Iowa BIG North receives $10,000 grant

By James Grob, jgrob@charlescitypress.com

Iowa BIG North is one of 19 educational programs in Iowa that will receive some additional funding from Iowa’s STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) Advisory Council.

The initiative-based program will receive $10,000 of financial support, which the council directed toward the STEM BEST (Businesses Engaging Students and Teachers) partners through the STEM BEST Program Enhancement Fund.

“As far as I know, it’s the first year that this grant has been offered,” said Mike Kuennen, Iowa BIG North director of strategic partnership. Kuennen said the application process began shortly before Thanksgiving and the grants were announced earlier this month.

Iowa BIG North — “BIG” is an acronym for “Big Ideas Group” — is a coalition of students from six regional high schools who are pushed to make connections with local businesses that each have a problem to solve. The group also undertakes internal, student-driven initiatives. The program focuses on real-world problems to better prepare students for life.

School districts involved are Charles City, New Hampton, Osage, Rudd-Rockford-Marble Rock, Turkey Valley and Riceville. The program was inspired by Iowa BIG in Cedar Rapids.

“This was open to previous STEM BEST awardees,” said Kuennen, who wrote the grant application. “As our programs continue to grow, we’ve identified needs and do have some challenges that are preventing that growth.”

The funding is intended to help enhance work-based learning opportunities made available through school and business partnerships during the 2019-2020 academic year.

“We’re very fortunate to have the advocates that we do through the STEM BEST team,” Kuennen said.

Kuennen said that the grant is unique, because typically with such grants matching funds are required, but that is not the case with this grant.

The grant will go toward additional conference room equipment, to help accommodate the larger number of students involved with the program, according to Kuennen. The equipment will offer better communication between IBN’s affiliates. There are now about 130 students throughout the six school districts involved with IBN.

“When we started there might have been two or three conference meetings a day,” Kuennen said. “Now we’re having six or seven meetings and our times are overlapping.”

Kuennen said IBN’s New Hampton affiliate is looking into moving into a new space in the spring, so the funding will also come in handy for that.

Charles City Superintendent Mike Fisher said he was excited to learn about the grant award.

“I’m just super-proud of our kids and our people. I think it shows their initiative and their motivation,” Fisher said. “They’re always thinking outside the box.”

He said that IBN students and teachers are often going above and beyond, and he loves it when they get to see the fruits of their labor.

“It’s an acknowledgement of the powerful work that they’re doing,” Fisher said. “Our students are out there kicking butt every day.”

The STEM BEST Program encourages teachers and industry professionals to work side-by-side on curriculum and projects that give students actual workplace experience and an understanding of the opportunities and required skills for careers in STEM fields.

Kuennen said the Iowa BIG North initiative-based model has spread throughout Iowa. The group is now having regular meetings with similar groups from places like Okoboji, Spencer and other school districts throughout the state. The different groups could possibly even coordinate on initiatives.

“To see students with passion, from all corners of the state, working on things together makes the day fly by,” he said.