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Find The Consortium on Facebook
Everyone likes to be informed and everybody likes to be liked. A winning combination for achieving both is connecting to Facebook. We recently launched a page, so if you’d like us to keep you up to date with our latest developments, just log on and “like us” on Facebook by clicking here.
Consortium plans June retreat
The Consortium will cap a year of work aimed at engaging students in shaping school cultures and their own educational journeys with a June retreat featuring Will Richardson, educator, author and founder of Connective Learning, LLC. To learn more, click here.
Student Leadership Conference features 16 work site visits,
18 workshops and more
Nearly 400 high school students and team advisors capped a year of discovery when they gathered in April at the annual Student Leadership Conference for participants in The Consortium’s career exploration program, The Future Is Mine (TFIM). To learn more, click here.
Classrooms come alive with Great Idea Grants
From historical documentaries to robotic theater productions, classroom projects blossomed throughout the spring thanks to Great Idea Grants. The historical documentaries brought state honors in the National History Day competition to Belle Vernon Area School District's Bellmar Middle School, along with individual student honors, including two state championships, for webpage and video projects. To learn more, click here.
Learning through a Sense of Place
Sense of Place Learning, one of eight community partners collaborating with The Consortium and Clairton City School District in The CASTLE (Clairton's After-School Teaching & Learning Experience) is featured in an interview on Just Start, a blog that author and educator Allison Zmuda devotes to ideas about teaching and learning. To read the interview, click here.
Nursing Scholarship Opportunity
The Blanche & Dewayne Wivagg Nursing Scholarship awards $3,000 per academic year to nursing students who reside in the Mon Valley and have been accepted at a college, university, or school of nursing in Western Pennsylvania. This award may be repeated to a worthy applicant who demonstrates continued commitment to the nursing profession. Applications are accepted throughout the year. Please email savikasc@gmail.com for an application or additional information. (Established in memory of Gail Wivagg Krysik.)
Students become teachers at Consortium roundtable
During a morning of roundtable discussions at The Consortium in March, students shared insights about what motivates them to learn and what teaching styles best facilitate their learning. To find out more, click here.
Regional Review Committee awards Great Idea Grants
The Consortium’s Regional Review Committee awarded $32,101 in Great Idea Grants in March for classroom projects that spanned curriculum and grade levels. The judges’ favorites came from Forbes Road Career & Technology Center, South Allegheny Middle School, West Mifflin Area School District’s Clara Barton Elementary School and Yough School District’s H.W. Good Elementary School. To learn more, click here.
McKeesport Alumni Scholarships
More than $50,000 in financial aid in the form of grants and awards is available to McKeesport Area High School seniors again this year through the scholarship program administered by the McKeesport High School Alumni & Friends Association. For a complete list and to access applications, click here.
The Consortium for Public Education also oversees two scholarships for seniors in several area high schools. Click here for applications for the Hope Scholarship and here for the Dr. Matthew R. Hadley Scholarship.
TFIM Program Coordinator honored at Forbes Road
The National Technical Honor Society is an organization for outstanding students but each year, the Chapter at Forbes Road Career and Technology Center inducts one adult as an honorary member. The Consortium is delighted that this year’s honoree is Gina Barrett, Program Coordinator for The Future Is Mine (TFIM). To learn more, click here.
Leadership Institute session focuses on new Common Core standards
The latest session of The Consortium’s Leadership Institute highlighted changes that will be needed as schools and classrooms adjust to new, national Common Core learning standards. To learn more, click here.
Students showcase work during family night at The CASTLE
Family night at The CASTLE (Clairton’s After-School Teaching & Learning Experience) drew scores of parents for displays of students’ photography, environmental projects, music videos, skits and podcasts. To learn more, click here.
MAPS already helping schools move toward personalization
Districts participating in The Consortium’s newly launched MAPS (My Action Plan for Success) initiative already credit it with helping bring students into discussions that will enable educators to better address individual interests and needs. To learn more about the initiative, click here.
MAPS in the media
Broadcast and print media got a preview of MAPS (My Action Plan for Success) when The Consortium and eight participating school districts unveiled the initiative at an October news briefing. MAPS is designed to help schools personalize education and ensure that more students graduate with viable plans for post-secondary education and careers. For a look at the news coverage, click the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Tribune-Review or Pittsburgh’s NPR affiliate, WESA.
Give to United Way: make your schools and your kids your Contributor’s Choice
With companies, schools and community organizations kicking off their fall giving campaigns for United Way of Allegheny County, it’s a great time for our program participants and friends to support the students and schools in their communities. Through The Consortium, you can help teachers bring innovative projects to their classrooms, help students explore career paths and give educators access to high quality professional development opportunities. To support this programming, please direct your donation toward us with Contributor’s Choice code #2910. To learn about more ways to support our work, click here.
Showcasing a district that radically reduced its dropout rate
When a school district cuts its dropout rate from 14% to less than 2%, it’s got something to share with others and something for us to showcase. Laurel Highlands School District shared that accomplishment with us and we’re showcasing it for you. We’d like occasionally to showcase outstanding work that all of our partnering districts achieve through participation in our programs. If you’d like the chance to tell your story, just email or call The Consortium’s Communications Director Pamela Gaynor at 412-678-9215. Meanwhile, to learn how Laurel Highlands is overcoming a problem that plagues public schools nationwide, click here.
