New York Academy of Sciences Education Fellow Teaching Credential

New York Academy of Sciences Fellows are drawn primarily from our Science Alliance, the career education, development, and training arm of New York Academy of Sciences. The Science Alliance is a consortium of universities, teaching hospitals, and independent research facilities committed to advancing the careers of students and postdocs in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. The Alliance provides career advice and opportunities to network and interact with investigators across many institutions and disciplines.

The New York Academy of Sciences Mentoring Fellowship Program was designed to bring a much needed resource-energetic, innovative, young STEM professionals-to the City's Afterschool programs. This experience is also designed to increase the teaching and outreach skills of graduate students, provide role models to middle school students and increase their STEM content knowledge, and increase the capacity of the afterschool programs to offer STEM programming to those who need it most.

Young STEM professionals who complete the program will receive a New York Academy of Sciences Fellow Teaching credential. In order to receive this credential, young professionals will have:

• Completed at least twenty-four hours of teaching and training over the course of a period of time with middle school-aged students who come from groups traditionally underrepresented in the STEM fields. They will also have co-taught with a staff member from the site they are placed.
• Completed the curriculum workshop on specific teaching and mentoring techniques geared towards their content area. This training includes a focus on lesson and unit planning, teaching lab skills, using age-appropriate vocabulary, inquiry teaching techniques, and hands-on demonstration and teaching skills.

Additional benefits of the Fellow credential include gaining experience with classroom management, working with English Language Learners and diverse populations of students, and gaining exposure to other youth development principles. Fellows will also have the chance to add youth development professionals and graduate students to their professional network.

Partners

The New York Academy of Sciences Afterschool STEM Mentoring Program, in collaboration with the New York City Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD), will match NYC's graduate students and postdocs with afterschool programs in New York City. The program will address the dearth of access to hands-on science for underserved communities by delivering new and engaging curricula to middle school students.

Sponsors

This program was made possible by generous support from the The Achelis and Bodman Foundations, The Dr. Robert C. and Veronica Atkins Foundation, Carnegie Corporation of New York, Fordham Street Foundation, Goldman Sachs Gives - Paul Walker, The William Randolph Hearst Foundations, Infosys Foundation USA, The Pamela B. and Thomas C. Jackson Fund, Drs. Gabrielle Reem and Herbert Kayden, Laurie J. Landeau, Martin Leibowitz, National Science Foundation (DRL 1223303), New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, New York Community Trust, Stavros Niarchos Foundation, The Pinkerton Foundation, PricewaterhouseCoopers, The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Staten Island Foundation, Verizon Foundation, and The Laura B. Vogler Foundation.

Grant Support

The Afterschool STEM Mentoring Program is supported in part by the National Science Foundation (DRL-1223303). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.