Alignment Collaborative for Education - ACE
Please join us in acknowledging our 160 business and community partners that have invested 4,475 volunteer hours this past school year supporting School District U-46 students and future workforce development for the region. As U-46 graduates over 2,500 students a year, the District plays a critical role in providing a qualified pool of current and future employees that are academic and career ready.
Streamwood Park District and Alignment were recognized on Thursday, November 12, 2020, by the Illinois Parks and Recreation Association at the Best of the Best Awards Virtual Gala for their partnership to provide a summer reading distribution at Kiddie Corner Park.
Alignment and the Streamwood Parks District were joined by the Elgin Partnership for Early Learning, School District U-46 Food Services, and the Streamwood Police Department this summer to bring early education and food resources to more than 1,000 children.
Thank you to the Streamwood Park District for the great partnership.
Alignment successfully delivered its first career panel for the Fall Semester hosted by Bartlett High School featuring engineering and architecture careers. Our panelists for the event included Elgin Sweeper, HLR Engineering, Judson University and Purdue University.
We greatly appreciated the collaboration with the BHS STEM Academy and Administration to recruit 160 students to participate in the panel. The students made us all proud by preparing very specific career questions about the fields of mechanical engineering, civil engineering and architecture. The combination of industry professionals along with senior level students proved very effective in addressing the students questions about future career opportunities.
Alignment will host an additional 14 panels representing 16 industry clusters hosted by the various high schools and the Dream Academy. Recordings of each panel at the host high school will then be shared with all the high schools.
Alignment in partnership with School District U-46 high school counselors will host 12 universities during the Fall Semester to provide assistance to U-46 students with the admissions process. Institutions that will be represented include Aurora University, DePaul University, Illinois State University, Judson University, Loyola University, Northern Illinois University, Purdue University, Southern Illinois University, University of Illinois Chicago, University of Illinois Urbana, University of Iowa, and the University of Missouri.
Expansion plans began early in January to expand the Summer Reading in the Parks program for Summer 2020. Generous sponsors included Elgin Township, Hoffer Foundation, Kiwanis and School District U-46.
By March with the impact of COVID-19, Alignment’s Early Education A-Team and the Elgin Partnership for Early Learning knew the program must be delivered differently to practice safe distancing. The program was quickly converted to a Summer Reading Grab and Go at Cornerstone and launched for the first time at Buena Vista and Channing parks in Elgin and Kiddie Corner Park in Streamwood.
Partnering with School District U-46, parents could drive by and receive food supplies along with an early education weekly curriculum. The program began in June and will conclude in early August serving over 250 children each week.
Elgin Community College, Judson University, Northern University and Roosevelt University joined Alignment to provide a live introduction to the admissions and college search process. Each institution’s admissions representative shared:
Students were then given the opportunity to ask individual questions on an assortment of topics. Feedback from students, high school counselors and the admissions representatives was overwhelmingly positive with plans to implement virtual college panels in all U-46 high schools in the fall.
Dream Academy, Larkin and Streamwood graduating seniors also benefited from a Virtual, ZOOM experience of the ECC Admissions Office meeting multiple ECC representatives. The step by step workshop covered all necessary requirements to enter ECC in August to include the application process, placement testing, advising, financial aid, apprenticeships, and college work study programs. Students had the opportunity to ask multiple questions to help clarify the college admission process. Thank you to ECC and our partner universities for sharing their time and expertise with our U-46 students!
ACE is a member of the Alignment USA communities of collaboration and collective impact.
