By requiring industry-based credentials for CTE students and encouraging all students to interact with industry professionals, Louisiana’s Jump Start program is revolutionizing career education.
Read full story here.
A recent Gallup poll of 1 million students in the U.S. found that only half report feeling engaged in school and one-fifth are actively disengaged. The poll showed engagement levels decline significantly as students get older, bottoming out in 11th grade.
by Kevin Jarrett
May 5, 2016 on Edutopia
As the end of the school year is almost here (already?), our Digital Shop capstones are underway in earnest. Approaching the end of the program’s first year, we’re asking ourselves, “What’s gone well? What could be better? How should our program evolve for 2016-17?” In this month’s post, I share some of our thoughts regarding enhancements to our makerspace design, curriculum, scheduling, and my own skill set.
Read full article here.
by Christina Carrion on April 19, 2016
Imagine being 7 years old and learning about fractions for the first time. For some, the concept of fractions is easy to understand, for others, there is a need to apply this new concept to the real world, and what better way to than through food. We can all relate to food.
Who uses fractions in measurement and recipes? A baker for one.
Read full article here.
by Anthony Noto on April 8, 2016
New York Business Journal
At a time when fewer startups are able to attain venture capital, less glamorous sectors such as education technology suffer the consequences.
Companies that specialize in this space, especially if they’re led my women and minorities, find it harder to attain financial backing. The New York City Education Forum is attempting to change all that.
Read full article here.
By Michael Hutchins on March 24, 2016
Herald Democrat
As a part of an initiative to create a pipeline for locally available jobs, economic developers and local educators have teamed up over the past year to bring training for advanced manufacturing into the classroom. With many of these programs in place or expected to start shortly officials are shifting their focus to include another major Texoma industry: health care.
Read full article here.
March 25, 2016
New partnerships and global initiatives will bring exciting changes in 2016.
I’ve had the opportunity to work with a number of wonderful organizations and people over the years. The Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration (CILC) is one of those organizations that is working on some exciting new initiatives aimed at eliminating barriers to education and providing a holistic global experience for both students and teachers. CILC helps develop, support and evaluate interactive video conferencing and facilitate distance learning. The organization constantly applies innovative technologies to connect rural students with access to world-class education experiences.
Read full article here.
by Patrick Kobler
Mar 22, 2016
Dallas Innovates
Ed tech startup Nepris is leveraging virtual connectivity technologies to bring industry experts into the classroom.
“Nepris brings the world to every student no matter where they live or what their socioeconomic barriers are,” says Sabari Raja, CEO and co-founder of Nepris. “A student in rural Texas gets to talk with a neurosurgeon from New York, a botanist from Scotland, and an animator from Russia.”
You can read the complete article here.
THE Journal
By Joshua Bolkan
03/01/16
The Manor Independent School District has adopted a technology platform designed to bring industry into the classroom.
Nepris allows teachers to request a virtual session with an expert, researcher, professional or other industry representative in an effort to bring classroom concepts to life, evaluate student work or mentor students on particular projects.
Read full article here:
AUSTIN, Texas – March 1, 2016 – At Manor Independent School district in the Austin area, students have explored a book bonanza, learned about intergalactic travel, measured sources of energy, built companies, met flying foxes, and watched test tubes explode without setting foot outside their classroom. Thanks to a grant from Samsung Austin Semiconductor (SAS), these sessions and dozens more were made possible by Nepris, a cloud-based technology platform, which connects teachers with experts and working professionals for online live interactions with students.
Last year in a limited number of Manor ISD schools, Samsung pilot tested Nepris, which virtually connected teachers and students with Samsung employees and other professionals. Teachers overwhelmingly commended Nepris for how it opened doors and brought exciting live conversations and virtual tours of faraway workspaces to their students. With the positive feedback, Samsung decided to extend the sponsorship for an additional three years. Now every teacher at Manor has the ability to invite thousands of professionals into their classroom for online interactive sessions.
“We have always supported Manor ISD through employee engagement opportunities, but with a technology platform like Nepris, it provides an avenue for Samsung employees to engage with classrooms more frequently versus once or twice a year during career days or onsite visits,” said Melanie Flowers, human resources development manager at SAS.
Nepris is a community of teachers and professionals who want to collaborate with each other but haven’t been able to connect efficiently and effectively until now. Teachers can request a virtual session with professionals, researchers, experts and companies to bring abstract topics to life, to mentor students on projects or evaluate student work. Companies like Samsung can easily engage their employees by offering mock interviews, virtual tours, and “meet the engineer”-like sessions focusing on STEM and the Arts. Any number of classrooms can sign up easily to participate in these online interactive conversations.
