FWSU is excited again to announce the Bay and Paul Foundation has granted FWSU $60,000 to continue its work engaging our students with students and classrooms from around the world. In addition, our grant funding this year will also allow FWSU schools to begin building our capacity for global connections in innovation through the creation of “Innovation Design Labs” in our system. With the ultimate goal of engaging our students in design theory, design thinking, and design execution with global input and perspective.
The grant will allow us to build on our work developing intercultural competence among students and educators, shifting to an emphasis on environmental design. A more intense focus on design thinking and innovation enlarges our capacity to integrate sets of skills such as coding, research, fabrication, making and gaming, and to seek input from our global partners to solve the authentic problems our world is now facing.
Our plans for next year are ambitious. Creating Innovation and Design Labs “InnoLabs” will be exciting for students, but it will also be a change that will cause us to use the very design thinking we are asking our students to use. Currently we are reaching out to local colleges and universities to assist us in this very exciting endeavor for our schools. As we progress, we foresee an amazing future that will engage students and adults in all of our schools like never before. A future that will match the skills necessary for our students to succeed when they graduate from high school and beyond.
We are incredibly thankful for our grant, and continued support, from the Bay and Paul Foundation. The Bay and Paul Foundation is an independent private foundation located in New York City. The Foundation’s education grants are for School Change and support a variety of efforts to empower students and teachers by promoting the practice of democracy in schools, encouraging student voice, advancing an ethic of environmental stewardship, and integrating academic course work with meaningful community service.
The Bay Paul Foundation recognized that the FWSU Action Plan aligns with its core mission related to school change, personalized learning, global connections and student voice. It also recognized FWSU leadership in Vermont for incorporating technology into our teaching and learning in all of our schools. We are excited to continue work offering students the opportunity to emerge as leaders not only in Georgia, Fairfax, Fletcher, and Vermont, but also to develop global leadership.
Target 2 – Leadership. FWSU will foster development of teacher & student leaders who provide innovative opportunities for local and global student-centered learning.
Action Step – Provide multiple avenues for students and staff to lead,
advocate, and serve within the school and communityIndicator of Success – Creativity and risk-taking will be evident and celebrated as learners embrace new technologies.
The FWSU Story 
3 thoughts on “FWSU Receives Bay and Paul Grant to Focus on Innovation and Global Partnerships”