Coaching and Learning for After School Professionals had been a successful cohort learning opportunity offered by the CT After School Network for several years.  This program series has provided a number of professional development experiences focused on various topics key in elevating program and educator quality in Out of School Time (OST) field through sharing key resources, practices and support opportunities to encourage community partnerships.

Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education is one of the most emphasized areas in education.  And yet, these subjects are also some of the most likely to cause people to cringe when discussed as part of the curriculum they must lead.  Many OST professionals have expressed their discomfort with these types of topics and even some of those attempting to embrace them do so with much trepidation and confusion on the best ways to engage young people in a positive and accessible way that will both teach them knowledge and support relevant connections, learning and understanding.  However, STEM holds key skills and potential for innovation and opportunity that young people must be encouraged to embrace!  Our hope is that we’ll help expand these opportunities and connections through this 2 year program opportunity.

In this STEM CLASP we are offering the opportunity to explore some of the best practices associated with OST STEM education with integration of intentional SEL (Social Emotional Learning) skills and tools.  STEM subjects, like any other, require excellent SEL skills for success and understanding.  Likewise, there are plenty of SEL skills to be learned from STEM practices.  
We will connect participants with STEM professionals, educators, and build not only your SEL related skill sets, but also your professional network.  We will explore how to build sustainable STEM programming into your afterschool program to help support school day education goals and open doors beyond them for learning and working within the community to build unique, positive and meaningful relationships that support the young people in your programs.  

We are ideally seeking pairs of applicants from the same programs, one general educator and a STEM coordinator or similar who fall into one or more of the categories listed below. However, if you don’t have or can’t find someone to apply with but are really interested in participating, we definitely encourage you to apply if you fall into one of these categories:
1. Dedicated frontline after school program educators.  The staff responsible for daily interactions, planning program activities who may be struggling with the best ways to lead STEM activities, are not native to STEM education and could use some support in getting started.
2. STEM Program Specialists/STEM Coordinators for afterschool programs, and those who are familiar with running programs focused on STEM topics, and those who might also be interested in one or both of the following: 1.Introducing more intentional SEL learning opportunities into your STEM programming; 2. Working more collaboratively with the generalist educators in your programming to provide greater support and understanding and full curriculum support of STEM and SEL related content when possible.
3.After school professionals who are interested in developing sustainable STEM programming within their out of school time programs.

Applicants must be willing to make a 2 year commitment to participate in this program and the willingness to share and collaborate with this community of program participants in both a virtual and in person format. Year 1 of our program will begin this fall.
The program will be taught in virtual format until 2022 format will be re-evaluated.  Any in person sessions are currently planned to take place at the Non-Profit Center in Hartford.  
The first program session will take place on Friday, November 12.  All program dates are on Fridays from 9am-3pm; November 12, 2021, January 14, 2022,  February 11, March 11, and May 20, 2022.  
Expect a summer project that will involve supporting/leading STEM learning in your program that will be a foundational aspect of Year 2, which will have similar program dates.
Applicants must be interested in and have the opportunity to actively participate in applying the STEM and SEL practices being shared in each CLASP session.  

Tuition is free for all accepted participants in this cohort as part of program funding support from both the Connecticut NASA Space Grants Consortium and Million Girls Moonshot.  Portions of this cohort will happen virtually and, hopefully, some will be in person if conditions allow. You will be expected to attend ALL sessions and receive proof of your supervisor’s knowledge and, approval and support for your participation in this program.  You will receive materials kits to be able to participate in the activities as part of our virtual program requirements.  You may be asked to supplement certain materials including space to participate in where you can work with said materials.  You will also be required to reliably to participate over Zoom, implement activities shared as part of this program in your program, share results of the activities with the cohort members, and access google classroom.  

Great!  I have read and understand everything above and I'm ready to apply.  

Fantastic!  Please continue to the next section and complete this application in it's entirety no later than October 15, 2021.