Smart Scholars At SCCC

[Claire Houlihan]

Thinking outside the box!

I wanted to follow up my words at tonight's board meeting with more
information on the Smart Scholars program run by the Schenectady
School District and Schenectady County Community College.

A link to NYS Ed press release GOVERNOR CUOMO AND COMMISSIONER STEINER
ANNOUNCE $6 MILLION IN GRANTS FOR "SMART SCHOLARS"
EARLY COLLEGE HIGH SCHOOL PROGRAMS
http://www.oms.nysed.gov/press/SmartScholars.2011.html


A link to Schenectady School/Smart Scholars program brochure
http://www.sunysccc.edu/student/Smart%20Scholars.pdf

(Smart Scholars is under written by the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation)

Please don't think that this is only for city school districts or
areas with high minority populations. Other school districts in the
area and beyond also use this model, they include

Ballston Spa School District, Hudson Valley Community College
Schoharie City School District, SUNY Cobleskill
Lake Placid Central School District, North Country Community College
Saranac Lake CSD, North Country Community College
and the Tupper Lake CSD, North Country Community College

I think it would be a great opportunity for the students who are
accepted into this program, but also potentially allow access to SCCC
for
S-G's higher achieving population to take college classes. If a bus
is going to SCCC or even HVCC for Smart Scholars, it would make sense
to allow other students to ride also. Ballston Spa, in conjunction
with HVCC and its Malta-based TEC-SMART campus, has created a pipeline
for Students to get high tech jobs at Global Foundries. We should be
looking to make the same type of connections with GE and other world
wide companies based in Schenectady County. The new battery plant at
GE's main plant should be the first place we look.

If it is too late to apply for this grant for the upcoming school
year we should be looking into this for the following year.

Claire Houlihan

[Claire Houlihan]

Look at how Ballston Spa and Saratoga school districts are tapping
into the businesses in their communities to provide educational
opportunities for students.

Early College HS exposes students to clean technology, energy careers
Student Greg Welch: ‘I never really knew what I wanted to do – until
this program’

On Board Online • April 23, 2012

By Alan Wechsler

Twenty-five students at Ballston Spa and Saratoga school districts are
about to finish their first year in an innovative program that
prepares them for college and jobs of the future.

Soon to expand to other districts in the Capital Region, the Clean
Technologies & Sustainable Industries Early College High School gives
students hands-on access to emerging technologies such as solar power,
wind turbines and clean-room operations. Students will receive up to
25 units of college credit after completing two years in the program
in their junior and senior years.

During a recent class in Photovoltaic and Electric Design, students
learned about electrical load, current and a term called “operating
point” from instructor Steve Karr, the owner of a photovoltaic
installation company in Schenectady. Karr is also an adjunct professor
at Hudson Valley Community College, where he teaches classes on solar
panel installations.

“If high school students can come out of here understanding the
fundamentals of clean energy,” Karr said afterward, “they’ll be way
ahead of the curve entering college.”

Classes take place at a Saratoga County facility known as TEC-SMART
(Training and Education Center for Semiconductor Manufacturing and
Alternative and Renewable Technologies). It is equipped with full-size
working wind turbines, a heating and air-conditioning demonstration
center and a functioning clean room.

TEC-SMART was built in 2010 by Hudson Valley Community College with
help from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority
(NYSERDA), a state public-benefit corporation that funds clean-energy
projects.

Both the community college and NYSERDA are partners with the Ballston
Spa district in the program, which is supported by a three-year,
$167,000 Smart Scholars Early College High School grant from the State
Education Department. SED has awarded 23 Smart Scholars grants around
the state to support districts and BOCES that create accelerated
programs that enable students to earn college credits while completing
a high school diploma.

Ballston Spa Superintendent Joseph P. Dragone said his district began
to pursue the idea after he saw a similar program at a Columbus, Ohio
high school. The program, which involves a partnership with Ohio State
University, teaches STEM subjects – Science, Technology, Engineering,
and Mathematics – while exposing students to career opportunities.

Dragone was so impressed that he decided to start an early college
high school in Ballston Spa, which is located about five miles away
from a new microchip plant in Malta. GlobalFoundries, a world leader
in computer-chip fabrication, has just opened a $5 billion plant in
Saratoga County – described as “the largest commercial capital
expansion project in the USA” and expected to be a major provider of
high-tech jobs in the region.

With neighbors like that, “we’ve been working very hard on
innovation,” Dragone said. “Teaching and learning have to evolve to
meet the needs of the 21st Century. That’s really what this is about.”

Students’ introduction to clean energy begins with the ride from
Ballston Spa to the TEC-SMART building in Malta; they’re transported
on low-emission propane-powered buses, which are part of Ballston
Spa’s fleet.

