Rural Tech Project

Premont Independent School District has partnered with the Rural Schools Innovation Zone (RSIZ) to develop the Leaders in Future Technology (LIFT) Capstone and serve students in RSIZ Career Academies. This partnership serves a population of 25 students in 11th and 12th grades throughout each year of the Rural Tech Project. The students participating in the LIFT Capstone are representative of the region’s demographics — 70% are economically disadvantaged, 10% qualify for special education services, and many reside in remote areas with no access to internet or broadband. In fact, the RSIZ campus provides the sole source of reliable internet for much of the community. There is a pressing need to provide technology education at no additional cost to the students; to meet this need, RSIZ’s program is providing all resources (including laptops, internet, transportation, and mentoring) to participating students free of charge. 

RSIZ has developed a Rural Tech Project program that aims to achieve three key goals. First, this program will boost student participation and representation by ensuring capstone students will accurately reflect enrollment from the three school district partners, including gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. Second, it aims to secure more student outcomes and opportunities, with the hope that Capstone participants express interest in technology by enrolling in a technology-related postsecondary program, building technology products to solve community problems, and entering the workforce in a technology-related occupation. Third, it hopes to continue the program as a Capstone experience for RSIZ academy students after the Rural Tech Project funds are exhausted.

The RSIZ LIFT Tech Startup Incubator has launched with the implementation of Phase 2. Students are developing technology-enabled solutions to address challenges in their community, with the end goal of pitching solutions to a judging panel at the year’s end. The program has selected 11 students, with two of the five RSIZ Career Academies represented. Students from all three RSIZ school district partners are represented. Students will earn competency-based badges through IBM SkillsBuild in Emerging Technology and Professional Skills in a Digital World, while learning entrepreneurship principles delivered by their Academy instructors. From August to April, each Academy Team will develop a technology-enabled solution to help solve a community-wide challenge faced by its academy’s industry. 

How to get in touch:

• Community Engagement Manager: CareerCraft led by Heather Thomas
• Team Lead: Michael Gonzalez

Learn about Premont:

• School Website
• Facebook

• Premont ISD website
• Brooks County ISD website
• Freer ISD website

Premont in the news:

• Premont ISD named national finalist for Rural Tech Project
• Entrepreneurship for rural youth and communities

Students have started the new school year with novel ideas and a renewed energy. The STEM Discovery Team’s concept is to design a drone response system for forest fires in their community. Building from last year, the Grow Your Own Educator Team’s idea is to design a portable X-ray machine for sports, so that time is not wasted in the commute to the hospital. As students progress, they will work with mentors including the team’s Community Engagement Manager and Eloy Garza, a former teacher, who has created a technology and work-based learning platform for teachers to connect with business partners. 

In tandem with their entrepreneurial pursuits, students are working to earn two competency-based badges from IBM SkillsBuild. The Exploring Emerging Tech badge students are working toward helps students understand how technology is used to solve real world problems. Topics for September include:

• What is Cloud Computing?
• How is Cloud Computing Used?
• What is Artificial Intelligence?
• Artificial Intelligence in Practice
• What is Cybersecurity?
• How is Cybersecurity Used?

The students will also work toward additional badges like Working in a Digital World: Professional Skills — covering topics such as effective communication, collaboration, and presenting with purpose. 

In order to support a Train-the-Trainer model, the team has created and implemented new materials to help educators and students work at their own paces. These materials include:

• Pacing Guide
• Master Entrepreneurship Facilitator Guide
• Master Entrepreneurship Facilitator Guide Slide Deck
• Grow Your Own Educator Student Guide and Portfolio
• STEM Discovery Team Student Guide and Portfolio

Recent highlights

During the first quarter of 2022, LIFT Capstone participants continued to develop their projects and talk to relevant experts. One team received project feedback from Marissa Holiday from Colorado University and C.J. Neumann from the Seattle Seahawks.

In the summer, the team is planning a trip to Austin, Texas, to learn about the intersection of technology and entrepreneurship. Places they will visit include:

• Capital Factory
• Trinity University
• IMPACT Lab at Austin Community College
• Fashion Incubator at Austin Community College
• Kendra Scott Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership Institute at The University of Texas at Austin
• Office of Inclusive Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement at The University of Texas at Austin
• The LaunchPad at The University of Texas at Austin

Upcoming

During the initial planning phase, the Google Analytics certification was identified as a prime certification opportunity for LIFT Capstone participants to pursue and obtain. Once LIFT teams have operational websites to promote their businesses/solutions, we feel that the Google Analytics training will be more appropriate and better received. Feedback from instructors indicates that this year’s students may not yet have enough knowledge and training to be successful in obtaining the certification. An additional certification option is being investigated.  Specifically, the Entrepreneurship and Small Business certification from Certiport.  

The team has also begun planning for the 2022-2023 LIFT Capstone cycle. At least six applications have already been submitted by students seeking to participate in next year’s program. 

Premont ISD’s program involves two “academy teams,” each developing a technology-enabled solution that helps solve a community-wide challenge faced by their academy’s industry: the Grow Your Own Educator Academy Team and the STEM Discovery Zone Academy Team.

The Grow Your Own Educator Academy Team has developed several initial concepts of its technology-enabled solution. The students comprising this team are aspiring educators and educational leaders. Through observation at their district campuses, the team has determined that a problem exists during student arrival and dismissal times: It is challenging to know which students were on the buses in the morning and have arrived at school. Similarly, it is challenging to know which students have boarded the buses to return home in the afternoons.

The team aims to develop a tracking system that will allow school staff to easily determine which students were on the buses and have arrived at school each morning and determine which students successfully boarded the bus in the afternoon to return home. A prototype for a tracking beacon will be developed which can be attached to student backpacks. Information from the beacons will be sent to an app or website to provide summaries of student arrivals and dismissals.

The team has a secondary, related concept which could leverage the tracking technology. The team indicates that a problem exists during instructional time when students leave the classroom to go to the restroom or see the nurse. Some students do not promptly return to class and roam the school building. A digital tracking system could help identify students taking too long and misusing instructional time.

The STEM Discovery Zone Academy Team has developed an initial concept of their technology-enabled solution. The students comprising this team are aspiring engineers and technology professionals. Through observation within their small, rural communities, the team has determined that a problem exists in small municipalities in terms of finding grants and grant writers to apply for funding for public projects. The team aims to develop an online portal or marketplace to help small towns and cities identify grant opportunities to fund public projects. Additionally, the technology solution will provide a matching function to help match municipalities with qualified grant writers, since many small towns may not have a staff member to specifically write grant proposals.

Both teams are researching the potential market for their technology solution and soliciting early feedback from stakeholders to determine the feasibility of their concepts. Now that the teams have identified a specific community issue that they wish to address with a technology-enabled solution, technology advisors need to be recruited and vetted to support the teams. A vision for Premont’s program is to bring the second cohort of teams to Austin, Texas, for a summer field experience.