ST1.10

Community, post-secondary, business/industry partners and/or families actively support and are engaged with teachers and students in the STEM program.

Self-Assessment: 3

Mater Academy is proud to partner with a variety of industries and organizations to make STEM education truly come alive for our students. Our partnership with Verizon and Digital Promise has greatly impacted our school community by innovating the way our students learn and how our teachers conduct the class. We use a 1:1 device platform in middle school and ongoing professional learning. In addition to providing devices and training, Verizon employees share their experiences in STEM through frequent visits and guest speaker opportunities. Career Days, Engineering Week, Roll-Out Days, Teacher Training, and Classroom Walk-Throughs all provide Verizon and Digital Promise personnel opportunities to connect with our teachers and students.

Our partnership with SHPE (The Society for Hispanic Professional Engineers) is another rich opportunity to connect our students with professionals currently in the field. SHPE members support our school in a variety of ways. When we first began to offer computer science courses 4 years ago, it was SHPE members who came to support these students and provide them with additional tutoring and instruction. For the past 4 years, SHPE members have hosted Noche De Ciencias Events and provided parents and students with information about careers in STEM. SHPE members in partnership with Boeing have also been present in our Aerospace Engineering classes and Noche De Ciencias Events.

In trying to grow our Financial Literacy Program and provide students with life-skills that go beyond high school, we have partnered with Regions Bank and a program called EverFi. Representatives from Regions and EverFi come to the school to teach financial literacy lessons and provide technical support and training for teachers. Last year, we were fortunate to be selected to engage in student-led debates judged and mediated by Regions Bank employees that focused on the advantages and disadvantages of various financial scenarios.

Yet another partnership at Mater Academy is our continued support from Zulubots. Zulubots provides Mater Academy’s Robotics Team with technical support, training, and teacher support and feedback to help prepare for competition at the district, state, and national level.

And perhaps our hallmark partnership is with our own alumni. We are fortunate at Mater Academy to have a vast and varied Mater Alumni Network. From creating content, teaching, and tutoring our AP Computer Science classes to hosting personalized guided tours at MIT, our alumni are shaping our students' STEM education through hands-on and frequent visits, tours, support, and communication. A Mater alumna, who is a dentist comes 2-3 times a year to speak about oral health, advances in dentistry and was even our keynote speaker at our latest graduation. She held a workshop on suturing during our Noche de Ciencias event. Mater alumni studying at Carnegie Mellon University created a curriculum and plan of study to assist our AP Computer Science Principles students pass their AP Exam. Mater alumni at MIT, FIU, UCF, FSU, UF, Carnegie Mellon University, and Harvard University speak to our students each year and answer their questions about college, career pathways, best student practices, and just plain old good college and career advice. With most of our students being First Generation college attendees, these connections are invaluable to our continued growth and success.

In addition, our annual Mater Inc. College Fair was open to all our students, parents, educators, community partners, and the general public free of cost. During the college fair, multiple educators and community partners held workshops on a variety of college and career readiness topics such as the Bright Futures Scholarship, the Admissions Essay, the SAT/ACT, FAFSA, Dual Enrollment, and many more. Our STEM clubs and honor societies also had displays and interactive workshops to showcase our STEM program and activities. A few months later, we celebrated our senior students committing to their prospective colleges and universities during our College Signing Day. Mater Academy is proud to showcase our students' success through their involvement in STEM and across all disciplines.

Finally, our social media sites are excellent ways for our students, parents, and community partners to be informed about school activities and events. We post twice a day on Facebook, at 3 p.m. and at 6 p.m. Posts can vary from athletics to in-class activities to general announcements about upcoming events such as Parent-Teacher Conferences and Open House. We love to highlight our students, parents, and faculty In addition, the teacher-specific Mater webpages allow students and parents to stay informed for academic purposes. On these webpages, teachers post their daily homework assignments, resources, syllabi, and other class-related information. Lastly, students, parents, faculty, and community members serve on our Educational Excellence School Advisory Council (EESAC). EESAC functions to bring together all stakeholders who make final decisions relating to the implementation of the School Performance Excellence Plan.