journey. We couldn’t do it without you.