Growth Sector aims to keep up with student needs and development theory trends, so creating training opportunities for staff and students is always a top priority. During the Covid-19 pandemic, STEM Core staff and students transitioned to remote learning, requiring them to build new skills and confidence to stay on track with the program. Growth Sector worked with Leadership Development Facilitator Jessica Evora to implement a series of five workshops for STEM Core staff and students to support these changes.
STEM Core administrators participated in an interactive online training with specific proven strategies to increase their confidence and resilience as educators and facilitators. The training emphasized how to engage diverse populations of postsecondary students in STEM fields and helped identify ways for STEM Core administrators to increase their own confidence and resilience right away, thereby improving the experience of the cohorts they support.
Building confidence in the STEM Core student population (underrepresented groups in STEM) has always been a focus within the network, but even more so as students shifted to remote and online learning models. This workshop series combines the research of Dr. Sean Anchor (positive psychologist and author of The Happiness Advantage, 2010, and Big Potential, 2018), and Dr. Gemma Leigh Roberts (organizational psychologist and founder of the Resilience Edge).
A student-focused training on confidence and resilience was also offered across the network by hub in Spring 2021. Growth Sector looks to continue to build student skills holistically to equip them for success as STEM students.