Angela Matthews, chief technology officer of Manor ISD describes Nepris as a way to “tear down the walls.” “Our students are able to experience the world outside Manor ISD. The real world is brought directly to them. The students, whether in first grade or seniors in high school, are able to see the connection of what they learn in the classroom to real world experiences. Having professionals interact directly with the students makes the curriculum come to life.”
“At Samsung, our goal is to open students’ eyes and inspire their inquisitive nature. Through Nepris, Samsung employees can make an impact beyond where we can physically travel. Now, our employees can reach students locally or across the globe with the same amount of effort,” added Mrs. Flowers.
Nepris offers teachers the ability to see archived sessions for free, to sign-up for a license to request sessions of their own, or to participate in industry offered sessions at Nepris.com.
About Nepris
Dallas-based Nepris gives companies, professionals and experts a way to reach out to and connect with classrooms while providing teachers a way to reach out to and connect with professionals. Through Nepris, classroom learning comes to life in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) and the Arts. The planning, connecting and meeting occurs online through the Nepris social community. Sessions range from interactive Q&As with working professionals, to virtual field trips, to project mentorships, to live Shark Tanks. See Nepris in action at Nepris.com/webinar or sign-up as a teacher or professional at Nepris.com.
Additional media assets: http://pitch.pe/1Qj2pkm
I love this article by client, Sabari Raja of Nepris, in Dallas Innovates.
Bringing the World to Classrooms in DFW (and Beyond)
January 13, 2016
There is a problem facing the tech world: not enough students are making their way into science, engineering, and tech fields. More alarming is the dearth of minority students and girls who don’t see themselves fitting into these high-skill careers. This is the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) pipeline gap. Only 18 percent of students graduating with engineering degrees are women and the percentage of minorities is even less.
Full article here
System makes it easy for classrooms to engage with workplace professionals
COSTA MESA, Calif. – NOV. 2, 2015 – For the first time, Orange County teachers, school counselors and work-based learning coordinators can seamlessly bring business and industry partners – from around the world or down the street – into the classroom virtually and in real-time, thanks to a unique partnership between the OC Pathways initiative and Nepris. Click to Tweet.
Through Nepris.com, students can engage digitally with business professionals and industry experts to talk about potential careers, work on classroom projects or take virtual tours of modern workplaces through interactive, cloud-based sessions. Teachers simply enter their request into the system, specifying the industry sector, topics and learning outcomes. Nepris automatically matches each request with professionals’ qualifications and hosts the interactive sessions.
The project’s rollout is being funded by OC Pathways, a collaborative, countywide initiative that is working to establish clear career paths for students by linking schools and colleges with businesses and community partners. Led by the Orange County Department of Education and Saddleback College, OC Pathways was established in 2014 through a California Career Pathways Trust grant. It now comprises 14 school districts, nine community colleges, two major universities, four regional occupational programs, three workforce investment boards, numerous community partners and more than 100 businesses.
With OC Pathways’ sponsorship, every K-12 and community college teacher within the collaborative will be granted a Nepris license, potentially reaching more than 5,000 students with a platform that has been successfully implemented since 2013 in schools throughout the country. Recently, the Orange Unified School District, an OC Pathways partner, successfully piloted the use of Nepris.
“Industry partners from within Orange County and beyond now will have a direct link with schools to share their expertise, experience and enthusiasm,” said Jeff Hittenberger, chief academic officer for OCDE. “Nepris gives equitable access to every student to experience workplace learning in a real and personal way.”
Making connections between education and careers is an integral part of the mission, vision and values of OC Pathways, which represents one of the first regionalized approaches to promoting college and career readiness while addressing the needs of local industry in priority sectors. Nepris, meanwhile, has the system in place to make these connections easy and effective. The countywide rollout began in October.
“Our primary goal is to show students a pathway from what they learn in school to college, and then into a career,” said Brian Donnelly, executive director of OC Pathways. “Historically, it has been a challenge for students to see that what they are learning in class does have a real connection to life after school. Nepris brings classroom instruction alive in a way that typical classroom instruction cannot.”
At the community college level, OC Pathways’ focus runs parallel with California Community Colleges’ “Doing What Matters for Jobs and the Economy initiative,” which aligns skills development with jobs. For community colleges to become essential catalysts to California’s economic recovery and job-creation at the local, regional and state levels, students will need to see the relationship between their educational experiences and the jobs they ultimately will pursue.
“Nepris brings a richness to classroom instruction because our students will now be able to talk with people who have already taken their education and turned that into a profession,” said Tony Teng, dean of advanced technology and applied science at Saddleback College, as well as the OC Pathways grant lead for the nine Orange County community colleges.
“Working with the team at Nepris for the past year and a half has been a wonderful experience because they have been supportive at every step,” said Amy Kaufman, work-based learning program specialist for OCDE. “Nepris helps us take our work in integrated academics and project-based learning to a higher level of student engagement. We can’t wait to start working with our local business and industry partners with Nepris to round out this true partnership between education and industry.”
