 All right, we're going to go ahead and get started. Again, I am Alicia Stokely, Associate Manager for Summer and Extended Programs. Welcome again to our Step Up to STEM Information Session. This is our very first information session that we are holding, and we hope for it to be one of many that you'll be able to join in the future. We decided to do something a little bit different to make sure that everybody were able to have a safe space where they're able to ask questions, as well as learn more about our program. So I do have my team up here with me, so I'm going to share the spotlight with them so they can introduce themselves and also what they do for our program. Julia, I'll hand it over to you. Hi, everyone. Thanks so much for being here tonight. We're really glad to see a lot of interest in the Step Up to STEM program. I am Julia Fiori. I'm the Summer and Extended Programs Manager, and all three of us here tonight from NCSSM work on Step Up to STEM, as well as other summer programs at the school. So happy to answer questions and help you learn more about the program. Hey, everyone. Glad you guys could join us this evening. My name is Blake Reed. Happy almost weekend to you guys. I am also an Associate Manager of Summer and Extended Programs at NCSSM, and we are super happy to share some information with you guys tonight and looking forward to chatting with you guys through the chat box, of course. Yeah. Back to you, Alicia. Thank you so much, Blake, and I'm glad that you mentioned that, Blake. So as I am presenting, Blake and Julia will be in the chat checking in on any questions that you may have concerning the presentation or other questions that may linger as we're doing the presentation. So I will note, as we get deeper into it, some of your questions may be on the slide and some of those answers may be in between those slides as well. So if you could hold your questions to the end, we will give time for anybody to ask your question out loud, and either myself or the members of my team will gladly answer your question. However, if there's something that we can search online and give you links to, Julia and Blake will be doing that in the chat section as well. All right. So let's go ahead and get started. So I thought it would be good to kind of see why are we here? Why did we come up with Step Up to STEM? So let's take a look at the chart displayed. So this chart is widely used in a lesson plan by Tolerance.org. The National Science Foundation actually came up with the data and also the lesson plan. So this gathers statistics to discover who's working in STEM careers. Now, this pie chart compares the percentage of people working in STEM careers by gender, men and women, and by race and ethnicity, white, Asian, black, Hispanic, and other. Now, the number of people working in these careers can be compared in two ways by looking at the percentages shown and by comparing the size of slices in the chart. Now, as you can see, whites and Asian individuals hold the largest percentage of jobs in science and engineering. And you can also see that men far outnumber women in both of these groups. Very telling, right? Now, Asians, which are considered a minority, are overrepresented in the STEM workforce relative to their overall share of the workforce, especially among college-educated workers. So we're looking at about 17 percent of college-educated STEM workers are Asian, compared with 10 percent of all workers with a college degree. So when we talk about people that are underrepresented in STEM, we are focusing on African American, Hispanic, Native American, and other. Our program was initially designed to help increase these numbers in these areas for underrepresented minorities. So our goal, our goal is to improve underrepresented students' competence in science and in mathematics. So as from the previous screen, we can see collectively and individually African American, Hispanic American, and Native American students have traditionally been the most underserved underrepresented students, particularly in STEM-related fields. So NCSSM is trying to address this issue with this program, Step Up to STEM. Now, within this, we are also nurturing students for their enthusiasm for science and mathematics, increasing their interest with pursuing careers in research, and to better prepare them for the many opportunities that they will have in 11th and 12th grade. Now, for Step Up to STEM, our week-long summer program is for rising 9th graders. Now, one caveat of that is that we invite our previous cohort back, which becomes our cohort too, rising 10th graders to also embark on another journey with Step Up to STEM. Now, each year, of course, providing academic transcripts and teacher recommendations and essays, people will be able to attend this free program. Let me say it again, free program, no expenses charged to the families at all. Now, throughout a typical year, we evaluate over 150 applicants for 50 spots for cohort one. So, as you can tell, it is a very competitive program. And then, of course, if they're accepted this year, they'll automatically get an invite for next year to actually come to our campus. So, one of the things that we decided to do this year is to hold our rising 9th graders online. However, for our cohort two, since they attended online last year, we are actually inviting them on our campus this year so they're able to explore, meet the faculty and staff that they have worked with from the past summer, and to experience the student life experience that we try to create on our campus. So, Step Up to STEM. These courses are taught by skilled instructors and leaders in their fields, with years of experience in mathematics, sciences, and humanities. We are trying to create an environment for them so they can learn exciting real-world subjects to build their skills in science, math, and communications. So, of course, if you've looked on our website, you probably know all of the technical items, but the main thing that we are stressing to people before they fill out the application is that the applicant must be a current 8th grader or rising 9th, and represent one of the following under-represent minorities in STEM, African American, Hispanic American, and or Native American. And at the