Our Mission

Our Mission is to help students get rid of career related confusion by providing support to navigate the system and close the gaps.
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Bright Spots and Inspiration

Integrate digital and “world of work” literacy into all learning environments.
Source: Defining What Citizens will Need, McKinsey, 2021Dr. Joanna Goode CSTA 2019
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Growing CS Talent as a Literacy

Student Success

Purpose

Measured by knowledge, attitudes, and sense of computing in their lives.
Computing is 21st century knowledge required for civic and economic participation

CS Content

Pathways with breadth of computing concepts, linked to projects and applications relevant to students and their communities

Targeted students and Recruitment

All Students

Foundational Skills For Citizenship & Identifying CS Talent for Pipeline

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Foundational Skills For Citizenship

COGNITIVE
Critical Thinking
Planning + ways of work
Communication
Mental flexibility

 SELF-LEADERSHIP
Self-awareness,
Self-management
Entrepreneurship
Goals achievement

DIGITAL
Digital fluency + citizenship
Software use + development
Understanding digital systems

INTERPERSONALMobilizing systems
Developing relationships
Teamwork effectiveness

Identifying CS Talent for Pipeline

Targeted Students

Student Success

"Best and the brightest" students who have been identified as having promise and prior experience in computing.
Persistence in the pipeline (Bonus: more diverse "representation" of ethnicities and genders in computer science jobs)
Recruitment

CS Content

Filters such as test scores, teacher recommendation, or "techie" reputation can result in finding high quality talent for CS opportunity's.
Industry-led with emphasis on coding, focus on programming, and using tools of industry; Often 'scripted' curriculum.
Purpose
National imperative to have more diverse students enter the "CS pipeline," often described in terms of corporate economic growth and national security.

Bright Spots and Inspiration

Reduce barriers to participation through incentives and relevant access points.
Source: Source: Gear Up Student Career Interest Survey, 2022n=351, AZ Cyber Informational Interviews, 2022
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Santa Cruz Gear Up

" Santa Cruz County is incentivizing local businesses to take student intern teams. Student interns receive a small stipend to work on a digital internship with local businesses. The businesses don’t pay, it is through a seed grant. To make the model sustainable the County’s ARPA funds will offer forgivable loans and one term of forgiveness is bringing on digital internship the future. "

Pascua Yaqui Tribe & South mountain Community College

"We were offering the program at no cost, but we saw people dropping out, not completing, so we made a mini-badging system so you could
complete short units you needed. We also have hired members of the tribe to provide instruction voice overs for our online tutorials.
It is always better to see and hear someone
like you leading the way."

Center for the future of Arizona

"You have to value people’s time. We pay our educators and students stipends when they participate in our virtual externships."

Sahuarita Unified School District & National Math + Science Initative

"~200% increase in students taking AP classes, NMSI to full implementation. So it works and the magic components are teacher retention by providing professional development in that specific field
support services, like after school tutoring, and or weekend sessions, skills practice, AP mock exams monetary incentives for
performance levels– for students and teachers"

Organizations and their experiences with educating the youth

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Bright Spots and Inspiration

Innovative regional collaboration can redesign for equity and opportunity.
Source: The Big Blur, JFF, 2021AZ Cyber Informational Interviews, 2022n=52 from 6 distinct stakeholder groups
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The Big Blur

Students are confused about what to do after high school. There are trying to determine whether they should continue with post-secondary education or join the labor market.

Best Practices in Existing Models

• Blended courses – combination of in-person coaching with  
   asynchronous course content
• Dual enrollment – early college model for fluid career pathways
• Grade 13 support – wrap around supports to help students
   maintain momentum
• Career-connected pathways – integrated work-based learning
   (WBL) experiences from PreK thru college

Albert Eisntein AEF & StemAZing

STEM and CS literacy skills should begin in elementary school.
"If you’re just going to focus on high school and middle school kids, you’ve probably already lost them well before then. If you want to have a big impact, that stem identity starts so early on in Pre-K."
"Cybersecurity needs to be embedded starting in kindergarten with the standard digital hygiene –password security."

Organizations and their experiences with educating the youth

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Tuscon Metro Chamber & Sunny Side Unified School District

Middle School Career Exploration activities, especially when they include Employer and Community Engagement, help students make more informed educational choices.

Organizations Interviewed Said

"We introduce our CTE wheel at the middle school level, where students as an elective can take a full year class where they get to try different CTE courses or programs that are then offered at the high school level so they have some idea of their interest."
"We get middle school kids involved in job shadow
through our office and they love it"

Testimonial's from organization's about education opportunity's

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about velocity

We want to inspire Arizona High School students to pursue careers in cybersecurity and give them the tools they need to succeed in the evolving digital world.

useful links
AZ Cyber Initiative Home pageThe ChallengeThe OpportunityBright Spots and Inspiration
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Developed By:
Jonathan Bejarano
Text Me at 520-425-9465