About OC Pathways
The mission of OC Pathways is to facilitate collaboration among schools, colleges and regional business and community partners to ensure that Orange County students are ready for college and career success through participation in learning experiences that integrate rigorous academics and career preparation. OC Pathways is committed to strong educational partnerships, innovative college and career readiness programs, technology-rich and academically engaging learning environments, educational opportunities that support diversity and inclusiveness, engagement with business partners, and the creation of a sustainable Orange County career pathways infrastructure.
About Nepris
Dallas-based Nepris brings STEM to life (and now STEAM, which adds the Arts to science, technology, engineering and mathematics) by connecting professionals with teachers and classrooms who need speakers, project mentors or evaluators for interactive, cloud-based sessions. Nepris makes this a turn-key process: identifying and registering professionals and teachers, matching professionals’ skills to the teachers’ needs, advising on best practices for classroom interaction, hosting the interactive sessions and tracking all the data in a social platform. See Nepris in action at Nepris.com/webinar or sign-up as a teacher or professional at Nepris.com.
Media Contacts:
For OCDE: Ian Hanigan, communications at ocde dot us or 714-966-4008
For Nepris: Jennifer Harrison, jennifer at jharrisonpr dot com or 916-716-0636
COSTA MESA, Calif. – NOV. 2, 2015 – For the first time, Orange County teachers, school counselors and work-based learning coordinators can seamlessly bring business and industry partners – from around the world or down the street – into the classroom virtually and in real-time, thanks to a unique partnership between the OC Pathways initiative and Nepris. Click to Tweet.
Through Nepris.com, students can engage digitally with business professionals and industry experts to talk about potential careers, work on classroom projects or take virtual tours of modern workplaces through interactive, cloud-based sessions. Teachers simply enter their request into the system, specifying the industry sector, topics and learning outcomes. Nepris automatically matches each request with professionals’ qualifications and hosts the interactive sessions.
The project’s rollout is being funded by OC Pathways, a collaborative, countywide initiative that is working to establish clear career paths for students by linking schools and colleges with businesses and community partners. Led by the Orange County Department of Education and Saddleback College, OC Pathways was established in 2014 through a California Career Pathways Trust grant. It now comprises 14 school districts, nine community colleges, two major universities, four regional occupational programs, three workforce investment boards, numerous community partners and more than 100 businesses.
With OC Pathways’ sponsorship, every K-12 and community college teacher within the collaborative will be granted a Nepris license, potentially reaching more than 5,000 students with a platform that has been successfully implemented since 2013 in schools throughout the country. Recently, the Orange Unified School District, an OC Pathways partner, successfully piloted the use of Nepris.
“Industry partners from within Orange County and beyond now will have a direct link with schools to share their expertise, experience and enthusiasm,” said Jeff Hittenberger, chief academic officer for OCDE. “Nepris gives equitable access to every student to experience workplace learning in a real and personal way.”
Making connections between education and careers is an integral part of the mission, vision and values of OC Pathways, which represents one of the first regionalized approaches to promoting college and career readiness while addressing the needs of local industry in priority sectors. Nepris, meanwhile, has the system in place to make these connections easy and effective. The countywide rollout began in October.
“Our primary goal is to show students a pathway from what they learn in school to college, and then into a career,” said Brian Donnelly, executive director of OC Pathways. “Historically, it has been a challenge for students to see that what they are learning in class does have a real connection to life after school. Nepris brings classroom instruction alive in a way that typical classroom instruction cannot.”
At the community college level, OC Pathways’ focus runs parallel with California Community Colleges’ “Doing What Matters for Jobs and the Economy initiative,” which aligns skills development with jobs. For community colleges to become essential catalysts to California’s economic recovery and job-creation at the local, regional and state levels, students will need to see the relationship between their educational experiences and the jobs they ultimately will pursue.
“Nepris brings a richness to classroom instruction because our students will now be able to talk with people who have already taken their education and turned that into a profession,” said Tony Teng, dean of advanced technology and applied science at Saddleback College, as well as the OC Pathways grant lead for the nine Orange County community colleges.
“Working with the team at Nepris for the past year and a half has been a wonderful experience because they have been supportive at every step,” said Amy Kaufman, work-based learning program specialist for OCDE. “Nepris helps us take our work in integrated academics and project-based learning to a higher level of student engagement. We can’t wait to start working with our local business and industry partners with Nepris to round out this true partnership between education and industry.”
About OC Pathways
The mission of OC Pathways is to facilitate collaboration among schools, colleges and regional business and community partners to ensure that Orange County students are ready for college and career success through participation in learning experiences that integrate rigorous academics and career preparation. OC Pathways is committed to strong educational partnerships, innovative college and career readiness programs, technology-rich and academically engaging learning environments, educational opportunities that support diversity and inclusiveness, engagement with business partners, and the creation of a sustainable Orange County career pathways infrastructure.
