AUSTIN, Texas—Students and educators from Ann Richards School for Young Women Leaders have been selected to present their class projects and experiences at the 2014 Project Lead The Way Summit in Indianapolis, Nov. 2–5.

Project Lead the Way is a national science, technology, engineering and math curriculum and teacher professional development model.

The group representing Ann Richards School for Young Women is one of five invited from across the nation as part of the PLTW program. Attendees will include students, their PLTW teacher and Assistant Principal Anah Wiersema.

The Ann Richards team will talk about their large-scale, real-world project in which they restored a 1977 Airstream travel trailer into an eco-trailer for the faculty. 

“We invited school groups that exemplify Project Lead The Way’s approach to student learning, teaching and community engagement,” said PLTW Senior Vice President and Chief Engagement Officer David Dimmett. “Schools like Ann Richards School connect their classrooms to the real world and make learning relevant for their students.”

The PLTW Summit will bring together nearly 1,500 educators and leaders in the corporate, nonprofit and government sectors. These individuals share a common goal of working together to help students develop the knowledge and skills they need to succeed. The AISD students have been asked to present during one of the event’s general sessions. They will share their projects and class experiences and explain what makes their program unique and successful.

“We gave the teachers’ workroom space to our custodian staff, so our students wanted to provide a collaborative area for our teachers. Thus, they re-vamped this Airstream trailer so that our teachers had the space to collaborate and plan together,” said Ann Richards School Principal Jeanne Goka.

STEM education is a topic of national importance. The U.S. Department of Commerce estimates that jobs in STEM fields will grow 17 percent by 2018—nearly double the growth for non-STEM fields. The department also estimates that by 2018, the U.S. will have more than 1.2 million unfilled STEM jobs because there will not be enough qualified workers to fill them.

The Ann Richards School for Young Women Leaders is dedicated to preparing young women to attend and graduate from college, commit to a healthy and well-balanced lifestyle, lead with courage and compassion and solve problems creatively and ethically in support of a global community. The school provides a unique focus on STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math) education. The single-gender school offers a challenging, project-based curriculum that follows an advanced degree plan, with four years of high school math and science and pre-advanced or advanced placement courses for all core subjects. 

“Our purpose in providing STEAM is to educate our girls to think, create, design and make solutions that will improve the conditions of the world. I guarantee you that our girls will change the world,” said Ms. Goka.

For more information or to register for the 2014 PLTW Summit, visit www.pltw.org/PLTWSummit.