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Steal-This Session Results in an Impactful Collaboration
Steal-This Session Results in an Impactful Collaboration
In 2015, Amanda Ludwig was working as a Management Talent Specialist at Denver Public Schools (DPS), and attended 100Kin10’s Partner Summit in Chicago. As she was checking the program for the day, Ludwig noticed that a Steal-This Session was being facilitated by Colorado School of Mines and University of Northern Colorado. A Steal-This Session is a short meet-up or session, often incorporated into Summit or a larger event, for partners to share a “steal-worthy” concept—a strong practice, strategy, tool, or approach—and engage in discussion so that others can learn more and personalize the idea to their needs. Grabbing a seat in the back, Ludwig was shocked to learn that Mines/UNC had created a new STEM Teacher Preparation Program.
"“They’re partnering to do this really incredible work bringing STEM teachers into the city of Denver. It’s crazy that I don’t know about this.“
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Afterward, she exchanged contact information with the presenters and returned to Denver determined to follow up with these exciting connections. She excitedly told her DPS colleagues about her discovery. "Hey, they’re building a cadre of really amazing STEM teachers, student-teachers. We need to figure out how to get them into our schools.”
About a year after this meeting, Ludwig and Justin Smith, who was the Student Teacher leader at DPS, began consulting with Mines/UNC on their entire student-teacher placement process and serving on their Teacher Advisory Group.
In Spring 2017, four (out of eleven) members of the first cohort of student teachers from the Mines/UNC STEM Teacher Preparation Program joined DPS in strategically designed teaching positions. For the first time ever, these carefully selected individuals graduated from the Colorado School of Mines with two prestigious degrees: engineering and teaching.
