The Prudential Center 800 Boylston St #990220 Boston, Ma 02199-9998
Project: Fundación ConEducación
Project Summary
"Fundación ConEducación is a nonprofit institution that aims to close achievement gaps and foster access to high quality education for underprivileged students in Colombia. Anchored in the values of social responsibility, equity, community, advocacy and empathy, at ConEducación we believe that through education, collaborative work between teachers and students, and community building it is possible to increase social mobility and foster an equitable society. To achieve this, our nonprofit organization currently has two main programs: Teacher Professional development workshops and Somos Bachilleres - an academic and psychosocial mentoring program for high school senior students of rural and underprivileged communities.
The teacher PD workshops focus on providing a hands-on experience for teachers to explore different online platforms and to implement active learning in their classrooms, while fostering a collaborative learning community where all teachers (workshop facilitators and attendees) learn from each other’s assets and experiences. This program was launched in September 2020 and we have worked with 31 teachers mainly from public schools in 10 workshops as of March 2021. We have partnered with other organizations like Explore Learning, to provide to participating teachers free accounts to some resources that require subscription.
Somos Bachilleres first pilot will be launched in April 2021 with our first cohort of students from two rural areas in Colombia (Orocué, Casanare and Tumaco, Nariño). This program will provide academic and exam preparation for the high school graduation national standardized test Saber 11, which scores are determinant when accessing higher education. Additionally, students will receive psychosocial mentoring that will help them decide their career pathways after graduating high school and will also be given guidance and support in application processes."
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Presenter: Carolina Amorocho
Presenter Profile
Carolina is a Colombian Educator committed to empower youth and build equity through science learning. Carolina graduated as a Biologist from Universidad Nacional de Colombia and, after 2 years of experience in research and field work, she became a Biology teacher in Colombia. In 2018 she came to Boston for her MAT in Science Teaching at Boston University and has been working at Boston Collegiate Charter School as the 5th grade Science teacher since she graduated BU in 2019. In July 2020, moved by the immense educational strain the pandemic was putting upon social and achievement gaps in Colombia, she and Yuliana created Professional Development workshops for public school teachers - an idea now called ConEducación.
Presenter: Yuliana Palacío
Presenter Profile
Yuliana is a foreign language teacher from Universidad de Antioquia in Medellín, Colombia. Yuliana has experience teaching ELE, EFL and FLE to adult and teenage students from underserved areas in Colombia and the United States. She is also involved in research concerning language and education policies, as well as other educational issues that have an impact on building a more just and inclusive society. In 2019, Yuliana graduated from a Master’s in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies from Boston University. More recently, she has been committed to providing training to teachers from public schools in Colombia which is now consolidating as a non-profit called ConEducación.