BY Jackie Leatherman
www.themonitor.com
Jackie Leatherman covers Hidalgo County government and general assignments at The Monitor. She can be reached at (956) 683-4424.
All it took was a rough idea for two Edinburg High School students to bring home $2,000.
Sophomore Victoria Valdez and junior Christina Zerda traveled with four other students from the Rio Grande Valley last month to participate in the 6th Annual Ford Partnership for Advanced Studies Networking Conference in Palm Springs, Calif.
Fourteen students and several teacher nominees nationwide were invited to the conference, which is intended to prepare students for successful careers in business, engineering and technology.
At the three-day conference, the students came up with a business plan for a community project. They voted on which team received the $2,000 grant, and the other six teams received $500 to help implement their proposals.
Victoria and Christina proposed an arts & crafts program for youth at the Edinburg Boys & Girls Club.
Christina, 16, said she was just thinking about how she enjoyed the arts when she was a student and wanted to see more resources for students in Edinburg.
Now, the two are going to approach local Boys & Girls Club leaders to see if they can realize their plan. They’re also going to work on raising money from area businesses and organizations to further expand their project by the end of the year.
The Ford Partnership requires quarterly updates and business plans as they go along with their project.
Victoria, 15, said she was “very surprised” when she learned she and Christina had won the grant.
“I thought our business plan proposal was too short,” she said. “The others seemed kind of lengthy and had a lot of subtext.
I think it was just a matter of making sense throughout the whole business plan. Ours was simple and to the point.”
Area high school teachers have been using Ford projects in their classrooms for the past several years.
Victoria Valdez and Christina Zerda, not pictured, received a $2,000 grant to bring an arts program to the Edinburg Boys & Girls Club.
Photo Credit: Nathan Lambrecht
From The Monitor
, July 8, 2008
From www.candgnews.com
Each earns $10,000 for college
By David Wallace
C & G Staff Writer
WEST BLOOMFIELD &emdash; Three students from West Bloomfield High School won $10,000 national scholarships to pursue engineering degrees in college.
The students participated in the Ford Partnership for Advanced Studies and won the scholarships, which the Society of Manufacturing Engineers sponsored with Ford PAS. West Bloomfield High School has a bit of a dynasty going with the scholarship winners in the past few years.
“Now we have three more, and we had three last year and two the year before. So, over $80,000 in scholarships have been won by our students,” said Kate Soderstrom, the Ford PAS coordinator at West Bloomfield High School. The students receive $2,500 a year for four years.
West Bloomfield students have almost monopolized the scholarships.
“There are four available nationwide, and so for us to have gotten three of them is pretty remarkable,” said Soderstrom.
Read on at: www.candgnews.com
www.matternetwork.com | News and ideas for a sustainable world
June 26, 2008
One of the key issues in reducing the use of energy is educating consumers on their options, especially in the realm of alternative energy. Ford, through its education program, is helping bring that information to high school students through a new curriculum.
The Ford Partnership for Advanced Studies (Ford PAS) has won awards for its educational efforts. Its new curriculum, named “Working Toward Sustainability,” will guide students through the issues surrounding energy consumption and fossil fuels, as well as introduce them to alternative energy center. The curriculum is structured to build on students' existing science knowledge and makes use of extensive hands-on-learning techniques.
The curriculum is being made available to teachers and schools free of charge and can be downloaded from the Ford PAS website. Teachers will also have the opportunity to pick and choose from four modules to help keep the curriculum relevant to their teaching plans and state requirements.
"Ford is excited to introduce a learning module that is generating great interest among students and that will have a clear impact on their futures. Working Toward Sustainability is an example of how classrooms can make a "real-world" connection, in which students offer solutions to the problems we face as a country," said Cheryl Carrier, Program Director for 21st Century Education Programs at Ford Motor Company Fund in a ... Read the entire article at www.matternetwork.com.
Are you currently or have you been enrolled in the Ford Partnership for Advanced Studies (Ford PAS) program? If so, you could be eligible for a scholarship to help you to study with AFS for a summer abroad!
Thanks to a partnership between Ford Motor Company Fund and AFS-USA, Inc., scholarships are now available to Ford PAS students between the ages of 15-20.
Visit http://www.afsfordpas.org/ for all details!