2022-23 Highlights

Questar III's Business & Education Partnership Service offers school districts a wide variety of opportunities for educators and students to engage with businesses, the building trades, community organizations and higher education, bridging classroom learning with real-world applications. This service pursues collaboration based on educators (and students) interest as well as develops opportunities that help students understand how what they learn connects to the world of work. Here are some highlights from the past school year-if interested in learning more please contact Jim Church @james.church@questar.org

Partnering with Curtis Lumber to help raise student awareness about careers in the building trades, Questar III facilitated and coordinated a visit to East Greenbush's Green Meadow Elementary School by building contractors who shared insights about their careers, what they love about their work and lead students in an activity building a toolbox. With materials provided by Curtis Lumber, 60 4th grade students participated in this memorable learning experience, completing the activity with a finished toolbox loaded with a children's book about becoming a carpenter, a measuring tape and leveler as well as t-shirts from Bennett Contracting (who along with Otterbeck Builders, Curtis Lumber and TL Custom Renovations helped guide this hands-on activity).

In response to a Greenville CSD teacher's request for a guest speaker from the field of meteorology to visit 4th graders working on a weather/climate patterns project, Questar III coordinated with staff from UAlbany's Department of Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences and New York Mesonet to schedule a visit and speak with students about their studies and work. This included an interactive presentation, ideas for students to consider while studying the changing global weather patterns for their class project and Q&A. As a result of this connection, faculty is also planning a student tour of ETEC (where both programs are housed) for the upcoming school year. In addition to connecting teachers with both programs, Questar III facilitated planning conversations for the visit to ensure that the presentations aligned with concepts and theories students were learning about in class.

Students from Averill Park High School's Video Game Design and Development class had the opportunity this past spring to visit local game developer Velan Studios, creator of the popular Mario Cart: Live Home Circuit game and other games available via Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. In addition to meeting with staff to learn about their day-to-day work and the collaborative work skills the digital gaming industry seeks, students discussed the platforms and tools they were using to create their own video games and also got a sneak peek of a yet-to-be-titled video game Velan will be releasing in the coming months.

Students from AW Becker Elementary in the Ravena Coeymans Selkirk CSD worked on a school-wide, year-long STEM project restoring nature trails on school grounds. In an effort to highlight this project and raise awareness about community access to the trails, Questar III partnered with marketing and communications specialists from the Martin Group to visit with 4th & 5th grade students to talk about careers in the field of marketing and communication, how they work with clients to develop marketing campaigns and share ideas and strategies on ways to effectively promote use of these trails.

In an effort to highlight the value of learning French, teachers sought to have guest speakers to discuss how the global economy requires and values these skills and the careers that seek them. Working with partners at the International Center of the Capital Region and economic development organizations in the North Country, Questar III was able to recruit guests from the French American Chamber of Commerce, the International Institute at Buffalo and the Quebec Government Office in NYC to connect with students via video conferencing to share their experiences and examples of their work.

The NYS Unified Court System and Questar III collaborated to offer a variety of learning opportunities this past year that included students from Greenville High School touring the NYS Supreme Court in Albany to learn about future careers with NYSCA; students from Coxsackie Athens High School were invited to attend Supreme Court Appellate Division court proceedings in to witness oral arguments for civil and criminal cases and have the opportunity to speak with Presiding Supreme Court justices afterwards to learn about their career pathways in the field of law and participate in a Q&A relative to the Participation in Government course.

Continuing efforts to raise awareness about the work of the trades and the apprenticeship training programs that lead to rewarding careers, Questar III scheduled one-day visits to multiple training facilities for seniors from Troy and Averill Park high schools. Site visits took place with the International Union of Painters & Allied Trades/Local 9, Plumbers & Steamfitters/Local 7, Sheet Metal Workers/Local 83 & the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers/Local 236.

The Capital Region is home to a variety of innovative college programs and school counselors from Questar III's component school districts had the opportunity to tour UAlbany's 246,000 square foot state-of-the-art building that is home to researchers, educators and entrepreneurs.The facility is home to a number of UAlbany programs, including the College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security and Cybersecurity, the Department of Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences and the Atmospheric Sciences Research Center and NYS Mesonet, which manages a system of 126 towers around the state that gather various sets of data that can be used for research and innovation. In addition to learning about the student profiles these programs seek to recruit, counselors also were offered a student presentation about Questar III's New Visions Emergency Preparedness, Informatics, Cyber and Homeland Security (EPICH) program that is housed there as well.

The Ravena Coeymans Selkirk High School, with guidance from the Hudson Valley Writers Guild (HVWG) thru Questar III, hosted an evening event for families that highlighted the works of poetry authored by students that were inspired by the art and photography created by fellow students that were displayed for guests to view. The HVWG, which hosts a quarterly program that RCS HS replicated, not only provided direction for this event but will also be highlighting these students' poems online in their new digital literary magazine.