EDUCATION COUNCIL UPDATE
Thank you for your continued interest in myTRI 2030. Beginning January 2021, the monthly subscriber report will focus on one of the six Opportunity Area Councils (Agriculture, Education, Energy, Life, Inclusion or Prosperity) to spotlight their progress. This month the Education Council, chaired by Evangelina Shreeve, shares how they are driving action and shaping the future of our region.
The myTRI 2030 Education Council convened as a new council last spring. We have the great privilege of having representation from our five education leaders within the Mid-Columbia community, with two higher education and three K-12 Education Council members. The Council has been sensitive to the current state of education within our community due to current, unprecedented times of being amidst a global pandemic and the impact – not only to our Mid-Columbia community – but especially to our education ecosystem. 

Despite these challenges, the myTRI 2030 Education Council collaborated with our education leaders to support the Council’s first project – the Washington Workforce Portal. The portal connects young people across the state to real-world, work-based learning opportunities to better prepare students to choose high-growth careers and 21st century jobs through a virtual, user-friendly portal for college and career exploration. The portal consolidates existing, online career exploration in one place that consistently maintains relevant resources for students, families, educators and the community. 
This project was embraced due to the direct alignment to the shared vision of the myTRI 2030 Top Ten Report and the Education High Level Strategy area, “Connect jobs and job seekers (connect industry to individual)”; this strategy area focuses on creating an inventory of available jobs within the workforce and mapping those to career pathways and current/future needs. This project will have a positive impact to our region and allow employers to amplify opportunities for students to meet growing and diverse, current workforce demands. Through these opportunities, students will gain experiential learning and develop foundational STEM skill sets through job shadowing and immersive internship positions. The project launched in February of 2021; the Education Council is currently working to encourage employers to populate opportunities for students in the portal. 

Parallel to the Washington Workforce Portal project, the myTRI Education Council partnered with the STEM Nexus Initiative – who, through the Washington STEM Education Foundation (WSSEF), received a $1M community investment from Battelle to launch the regional effort to develop experiential learning programs and STEM Education outreach for underserved and underrepresented students in rural communities. Through this joint effort, two projects were identified to receive approximately $125,000 to advance equity in STEM education for underrepresented students and their teachers in our community. The recipients include CBC, WSU TC, and LIGO. CBC and WSU TC will collaboratively launch STEM Summer Camps and teacher professional development. LIGO will develop a Docent program to enhance their K-12 outreach efforts at their new education center.

We appreciate your continued patience and support to the education leaders within our community through these challenging times as we transition to resume regular education opportunities and activities throughout the Mid-Columbia region. The myTRI 2030 Education Council looks forward to what’s to come and continues to plan for a successful outlook in 2030. 
Based on the belief that our collective future is enhanced through collaboration, myTRI 2030 is a regional visioning initiative with the fundamental goal to engage the community, create a shared vision for the region, and drive collaborative action.

myTRI 2030 celebrates the Tri-Cities as the sum of multiple, distinct and independent parts, yet will provide a unified strategy for the future.

What makes myTRI 2030 unique, is the thoughtful and inclusive steps taken to build broad community support for both the process and the impending product.
Thank you for your continued interest in the progress of the myTRI 2030 Regional Vision Project. Your support is the key to success. For more information, or to get involved, go to www.mytri2030.com.  
A SPECIAL THANK YOU TO THE MYTRI 2030 FOUNDERS