Another NCCEP Capacity Building Workshop (CBW) has come to an end. NCCEP holds the annual CBW in February and this year’s conference was in sunny Orlando, FL. The Xcalibur team was in attendance to talk with grantees, meet new GEAR UP staff and learn tips and tricks to make our work even stronger.
Attendees of the CBW heard from NCCEP staff, including interim president and VP of government relations Alex Cho, Chrissy Tillery, VP of research and evaluation and Betty Ortiz, VP of programs.
Breakfast each morning included an inspiring keynote from Pamela Talbert, assistant principal at Istrouma Middle School in Baton Rouge, Louisiana who, through the help of teachers like those in our GEAR UP schools learned to read and worked her way from janitor to vice principal and is currently working on her PhD. Dr. Tony Jack, assistant professor at Harvard and first gen student, spoke to us about the hidden curriculum
many of our low income and first gen students face when they attend post-secondary education and how GEAR UP can help prepare them. Finally, Dan Lerner from NYU encouraged us to think about the science of happiness.
Harvard professor Dr. Tony Jack talks to us about his research on the Privileged Poor
CBW is all about learning new ways to serve our GEAR UP students, staff and schools. Sessions on a variety of topics from data visualization to storytelling to becoming Equity Warriors allow attendees to learn from the seasoned presenters and share their own experiences to the group. Many of Xcalibur’s clients offered their own sessions to share their success with other GEAR UP grants.
Indiana GEAR UP presents how they have created a STEM Eco System
As usual, Xcalibur had a vendor booth where we connected with current and potential clients
. And this time we brought props! Along with some fun Xcalibur swag (sunglasses anyone?), people stopping by the booth could take data selfies with nerd glasses, pocket protectors and speech bubbles proclaiming their love for data.
Some lucky winners entered our data selfie contest and were randomly selected to receive a gift card!
Nashville MNPS GEAR UP knows its all about the data!
Don’t worry if you didn’t get a chance to take your own data selfie, we promise to have these props at our 2020 Xcalibur Conference in Nashville and at the NCCEP Annual Conference this summer.
As always, we each walked away from the NCCEP CBW with new ideas, new connections and even more inspiration to continue in our mission to ensure you can make data-driven decisions to maximize impact of students, build advocacy to create sustainable funding for your grant.
