SPIN Girls Monthly Newsletter | September 2021

Happy Back to School!

As most of you prepare for in-person learning, I hope you have an amazing start to the school year! Please let me know if there's anything SPIN can do to help you with your in-person or virtual learning experience.

In this month's newsletter, you'll find a summary of program changes, the schedule for September, a welcome to our new cohort, and some resources to help you out. Let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

- Jaira

AUGUST RECAP

Welcome 2021-2024 Epic Cohort! We will be meeting all of the newest and returning members of SPIN Girls (from all cohorts) at the Orientation/Welcome back event.

Student Feedback. Here's a summary of feedback we received from students during the 2021 Summer Retreat and our response:

  • Students acknowledged that their mentors did the best they could with the virtual circumstances. In addition, students would like more mentor hangouts outside of SPIN and more opportunities to job shadow. To facilitate this, we are encouraging more mentor-mentee hangout scheduling (can be in-person as long as guardians/students/mentors permit). We are also emphasizing the importance of offering job shadow opportunities to potential mentors before they commit to the program.

  • Students expressed that the zoom lab days were hard. In response, we have planned for the 2021-2022 program year to be mostly in-person. However, if things change and we have to go virtual again, we will plan for more simplified yet interactive zoom sessions.

  • Students enjoyed most of the curricula but wanted something a little bit more challenging than the App Development curriculum. So, instead Luminous will be learning a new Robotics curriculum (if the students like it, we will keep it for future cohorts).

RESOURCES

Seattle Public Schools Fall 2021 Resources Includes resources on health/wellness and important information regarding the transition back to in-person instruction.

King County Free COVID-19 Test Sites and Rite-Aid Free Test Sites includes a list of free test sites (including sites with language interpretation available)

Smithsonian Magazine is announcing Museum Day on September 18, 2021. Check it out for FREE tickets.

LOOKING FORWARD

  • I have sent out registration links for Connect to our new students. The email was sent from "STEM Paths Innovation Network" with the subject "Online Connect Access". Please use the link to make an account and fill out the assigned paperwork before the start of our program, September 25th 2021. If you are having trouble accessing these documents please let me know.

  • Orientation/Welcome Back on September 25th. More information will be emailed within the next few weeks.

  • Lab Day #1 on October 16th in-person at Tukwila Community Center.

    • Epic Cohort (8th grade): 9:30AM-1:30PM

    • Luminous Cohort (9th grade): 9:30AM-1:30PM

    • Stellar Cohort (10th grade): 12:30PM-4:30PM

  • For the entire schedule, visit https://www.stempaths.org/spin-girls under the Frequently Asked Questions section.

Guest UserComment