bottom, you can see the link to our website. Now, what's in store for 2021? So, I know that we get a lot of parents who ask, what's the theme for the year? What are the students going to do? So, we actually have something together to actually give you before we select our first cohort. That is something that we have not been able to do for a while, so I'm very elated to share this information with you. So, this summer's theme is Brilliant's Beckins. Everything is possible. So, a lot of people out here have Netflix, and there was an incredible Christmas movie that came out called Jingle Jingle. If you have not seen it, I highly recommend it. It was a great, warm, and fuzzy movie. So, with that movie, it inspired a lot of inspiring STEM students. You saw a lot of engineering in this movie, so we want to do a play on that. So, honestly, so much of our lives in the past year has been turned upside down. Yet with intention, a new normal has emerged with constant re-innovation and a creativity of a primary drive of survival. So, a step up to STEM students this year will dive into STEM programming with a lens of creativity and invention. So, our rising ninth graders will primarily focus on building competencies in math and science due interdisciplinary project-based learning. Now, some of these courses may be named the following two I have listed below. The square root of possible. Now, if you watched the movie, you can see the correlation between the two. So, NCS System's faculty will leave this course in applying math to real-life problems in science, engineering, and computer science. Jingles and things. Now, this course, NCS System faculty will leave this interdisciplinary course providing students with a strong foundation and exposure to recent innovations in science or engineering. Now, for the fun stuff. In the late afternoons, time will be dedicated for enrichment activities, including conversations with professionals in STEM, the college process, and then also keynote speakers. So, in order to give these students a well-rounded experience, they will take classes in the morning and in the afternoon, and then in that late afternoon, they will have some free time in order to network with each other and to also learn those soft skills. So, the biggest question that I feel that we get a lot if it's out on the imaginary road now, via Zoom, talking to school counselors or prospective parents on phones is, how do I apply? Now, I know our website, sometimes it could be a little tricky to navigate. So, in this presentation, I wanted to make sure that I had screenshots to show you exactly where to go. So, we're just going to go through step by step, how to apply. Of course, going to our website. So, if you go to the main NCSSN website, you can actually click on Step Up to STEM. Once you click on that, you will see our landing page. In the far right corner, you will see this blue button that says Apply Online. You will go ahead and click on it. Now, once you click on that, this is where you're going to complete part one, the parent guarding information. Now, a parent or guardian must complete the first portion of the application to provide contact information, emergency contacts, and also agree to the terms and the conditions. Now, once you successfully complete part one, you will receive a confirmation email. Once that email is received, it will give you a list of instructions of how to get to the essay's form. So, after completing that first part, you will log back in with the parent and guardian's email address and password in order to complete the student essay forms. Now, I know that sounds a little bit backwards, especially because in the application, we ask you for the student's email. So, there's a method to our madness. We need the student's email, so we're able to contact them individually to make sure that they have everything that they need. However, once the parent or guardian's make the application, everything that is tied with that student is under the parent, so they will need your login information to submit these essays. So, what are the essays? So, as you can see on the screen, this is boxes where students can help make them stand out. Per se, they're able to add extra experiences that they've had with STEM. List any volunteer work that they've had. Awards, recognition, extracurricular activities and sports that they were a part of, they're able to add it into this box. They will also, in this section, have the opportunity to select their race as well so we can account for that on our side. Now, the essay questions are located on our website, but I'm still going to read them off to you just so you have a general sense. And any time you open this form in Camp In Touch, you do not have to complete it in one setting. You can take multiple settings, coming back to it, looking at it if you want to type it in a Word document, which we strongly recommend. You can work on it then and then just copy and paste it over. So, don't think that you have to finish all of this in one setting. So, some of the essay questions are, have you found academic or career fields that interest you? Why are these fields of interest to you? What is your favorite STEM subject and what do you like about it? What are you looking forward to studying in high school and college? Also, think about the clubs and activities in which you participate. Describe why you've joined these activities and what you most enjoy about your participation within these groups. All of these questions are located on our admissions website. If you would like to work on them before you actually log into Camp In Touch. Now, our third step, but we don't really list it as a third step because it's slightly mentioned in the student essays form and then also on our admissions website for step up to STEM. We need teacher slash counselor recommendation forms and academic records. So, your students transcripts, EOG testing scores, things of that caliber are very crucial for us when we are trying to decide who would be able to join our cohort for the 2021 school year. So, please make sure that they are asking a teacher to complete a teacher recommendation form, specifically maybe a STEM teacher. If they have a favorite math teacher or science teacher that knows them when