Core-LX Part of Catalyze Challenge Winning Solution Team
In an effort to spark innovation in education and connect young learners to meaningful economic opportunities, the Catalyze Challenge announced 25 grant winners (up to $500,000 per grant) on Sept. 13, 2022. Core Learning Exchange (Core-LX) is excited to share that with the leadership of the National Indian Education Association and partners Bowler School District and College of Menominee Nation, we’re part of the team named a Catalyze Challenge winner. Over the next two years we’re joining with other innovators who are transforming education for youth through career connected learning.
“The American education system promises opportunity for all – but too many students graduate from school without a clear path to achieving career success. We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to rethink what education offers and create new, better systems that work for more youth,” said Dr. Lisa Duty, EVP, Core Learning Exchange. “With our partners, we aim to support a generation of Native American youth to realize their economic potential on their own terms, and help close indigenous wealth and achievement gaps.”
Winners of the Challenge were selected from a pool of roughly 550 total applicants based on the strength of their solutions to better connect education and career in their communities, and their commitment to driving equity through models rooted in career-connected learning. Our winning solution is summarized below:
The National Indian Education Association is committed to promoting education sovereignty in our communities. “Building” Career Pathways for Native Students is a middle school to post-high school pathway project that seeks to increase the number of Bowler School District students who obtain a degree or certification for construction trades to serve three Native American nations: Menominee, Stockbridge-Munsee and Ho-Chunk. Through early experiential engagement with virtual reality and digital courseware from Core-LX, a mobile construction lab, support from a community Council of Partners, and dual enrollment with College of Menominee Nation, students will have access to a living wage career which addresses the tribal housing crisis and fills a critical gap in the workforce for these three nations.
For many Native American nations, initial vocational education efforts by the Federal Government were intended to ‘deculturalize’ students by removing them from their place, their values, their language and their practices. Students will get the opportunity to gain academic knowledge and professional skills in ways that align to and reflect their culture and allow them to remain in their communities. In addition to school coursework and construction clinics, community employment partners will support student practice in construction trades where they are underrepresented while also helping to increase the supply of affordable housing to combat the housing crisis prevalent in Native communities. The vision addresses components of the secondary to college and career pipeline with coordinated action and systems thinking and draws strength from a commitment to sustainable development concepts and practices tested over centuries in the Menominee forest.
The Catalyze Challenge is a joint venture among American Student Assistance® (ASA), Arnold Ventures, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Charles Koch Foundation, Charter School Growth Fund, the Joyce Foundation, and the Walton Family Foundation, to date totaling nearly $10 million in funding to 40 innovative solutions across 24 states. Congratulations to all of the Grantees representing an innovative range of nonprofits, community organizations, entrepreneurs, employers, and cross-sector partnerships.
Read the Catalyze Challenge press release here. Photo credit: Unknown.