After a year of applications, interviews and anticipation, teachers and leaders supporting student engagement and growth at Northridge Elementary School walked across a stage at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House on Tuesday to receive a prestigious Succeeds Prize for Excellence in STEM Education. As over 1,400 applauded their achievements, the focus was still on the strength and achievement of ALL students.
A collaborative effort between Colorado Succeeds, 9NEWS, and mindSpark Learning, The Succeeds Prize is the most prestigious awards and recognition event for Colorado’s public schools and educators. It is a live, one-of-a-kind awards ceremony, followed by a year-long effort to strengthen our state’s public schools through professional development and training for educators aimed at scaling successful innovations and practices across Colorado.
Northridge was recognized as a center for excellence in STEM for the work we have been doing to close the achievement gap and the many opportunities we are providing our students to engage deeper into STEM and their learning, such as genius hour, technology integration and connections to business and community partners.
“Colorado Succeeds is really committed to helping students and public education prepare kids for the future,” said Lorynda Sampson, Principal at Northridge Elementary. “This award is to support the work we’ve been doing to help all students and staff use design thinking to solve real world problems while also creating authentic learning opportunities for students. Northridge has been working on these goals since the district won the Race to the Top grant in 2012.”
The school will receive $15,000 in award money, but the greater reward comes from the students, teachers and staff receiving recognition for all of their hard work and drive to accelerate their learning.