they have been working diligently in their courses. It doesn't have to be their current teacher. It can be a teacher from a previous year, but not too far in between. Of course, due to COVID, a lot of parents have called asking, like, hey, well, my child has not been in school. However, they still have a strong interest in the subject, but the teacher that they had this year, they haven't really developed that relationship. So, it is okay to ask another STEM teacher that you have developed that relationship as well for students that are homeschooled. Some of homeschooling is a hybrid. You may take math and science online and then homeschool for the rest of your subjects. So, definitely reach out to those online teachers to write you those recommendations. Another thing that we need is a counselor to complete a questionnaire and for their school to send in academic records. So, of course, at public schools, this is kind of straightforward. You go to your school counselor, submit a request, and then they will send it to you as sometimes at private schools or even homeschooling is a different route for that. If you don't know exactly who to contact at your school, definitely give us a call. We kind of help you navigate that. I would say as you're trying to navigate who to get request academic records from or transcripts, always contact the front desk of your school. They are usually able to kind of lead you to exactly who you need to talk to. So, whenever you are talking to these teachers and counselors, definitely make sure that they are emailing these official documents to our address summer at ncssm.edu or they can be faxed to the number located. All of this has to be post-smart by February 17th. We are initiating a hard deadline due to the volume of applications that we do receive. So, definitely mark that on your calendars. Make sure that is in by that time. So, I know I'm saying all this great information about Step Up to STEM. Step Up to STEM is actually folded into a summer program that we put together every year called Summer Accelerator. So, on our Summer Accelerator social media accounts, you will see a wide array of different things pertaining to Step Up to STEM. So, if you would like to stay connected with our program to see what students not only in Summer Accelerator but in what students in Step Up to STEM are doing, definitely take the time to follow these platforms. So, on Twitter, we focus on inspirational quotes, online study tips, and interesting science facts. So, that's something that interests you, definitely follow us. On Facebook, like our page for our most important updates, news, chance to win prizes, especially in the summer, and to talk about Summer Accelerator and Step Up to STEM. Now, last but not least, we do have our Instagram page. You can follow us to see what happens in the summer in real time. We are definitely trying to up our game in the Instagram world by adding stories and reels. So, you will definitely see that this summer, not only with Summer Accelerator but with Step Up to STEM as well. You will also be able to learn exciting but weird science facts, learn what happened on this particular day in science and more. So, if you are a genius in social media, definitely follow our accounts, tag us, repost our content, and you can also communicate with us throughout these apps as well. If you see something that's interesting, tag us in it. We need eyes and ears out there so we can make sure that we're getting the proper information out to our base here for Summer Accelerator and Step Up to STEM. So, I know I said a lot of information. I know I went through it pretty quickly. I want to make sure that I was saving enough time for us to have questions at the end. So, I have not been looking at the chat box at all. So, I have no idea if we have questions already listed. But before we go into questions, again, thank you so much for attending our presentation. This is our main source of contact. Step up at ncssm.edu. Definitely email us if you have any lingering questions after this program. This email not only goes to myself, but it goes to the whole team. So, this is the best way to contact us because anybody at any moment will be checking it and will be able to answer your question. So, now I'm going to open the floor for anybody that is on our call to ask a question if they have any. We had a couple of questions coming in the chat, but I think I was able to answer them right there. Yeah, I'm seeing that. So, if folks haven't had a chance to look at that, make sure you take a look and feel free to type in any questions you have. We're glad to answer them. All right, so I'm just going to take this as the presentation was really good. It was spot on. It helped hopefully with the application process and probably asked some lingering questions that you may have had. If you think of anything else, later on tonight or even in a couple of days, please email us or call us. We are here to help you to assist you in this matter. Definitely make sure that you put on your calendars February 17th. It is coming very soon. So, make sure that you get everything in, including those transcripts to us so we can consider your application fully complete so we can start our reviewing process. We want to make sure that we're able to tell everybody on time if they were accepted or not. We did have one more question come in through the chat. So, listing extracurricular programs. Is it okay to just do bullet points or should we write complete sentences? Bullet points for that one are fine. The questions that are called the essays, if you look at that admissions page, that's where we want to have complete sentences and paragraphs. But listing extracurricular activities in a bullet point list is just fine. All right. I think that was our last question for the night. So, I'm not going to hold you long. I know everybody has busy schedules. I'm so grateful that you were able to take a small portion of your time to convene with us tonight. So, I'm going to bid you all adieu. Thank you so much for attending. And if you have any lingering questions, please email us stepupatncssm.edu deadline, February 17th, and that's also located on our website as well. Have a good night, everybody, and you are free to go.