Project GRAD is spearheading a college-bound solution and impacting over 134,000 students from low-income communities across the country. Project GRAD has a proven track record nationwide in increasing high school graduation and college attendance rates for low-income students. 

GRAD believes that all students in high-need, low-income schools can graduate successfully from high school and pursue a postsecondary education. Some of GRAD’s initiatives include: 

· GRAD’s College Readiness Initiative targets six mutually reinforcing elements that are integral to successful high school graduation and college matriculation.  Read More

· GRAD’s is also impacting academic excellence and college readiness across the state of Pennsylvania.  Read More 

 COMING SOON:
STEAM Symposium 

Why add an "A" to STEM?

NASHVILLE, TN.  FEBRUARY 15, 2012. This June, Project GRAD USA will partner with Vanderbilt University's Peabody College of Education and Human Development and the George Institute of Technology to co-host a symposium on a pioneering and far-reaching interdisciplinary framework well-positioned to prepare students to succeed in today’s world – STEAM, for Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math. 

Surprised by the “A”?  “Arts” are not traditionally included in the STEM curriculum, which has won favor among k-12 educational reformers in recent years for its relevance to today’s digital world, in which ease with mathematics and engineering offers graduates better career prospects, stronger earning potential, and the best chance at helping the nation compete globally.   

But integrating arts into the curriculum has numerous advantages and proven results.  Within school, it gives students access to the cultural riches of literature, music, and art, made more accessible to STEM-oriented students through a grounding in the harder sciences. Beyond school, an ability to integrate arts with engineering leads to the breakthroughs that allowed Apple to launch one revolutionary product after another.  Students who can cross disciplines with similar grace will hold a clear advantage.

The STEAM curriculum forms the basis of GRAD’s newest k-12 venture, GRAD Restart Academies.  As part of the development of the Restart Academies pilot, GRAD will unite leading thinkers in STEAM and curriculum reform to consider its potential and best practices to date. 

The June symposium will be hosted by Peabody in Nashville TN, with active participation by research and teaching faculty from Georgia Tech, including representatives from the Ivan Allen College of Humanities and Social Sciences, the School of Literature, Communication and Culture, and the Center for Education Integrating Science, Mathematics, and Computing (CEISMC).  

Those interested in more information are invited to contact Dr. Daryl Ogden, CEO of Project GRAD, at dogden@projectgradusa.org.