High Point accepted into the National Girls Collaborative Project
High Point Regional High School’s Women in Engineer Design Technology class has been accepted into the National Girls Collaborative Project (NGCP). A community of K-12 formal and informal educators, higher education faculty, industry and business leaders, community-based organization staff and government representatives working to advance girls participation in STEM.
High Point’s entry is publicly searchable at www.ngcproject.org/programs. "Partnering with NGCP allows us to find local Collaborative and connect with programs and resources in our area," says Mark Wallace the teacher of the program. "We can search by resources available, service delivery format, program focus, populations served, and a variety of other fields,"
The program also allows an approved applicant to View upcoming events, both in the local area and across the country as well as browse through webinars, statistics, or exemplary practices to build the organizational capacity.
The vision of the NGCP is to bring together organizations throughout the United States that are committed to informing and encouraging girls to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).
According to NGCP web page, the goals of NGCP are to:
Maximize access to shared resources within projects, and with public and private sector organizations and institutions interested in expanding girls’ participation in STEM.
Strengthen capacity of existing and evolving projects by sharing exemplary practice research and program models, outcomes and products.
Use the leverage of a network or collaboration of individual girl-serving STEM programs to create the tipping point for gender equity in STEM.
The project focus for 2011-2016 is:
Strengthen the capacity of girl-serving STEM programs to effectively reach and serve underrepresented girls in STEM.
Increase the effectiveness of Collaboratives by providing professional development focused on sustainability, organizational effectiveness, and shared leadership.
Maximize K-12 school counselors' access to and use of relevant, high-quality resources that increase awareness of barriers to girls' interest and engagement in STEM.
Mark Wallace, who designed the program, has been teaching this course since 2000. Approximately 220 girls have taken the class and an estimated 60 percent have gone on into other technological studies courses or pursued higher education in the STEM area.