At a Glance:
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PCEF's new initiatives: Educator & Student Wellness and Real World Learning.
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Educator & Student Wellness has emerged as a critical area of need.
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STEAM, PCCAPS, and CTE combine to create Real World Learning.
PCEF's new key initiatives, Educator & Student Wellness and Real World Learning, place intentional focus on these critical areas.
They will bring additional PCEF support and resources to classrooms and schools in an effort to ensure all Park City students reach their academic and lifelong potential.
Educator and Student Wellness:
When Educators & Students Are Well, Teaching & Learning Are Healthier, Too!
PCEF funds initiatives that inspire all Park City students to successfully reach their academic and lifelong potential with the allocation of millions of dollars for programming. It does this by funding initiatives like Preschool, Afterschool, Classroom Grants, and Bright Futures.
PCEF also does this by providing critical wellness support for educators and students.
PCEF has championed educators since its launch in 1986. For years, it has considered support of teacher and student wellness a vital investment: when teachers and students aren’t distracted by challenges, they can fully focus on teaching and learning.
"Wellness has been a large part of PCEF's funding since 2016 - usually distributed through Classroom Grants. The pandemic, along with the many tragic events in our world, have sharply focused the need to support educators and students beyond pure academics. Anxiety—the mental-health tsunami of the younger generation—has had a huge impact on our students’ wellbeing. And, our educators have spent two years on the front lines, taking care of their students, their own families, and themselves."
- Kara Cody, PCEF's Director of Programs
This year Educator and Student Wellness takes a rightful place as one of PCEF's Key Initiatives. As such, it folds into the framework of PCEF and will receive annual dedicated funding.
Right now, more than ever, it is essential to dig in to support our educators and students in Park City, so that they, our families, and this community can continue to thrive.
Real World Learning:
Putting STEAM to Work
This PCEF Key Initiative prioritizes a longtime theme in PCEF’s funding: real world learning; also called hands-on or project-based learning.
Real-world learning is the heart of STEM education, Career & Technical Education (CTE), and Park City Center for Advanced Studies (PCCAPS).
For the 2022/23 school year, all of those pieces fold into Real World Learning: Putting STEAM to Work!
PCEF donor support has turned both STEM and PCCAPS into groundbreaking examples of hands-on, project-based learning that set Park City students up for success.
Now, those powerhouses merge with the strength of CTE to create Real World Learning to achieve broader, more accessible, more in-depth and far-reaching impact.
Why Add CTE?
It's a critical piece. CTE prepares students for the workforce and/or continuing education. It also simultaneously increases STEM accessibility - while it makes the content more relevant to all students.
Support for STEM and PCCAPS Continues
PCEF will continue to fund programs like the groundbreaking elementary coding program, makerspaces, the nationally-ranked, world-record holding PCHS Robotics teams, and of course, PCCAPS - the capstone program of our students’ Real World Learning.
STEM becomes STEAM
The inclusion of Arts is intentional: it nurtures creativity, problem-solving, and confidence and plays a critical role in careers like music production and graphic design.
PCEF Key Initiatives:
- Preschool
- Elementary Visual Arts (EVA)
- Afterschool
- Bright Futures
- Real World Learning (combines STEM & PCCAPS, adds CTE)
- Educator and Student Wellness
- Classroom and Express Grants
- Innovation Lab
PCEF will have additional information to share on these critical new initiatives in the coming weeks. If you'd like to support students, teachers, and our community, we invite you to donate here.