About Nepris
Dallas-based Nepris brings STEM to life (and now STEAM, which adds the Arts to science, technology, engineering and mathematics) by connecting professionals with teachers and classrooms who need speakers, project mentors or evaluators for interactive, cloud-based sessions. Nepris makes this a turn-key process: identifying and registering professionals and teachers, matching professionals’ skills to the teachers’ needs, advising on best practices for classroom interaction, hosting the interactive sessions and tracking all the data in a social platform. See Nepris in action at Nepris.com/webinar or sign-up as a teacher or professional at Nepris.com.
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Link on Businesswire: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20151102006546/en
Summary: OC Pathways, a CTE initiative to establish career paths for students, is bringing Nepris to every K-12 and community college teacher within the OC Pathways collaborative, potentially serving 5,000 students.
Tweet: Orange County Dept of Ed news: @OCpathwaystrust partner with @NeprisApp for #CTE. Connecting industry w/ OCPathways K12 & higher ed.
Tags: CTE, careers, education, k12, k-12, community college, STEM, career and technical education, Orange County, Nepris, OCDE, school district, school, student, teacher, OC Pathways, work-based learning, Saddleback College
DALLAS – September 29, 2015 – The newest set of features announced today by Nepris allows companies and industry groups to proactively reach out to teachers so they can introduce students to career opportunities and bring real-world relevance to STEM (science, technology, engineering and math). Industry experts and working professionals from companies, associations and research institutions can now “offer sessions” on topics of their choice and – with Nepris’ new social features – interact more with educators. Nepris has also created a white-label version available for industry groups, associations and regional/statewide STEM coalitions. Click to tweet
Nepris is a cloud-based social platform where teachers and industry professionals connect and collaborate through virtual, interactive sessions and show students science, technology, engineering, the Arts and math applied in the real world. Thousands of such sessions have already been held in schools around the country but in an effort to increase the pool of professionals in its system, Nepris has teamed up with LinkedIn for Good, the social impact arm of LinkedIn, to reach out to professionals who can sign up for skills-based volunteering through Nepris. Over half of Nepris’ industry professionals and experts are now crowd-sourced through LinkedIn where members can discover opportunities best matching their skills and sign up to virtually connect with a classroom. See this article in edSurge for more.
“Offered sessions” are gaining traction among associations seeking career and technical education (CTE) outreach. These are proactively offered by a company, individual or academic institution and cover a variety of topics related to workforce readiness or career pathways. Recent sessions include one on careers in nursing and another on forensic photography hosted by the National Association for the Advancement of Forensic and Investigative Science. Upcoming sessions for October include one on immigration issues hosted by the World Affairs Council of Dallas and another on human-microbe interactions hosted by graduate students from the University of Texas, Southwestern Medical Center.
“The newest additions to Nepris coupled with our relationship with LinkedIn for Good are contributing to our double digit growth,” said Sabari Raja, CEO and founder of Nepris. “Our vision is to build Nepris as the connection hub for bringing industry groups, professionals and experts together with schools. Nepris users now can follow their favorite topics and people, have active discussions around a completed session, message anyone within the platform without barriers and assign archived videos to students while monitoring their access. These new features directly affect student engagement and open their eyes to career possibilities while adding relevance to classroom instruction.”
About Nepris
Dallas-based Nepris brings STEM to life (and now STEAM, which adds the Arts to science, technology, engineering and mathematics) by connecting professionals with teachers and classrooms who need speakers, project mentors or evaluators for interactive, cloud-based sessions. Nepris makes this a turn-key process: identifying and registering professionals and teachers, matching professionals’ skills to the teachers’ needs, advising on best practices for classroom interaction, hosting the interactive sessions and tracking all the data in a social platform. See Nepris in action at Nepris.com/webinar or sign-up as a teacher or STEM professional at Nepris.com.
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Contact for the Media: Jennifer Harrison, jennifer at jharrisonpr (dot)com or 916.716.0636
Summary: Nepris brings STEM to life in schools, launches new social features, a white-label version, and industry offered STEM sessions.
Tags: STEM, Nepris, LinkedIn, social media, school, education, classroom, interactive, CTE, career, workforce development, student, k-12, career and technical education
This release on Businesswire: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20150929006723/en
Tweet: Nepris news: new social tools = stronger ties btwn schools & #STEM. Working w/ LinkedIn for Good. @NeprisApp
talkSTEM
June 13, 2015, Koshi Dhingra
Last week, Margaret McEwen, middle school teacher at Parish, shared a project her students worked on that involved Nepris-facilitated interaction with a STEM professional. This week, we hear from the co-founder of Nepris, Sabari Raja.
Read full article in talkSTEM here.
