In Escambia County, StriveTogether Cradle to Career Network member Achieve Escambia is digging into this discrepancy. Kim Krupa, Achieve Escambia’s executive director, doesn’t believe the top rank is an excuse to ignore the alarming status of Florida’s educational attainment.

“This ranking for Florida, best in higher education, means equity is more important than ever,” Krupa says. “We need to look at the numbers and ask ourselves, ‘Who isn’t included in that data?’”

Who are the children missing out on a greater potential for a successful career, beginning with higher education? And why is the chance bypassing them? Along with asking these important questions, Achieve Escambia has begun partnering with a powerful new ally: Florida College Access Network (FCAN). This partnership was forged to reduce inequities in disadvantaged communities, including those in the portion of the state where Escambia County is located.

FCAN and Achieve Escambia share a common goal: to increase postsecondary enrollment in Florida, with a focus on low-income and first-generation college students. FCAN’s statewide network provides support for communities seeking to increase student readiness and ultimately improve college and career participation. In its first six years, FCAN has increased awareness of postsecondary education options and made it easier for students to apply for opportunities. One initiative, the Florida FAFSA Challenge, is a friendly statewide competition to improve FAFSA completion by 5 percent over the previous year. This year, almost 300 schools in 37 counties have registered for the challenge.

Achieve Escambia’s membership in the network creates a tie to 13 colleges in Florida. Through an 18-month planning process, Achieve Escambia has worked with FCAN to launch two projects in its Local College Access Network. The Florida FAFSA Challenge has created significant changes across the state in the 2017-18 school year. Its data dashboard showcases progress, including how close public high schools are to meeting this year’s goal of 43.3 percent. So far they are at 39 percent and need 8,534 more FAFSA completions to reach the goal.

Since the FAFSA opens the door to scholarships, grants and loans for disadvantaged students, application completion is a pivotal first step. Last year, Florida high school seniors qualified for about $149 million in Pell Grant funding. Thanks to Florida FAFSA Challenge, that amount increased by $6 million because more students completed the FAFSA.

Achieve Escambia and FCAN have put postsecondary enrollment at the center of the conversation. With a focus on this shared goal, the partnership is getting results for the futures of Escambia County high school students.

The post Achieve Escambia forms new partnership for postsecondary success appeared first on StriveTogether.

Or here?

StriveTogether is offering a scholarship opportunity, Art Inspires, for current high school seniors and students enrolled in a postsecondary institution (such as a university, college or community college) located in a community served by a partnership in the Cradle to Career Network.

StriveTogether will select up to 10 works of art to be featured in our Cincinnati headquarters, alongside a recent piece created by local art teacher Matt Eckerle. The selected student artists each will receive a $1,000 scholarship to support coursework at a postsecondary institution in the 2018-2019 academic year.

The artwork created through this opportunity will inspire StriveTogether staff and partners each day as they work to achieve the organization’s vision: the success of every child from cradle to career. Students are challenged to create art that symbolizes what educational opportunity and success mean to them and conveys StriveTogether’s core values (community, courage, equity, progress and results).

Submissions should fit one of the following categories:

• Small wall art: Maximum 15 in tall x 18 in wide
• Medium wall art: Maximum 30 in tall x 25 in wide
• Large wall art: Maximum 40 in tall x 45 in wide
• Sculptures: Maximum 8 in x 8 in base and 15 in tall

Each submission must include a video by the artist explaining the piece’s inspiration and meaning as well as a completed scholarship application and proof of enrollment or intent to enroll in a postsecondary institution. Applications must be submitted to info@strivetogether.org by Tuesday, May 29, 2018.

Scholarship winners will be notified by Friday, June 15, 2018, and receive their prize no later than Friday, July 13, 2018.

For more information, please download the scholarship application at this link.

La aplicación de la beca El Arte Inspira ahora está disponible en español.

The post StriveTogether launches scholarship opportunity appeared first on StriveTogether.

I got the chance to sit down with Matt and learn more about the artist and process behind first piece of original art in the office. Originally from Edgewood, Kentucky, Matt has been creating art his entire life. His high school art teacher, who remains a mentor to him today, inspired Matt to combine his passion for art with teaching. That advice led him to teach art for 17 years. He is currently in his 14th year of teaching art at Notre Dame Academy.

What was the first piece of art that really mattered to you? 

I’ve had plenty of pieces impact my life, but a piece of artwork that had a profound impact on me was a piece my brother, Andy (a local artist and art teacher at Highlands High School), created. He was working in our basement, making a mess working on a sculpture/painting — and it was amazing. I think the reason it had such an impact on me is because it was so skillfully created. It reminded me of something I would see in a gallery or museum, created by someone I would only read about in art history books. But it was created by someone close to me, and because I could see the work in process and knew the person making it, I thought that I too could make artwork.

What were some of the mediums used to create this piece? 

The imagery initially started from a digital photograph taken by a friend of mine, but it showed pretty much exactly what I wanted to express. From the photograph, there was a lot of digital design work, and eventually the image was put onto and printed from a screen. The process is called “reverse screen printing,” and it’s one of my favorite processes to use. The background designs were either created digitally or from sketches made through the same process.

Since I learned the process of screen printing while attending the University of Louisville, I fell in love with it. I’ve gravitated toward works created by artists like Ryan McGinnis and I’ve been interested in his layering of images over and over again. I wanted to work in a similar manner.

Were there multiple attempts with this piece?

For sure! There were some test prints to make sure everything lined up and looked how I was hoping. Once the image met what I was looking for, I started working on the actual piece. I’ve had a couple of years of experience working on similar pieces, so I had a pretty good idea on how the colors would work together and how the designs would look when completed. I approached the work with a good amount of confidence that I would be happy with the finished product.

What were a few of the struggles you had to overcome with it?

Every piece has its challenges. Those are my favorite parts, because if everything works as planned, it’s not as much fun and you don’t learn anything new. With this particular piece, the biggest struggle would have been coming up with my visual interpretation of StriveTogether. I was excited to come across this image showing younger kids working together to accomplish a goal, and when I saw the image, I knew that was the one that showed exactly what I wanted to portray.

What role do you think the arts play in education/educating students?

I think the arts are absolutely essential. For the student who focuses on academics, it’s a way to work the other side of their brain, experience something new, challenge themselves in a different way and give them a place to take a breath. For an art student, the studio or the stage serve as their home. It’s where they go during class, during lunch, during a study hall and where they may stop in after school just because. But for all students, the arts gives the student an opportunity to be themselves. I believe art education is at its best is when it is no longer about the subject but about the artist.

Can you give a word of advice to aspiring artists?

The best thing you can do is to do what you love and fail at it as many times as possible. Keep trying, because if you’re making mistakes, you’re doing it right! You learn so much more every time you mess up.

The post Behind the art with Matt Eckerle: Creating artwork for StriveTogether appeared first on StriveTogether.