AWARD YEAR: 2021

PARTNERSHIP FOR APPALACHIAN GIRLS' EDUCATION

DIRECTOR: DEBORAH HICKS-ROGOFF, ED.D.

PROJECT TITLE: PAGE: CREATING INNOVATIVE STEM EDUCATION FOR GIRLS IN APPALACHIA

PAGE (Partnership for Appalachian Girls' Education) was founded in 2010 as a program, and launched late in 2020 as a North Carolina nonprofit organization, to create new ladders of educational opportunity for girls who are growing up in vulnerable communities in Appalachian North Carolina.

Our mission in PAGE is to inspire and empower girls through innovative education, so they can become leaders and innovators in a new Appalachia.

We propose a three-year expansion of our investments in learning opportunities for girls in two STEM Education areas: Science and Technology. Our goal is to provide innovative learning opportunities for girls in grades 6-10, so that adolescent girls in Appalachian North Carolina will develop new skills and aspirations in science and technology and be well positioned to enter college and prepare for future leadership roles in STEM fields. Each participant who enters PAGE in 6th grade will have 750 hours of program contact by the time she completes 10th grade.

PAGE’s deepening of STEM opportunities for girls in North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains will be aligned with our broad goals over three years: to INNOVATE with place-based learning opportunities, to EVALUATE PAGE’s impact, to DISSEMINATE our story and curriculum, and to build capacity so that we can REPLICATE (scale PAGE) in other vulnerable rural communities.

We will address the following specific goals:
• To expand our menu of place-based science learning activities that (a) make productive use of Appalachian people, places, and plant life; and (b) support critical inquiry, extended science talk, exploration, and theorizing.
• To create new opportunities for girls to engage in meaningful and creative ways with technology and digital learning.
• To expand the opportunities that Appalachian girls have for summer STEM learning and enrichment, while deepening their learning and engagement with STEM and technology across the school year.
• To connect and disseminate our programs and program participants with local, state, and global communities; fostering the widest possible impact.

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