Do you work with youth in an out-of-school program in a Montana small town of 2,500 or under?
Do you need financial support to attend the Montana Afterschool Alliance annual conference and bring back STEM resources for your community?
In partnership with the MSU Science Math Resource Center and the Montana Afterschool Alliance, we are pleased to offer support to attend the 2019 Montana Afterschool Alliance annual conference (Aug. 8-9 in Bozeman) to two out-of-school educators from Montana towns of 2,500 and under.
Two scholarships will be awarded and will include:
- Registration to the MTAA conference
- Overnight lodging in the MSU residence halls
- Mileage reimbursement to cover your gas
- A kit of STEM resources to take home with you
The MTAA conference -- Afterschool and Beyond -- is held Aug. 8-9 on the MSU-Bozeman campus. The meeting offers a wide variety of content, including STEM and many other topics. We hope you will also attend the STEM Summit on the morning of Aug. 8!
The deadline to apply for support is Tuesday, July 23 at midnight; applicants will be notified by July 26.
This initiative is part of Montana NSF EPSCoR's Small Town STEM initiative (read more below).
Questions? Contact Suzi Taylor with Montana NSF EPSCoR and the MSU Science Math Resource Center at taylor@montana.edu
What is Small Town STEM?
National studies have shown that youth in rural communities have fewer opportunities for high-quality STEM learning than their peers in urban and suburban areas. In a Montana State University focus group, some students who hail from small towns and reservation communities reported that they grew up with no STEM programming other than the basic science and math courses offered in school (and smaller schools generally offer fewer STEM courses overall than larger schools).
Through Small Town STEM, Montana NSF EPSCoR strives to build an infrastructure that specifically reaches youth in these rural communities by:
- increasing youth awareness of and interest in STEM careers and studies
- introducing youth in small towns to STEM careers, activities and role models, thus increasing their STEM confidence and STEM identity
- supporting their adult teachers and mentors via professional development, STEM materials and training; and
- creating a cohort of adults dedicated to STEM who can sustain STEM programming after pilot initiatives
- building a system and network for sharing STEM resources of particular interest to people in Montana’s small towns.
Ultimately, we hope young people from Montana's rural communities are made aware of the broad range of good careers available in science, technology, engineering and mathematics and know how, if interested, to pursue a career in STEM.
If you are interested in Small Town STEM in general, please contact Suzi Taylor with Montana NSF EPSCoR and the MSU Science Math Resource Center at taylor@montana.edu
