Conversations from ISTE Live with Leonardo Ortiz Villacorta from the The Pokémon Company International

In this short conversation from ISTE, Jeremy sits down with Leonardo Ortiz Villacorta from The Pokémon Company International to learn more about why Pokémon had such a strong presence at the conference and how the company is supporting schools through play-based learning.

Leonardo shares details about Pokémon’s new after-school club program, developed in partnership with ISTE, designed to bring the joy, community, and engagement of Pokémon to students in a safe and nurturing environment. The program focuses on extracurricular learning, not classroom curriculum, and provides schools with free materials so students can participate regardless of whether they already own Pokémon cards.

The conversation explores how Pokémon clubs can support student engagement, mentorship, collaboration, strategic thinking, math, reading comprehension, communication, and social-emotional learning. Leonardo also explains how the program lowers barriers for students in rural, urban, and suburban communities while giving educators an easy way to bring structured, non-screen play into after-school spaces.

This episode is part of our Conversations from ISTE with... series, featuring short interviews with educators, leaders, and innovators from the conference.

Learn more about the Pokémon after-school club program through ISTE: https://iste-ascd.org/pokemon-club

Leo on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ortizvillacorta/