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Scheck Hillel Community School's Club Awarded Prestigious Grants
North Miami Beach – Scheck Hillel Community School’s Girls Building STEAM Club has been awarded two grants for the student-developed program entitled, “Designing the Future: Using Fashion to Address Ecological Needs.” This innovative program is exclusively for girls in Grades 3-10.
Conceived by the student club, this initiative will team Lower School students with Upper School mentors to investigate ecological issues specific to the South Florida environment. Teams will design and produce wearable fashion that will bring attention to and help find solutions for the problems the students have identified.
“Designing the Future epitomizes Scheck Hillel’s commitment to empowering our students to maximize achievement, explore passions and foster identity,” said Vanessa Donaher, Scheck Hillel’s Head of School. “We are grateful to the Greater Miami Jewish Federation, TERRA and faculty advisor Nancy Penchev for bringing our students’ innovative spark of an idea to life.”
Designing the Future is partially funded by two grants. The Impact Women’s Initiative of the Greater Miami Jewish Federation will support the program’s faculty, a project exhibit and the opportunities for students to present at the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) conference in Philadelphia and the FETC: Future of Education Technology Conference in Orlando. The Technology, Education, Research & Redesign Alliance (TERRA, Inc.) grant will expand Scheck Hillel’s Multimedia Maker Lab beyond traditional Design/STEM areas of study with technology and equipment for fashion design, robotics, art and jewelry production.
Nancy Penchev, Scheck Hillel’s I Lab Instructor and Lower School Technology Coordinator, guided the students through the program development and grant application processes and is eager for next steps. “We will research local ecological issues, interview experts, design and produce the fashion and share our process with the world through @girlsbuildingsteam and #eHillel on Instagram and Twitter,” she said.
Scheck Hillel applauds the club’s Grade 7 students who led the grant application process: Ellie Esquenazi, Eva Gelb, Zohara Schrager, and Jessica Waxenghiser.
Designing the Future will launch in February 2019 and will present a spring showcase of research findings and fashion products. After the showcase, the students will auction the fashion and distribute earnings to the school's Kulanu Scholarship Fund and the Girls Building STEAM program.
Scheck Hillel’s I Lab is a dedicated space for inspiration and innovation, designed to extend Kindergarten-Grade 5 classroom learning in an environment that promotes collaboration and experimentation. In the I Lab, students engage in developmentally sequenced activities focused on Design/STEM concepts with a social studies focus. In Grades 6-12, the Multimedia Maker Lab is the hub for Design/STEM learning. Scheck Hillel offers a 4-year high school Design/STEM program of hands-on laboratory courses designed to mimic work environments in the real world. Inquisitive learners who are tenacious creative problem-solvers may apply to the program for Grade 9. The application for fall 2019 is now open.
From early childhood through Grade 12, Scheck Hillel Community School educates and inspires students to become exemplary global citizens with enduring Jewish identity, values and a commitment to the State of Israel, through a college preparatory curriculum and meaningful co-curricular experiences, guided by Orthodox teachings and set within a nurturing, diverse community. Scheck Hillel is one of the world's largest Jewish community day schools and a National Blue Ribbon School of Excellence.
The mission of the Greater Miami Jewish Federation is to mobilize human and financial resources to care for those in need, strengthen Jewish life and advance the unity, values and shared purpose of the Jewish people in Miami, in Israel and around the world.
TERRA is a non-profit organization whose mission is to mobilize the resources, knowledge, and capacity of individuals, foundations, business and industry in shaping and facilitating educational policy, practice, and research for increased achievement in a global environment.