Students spend five mornings a week at TEC-SMART, taking college
courses taught by Hudson Valley professors on two days and high school
classes taught by Ballston Spa High School teachers on three days. The
curriculum includes math and environmental science as well as more
esoteric courses including Sustainable Design, Nanotechnology,
Photovoltaic & Electrical Design and Legal & Ethical Environment of
Business.

For Ballston Spa teachers Matt Glogowski, John Balet and Sara Grube-
Edwards, the program is a chance to challenge students outside of a
typical school curriculum. For instance, one project had students
conducting energy audits on school buildings and analyzing data to
present to the district. Other classes had them developing “New
Urbanism”-style city downtowns and presenting their ideas to civic
leaders – all while learning math, science and other STEM skills.

Students say it’s a challenging program, and that’s what they like
about it.

“We’ve got actual college classes with college professors,” said Brian
Holmes, a junior. “It takes a lot of getting used to.” But, he added,
“you really grow up as a person. You adjust, and it’s really, really
beneficial.”

Some students said the classes opened their eyes to possible careers.
Greg Welch, a Ballston Spa senior, said he wants to move out West and
become a wind turbine technician. He even has a dream of starting his
own installation company.

“With fossil fuels in decline, it’s going to get better and better,”
he said of the industry. “I never really knew what I wanted to do –
until this program.”

The program has proved popular, and word has spread to other school
districts. The fall 2012 semester will include 75 more students from
as many as 12 school districts from across the Capital Region.

School districts wishing to send students to the program will have to
pay Ballston Spa a tuition fee, much like a BOCES course. Ballston Spa
is currently working with private businesses and industry leaders to
provide funding for future classes to ensure access to all students.

The community college charges tuition for the college-level courses.
This year’s tuition was covered by the state Smart Scholars grant, and
NYSERDA will pick up the tab in 2012-13 in the form of scholarships.

For more information, visit the Ballston Spa school district website
at www.bscsd.org, call (518) 884-7195 ext. 1305 or email
swil...@bscsd.org.

Alan Wechsler is communications officer for New York State Energy
Research and Development Authority

[Claire Houlihan]

Just in case you missed it, there was a great article in the
Schenectady Gazette about the Smart Scholars program.

Schenectady Early College effort gets $100K

Sunday, April 29, 2012

By Michael Goot (Contact)
Gazette Reporter

SCHENECTADY — Schenectady County Community College’s program to give
high school students a taste of college has gotten a big financial
boost.

The Schenectady Foundation has awarded a $100,000 grant to the Smart
Scholars Early College program that allows Schenectady High School
students to take college level classes.

The program began in 2010 with a goal of eventually serving 400
students. It was initially funded through a $447,5000 grant from the
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. It aims to serve economically
disadvantaged and minority students who traditionally have not
graduated high school and continued on to higher education.

During their freshman and sophomore years, the students take their
classes in special sections at the high school. They will take college-
level classes at SCCC during their junior and senior years while
simultaneously earning high school and college credit. In addition,
freshmen take a one-credit study skills seminar at the college.

Schenectady Foundation Executive Director Robert Carreau said the
organization is very supportive of the program. “I think they’re
really promoting kids staying in school and having probably elevated
opportunities for getting into college,” he said.

Only about 58 percent of students graduate from Schenectady High
School.

Carreau said he is impressed with the partnership between the college
and the Schenectady City School District. The high school is not
“cherry picking” the most academically gifted students for the
program. “They’re identifying kids who could be anywhere from a ‘D’ to
a ‘B’ average but who have some potential that maybe they’re not
taking full advantage of. By getting some attention and support from
this program, we’re hoping they’ll improve their academic
performance,” he said.

The funding will be used primarily to provide summer programs for the
students, according to Carreau.

“One of the issues a lot of these programs deal with is the dropoff in
the breaks and being able to continue to support the students in their
studies and activities in the summer and to provide more counseling
and support to them during the year,” he said.

The Schenectady Foundation gives out between 12 and 15 grants per year
from its endowment. Its total grant budget this year is a little more
than $800,000, according to Carreau.

The college also received funding from the New York State Education
Department to support the initiative as well as in-kind resources from
SCCC and Schenectady High School.

There are currently 78 10th-grade students and 94 ninth-grade
students. There are an additional 19 ninth-grade students in a special
science, math, engineering and technology (STEM) focused curriculum.
In the fall, there will be 100 new students in the regular group and
50 in the STEM group, according to the college.

College officials said they were grateful for the Schenectady
Foundation’s grant.

“Smart Scholars is a groundbreaking new program that improves learning
outcomes for at-risk students while they also earn college credit; and
this grant will allow us to further expand this program to allow for
more one-on-one tutoring, more workshops and field trips and expanded
summer sessions,” said SCCC President Quintin Bullock in a press
release. “It is a win-win for this tremendous program and the
Schenectady community.”

In addition to the tutoring and summer program, the grant will also
support college-level course instruction, supplies and transportation
to and from campus, internships, and field trips.