Booker T. Washington High School has an extensive network of local industry partners to support STEM initiatives and STEM Education at the school. Business, Community, Industry/ Post-Secondary partnerships may exhibit various involvement levels depending upon the capacity of the partner to engage with schools. Our STEM program has over 20 members on its advisory board. In addition our STEM Career Technical Agricultural Education pathways also have their individual advisory boards. These multiple community and business partners and post-secondary partnerships provide ongoing support by directly connecting to in class instruction, real-work career application, project/problem based learning instruction and exposing students to the endless possibilities of STEM careers.

 

The various partnership levels seen at Washington High School include: Support, Interactive, or Advocacy partnership. In support of instruction, partners have been involved with multiple/long term projects in our STEM program. They assist both instructional support and teachers with project ideas and development on a regular basis. There is collaboration with teachers to design real world projects/problems. Partners also continue to host students in on-going field trip experiences, job shadowing, or internship experiences that correlates to the STEM program needs at Washington High School.

 

Partners also provide multiple mentorship opportunities for both students and teachers to do research/engineering projects as well as summer opportunities. Through this collaboration they help design and develop instructive educational outreach for the STEM faculty as well.

Our advisory board members provide multiple outlets to also assisting students with a variety of competitions as well as our student organizations such as Healthcare Occupations Students of America (HOSA), Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA), and Family, Career, and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA). Their support can come in the form of coaching a competitive event, sponsorship (funding), acting as judges, provide materials, or offer their facilities for use. Many of our partnership influences are visible throughout the school, and they often are invited into the school building.

 

Strengths- we have worked diligently to ensure we maintain positive partnerships. Are partners are committed to both our educators and students to ensure that the community needs are met and that the vision of our STEM program is effectively executed.

 

Opportunities for Improvement

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Now that we are adding a new innovative urban Agriculture program it is essential that we leverage partnerships with unique skill sets to work with our students to ensure they have exposure to careers that support the AgSTEM field.  This is key to sustaining the West End community and increasing diversity in the Agricultural field as African Americans only represent less than 2 percent of those in Ag careers. We have recently solidified a new partnership with the Georgia Aquarium as well as Atlanta Botanical Gardens to work specifically with our students and teachers with hands-on research, curriculum integration, internships,  scholarships, and project development.