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STEMxchange: Focus on local career pipelines leads Lancaster ISD forward

Jan 27, 2017

At STEMxchange 2016, presenters were challenged to share their successes during “STEM in 400 Seconds.” Lancaster Independent School District  was represented by Kyndra Johnson, Executive Director for Academics and Innovation.

Image of Kyndra Johnson

Kyndra Johnson, Executive Director for Academics and Innovation, highlights her school district’s successes.

Recognized as a T-STEM designated district in 2012, Lancaster ISD has since become an exemplar for STEM education in the state of Texas.

“In Lancaster ISD, our vision is to ensure that all students achieve self-sustaining success and leave a lasting legacy. In my role in the district, I believe that I am living my legacy in real time, because I grew up as a STEM student.”

The “it takes a village” mentality is integral to Lancaster ISD’s success.From administrators and teachers to students and parents, every link in the chain works together to prepare students for the future.

The school board has been honored at the national and state level as the “ premier, first honor board in the state.”

But Lancaster ISD is more than just honored; they’re proven. They have the highest graduation rate and science performance in the Best Southwest Region.

How did they get there? In large part, they established pipelines with a local focus to take advantage of what their community had to offer.

“Each of these pipelines connects to resources as well as human capital that exists in our area: engineering with an aeronautical focus, entrepreneurship, global arts communication, health science technology, and information systems and software design.”

These comprehensive pipelines then set up students for college and careers.

“Each of our students are able to matriculate, beginning in Pre-K, through each of these pipelines, such that when they are ready to graduate from our high school, they have endorsements at the state level, as well as a plan for what they could potentially enter into as a career field.”

Most importantly, Lancaster has leveraged their local partnerships to offer spectacular project-based opportunities for students in their pipelines.

“Our students have built a street-legal race car, in partnership with Experience Aviation and Captain Barrington Irving Jr… Our most recent initiative is a service learning problem based learning unit that is going to partner us with Experience Aviation one more time, as well as the Wings of Hope Foundation. Our students are building a Cessna 182 aircraft that will be used in mission projects throughout the next year with Wings of Hope, to provide medical supplies, food, and other resources to other countries.”

“You can’t do this without the strategic alliances and the partnerships that are continuing to thrive in STEM education.”

Connect with Kyndra Johnson to share tips on working with your community partners by contacting her at kyndrajohnson@lancasterisd.org.

By Rob Evans 01 Nov, 2023
by Heather Sherman, Director of STEMx The 2023 STEM Innovation Forum: Activating Collaborations to Advance an Inclusive STEM Workforce was a success! Through our collaboration with STEMconnector and Million Women Mentors, we convened 160 leaders from industry, government, non-profit organizations, and education institutions from all over the United States to discuss strategies and best practices to support the STEM workforce. We were honored to host a variety of dynamic speakers including: Jared Polis, Governor of Colorado Brynt Parmeter, Chief Talent Management Officer, U.S. Department of Defense Dr. Athina Kanioura, Executive Vice President, Chief Strategy and Transformation Officer, PepsiCo and Dr. Lisa Hinkelman, Founder and CEO of Ruling Our eXperiences (RoX). We extend our gratitude to our panelists, Learning Session speakers, and participants who joined us in Denver. Broadening participation We set out share information on trends in STEM education and workforce development, with an emphasis on broadening participation in STEM careers. Resources from sessions highlighting strategies for broadening participation are linked below: DoD STEM: Developing a STEM Workforce to Support the National Security Mission Priming the Pump for High Demand STEM Careers STEM Workforce Readiness for Teen Girls: “If She Can See It, She Can Be It” Driving change Another goal of the forum was to feature high impact strategies, programs and solutions that are driving change, and STEMx members from LASTEM , the PAST Foundation and MBRT showed how they are engaging youth and building career awareness through their workforce programs. Emerging technologies We looked towards the future to better understand how emerging technologies will change the world and the ways we must prepare STEM talent for jobs in logistics, artificial intelligence, research safety , bioenergy , and renewable technologies. Chevron‘s sponsored panel, “Cultivating the Talent to Drive the Innovation and Technologies for Ever-Cleaner Energy” was a rich discussion featuring experts from Chevron, Project Lead the Way and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Dr. Jamie Vernon, Executive Director, and CEO, Sigma Xi Society was a fantastic moderator for this discussion. Next steps We have linked event resources including videos, slide decks and collateral on the event landing page . The event photo gallery is located there as well. If you attended, please complete our 30 second event survey . Five lucky winners will be selected at random to receive a Forum water bottle! More importantly, your feedback matters to us. If you did not attend, mark your calendar for next fall - we’re looking to make next year even bigger! If you are interested in hosting in your state, or have thoughts about compelling content that we should include, please reach out to Heather Sherman .
By Rob Evans 03 Oct, 2023
Join us for The STEM Innovation Forum: Activating Collaborations to Advance an Inclusive STEM Workforce
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