Creativity and Connection: Student-Led Innovations to Enhance their Schools Using inspirED
Tomorrow’s leaders must be able to problem-solve creatively, work together across disciplines, and harness technology. We will explore the role of secondary education and online youth empowerment training (the inspirED program) in supporting youth to develop 21st century skills of emotional intelligence, creative problem solving, teamwork, and technology skills. inspirED is a free set of resources that support middle and high school students in forming a team and completing a project at their school to enhance the school climate. inspirED is built upon a creative problem-solving framework named ABCD (assess your school, brainstorm ideas, commit to and complete a project, debrief your impact), that integrates social and emotional skills at each step. With over 750 registered schools across the United States, inspirED teams have completed hundreds of projects that ensure their schools are safe, supportive environments where everyone can learn. Moreover, graduates of inspirED schools report how the skills they gained during middle and high school have helped them with the transition to college and the workforce. We will present a recent longitudinal study of inspirED that included 22 middle and high schools, in which we found that after the completion of their first projects, significant changes were already measurable across school climate domains of teaching quality, student relationships, emotional safety, and school pride. In addition to research findings, we will provide practical project examples, and audience members will leave with access to the free inspirED resources that allow any school to launch their own teams and projects.
- Start: 21 April 2023
- End: 21 April 2023
- Attendance: Online
- Location: N/A , , United States