The Nonprofit Strategy Group discusses the importance of past, present and future Black leaders and the core foundation of CABPES- teaching students to overcome, achieve and accomplish. Read more here.
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The Nonprofit Strategy Group discusses the importance of past, present and future Black leaders and the core foundation of CABPES- teaching students to overcome, achieve and accomplish. Read more here.
CABPES supporter and community partner, Central Park finds out what gives CABPES such longevity in our community. Read more about the history of CABPES and how we keep our mission alive here.
CABPES has been awarded a position as one of the Colorado Energy Foundation’s 2021 cohort of community nonprofits to receive grant funding. CABPES is proud to partner with the Colorado Energy Foundation in our joint work to remove systemic barriers to equality and access for all Coloradoans.
Read more about our partnership here.
CABPES has been awarded a $20,000 grant from Halliburton Foundation. This grant will support the 2020/2021 Junior Engineers, Tomorrow’s Scientists program. CABPES is proud to partner with the Halliburton Foundation in our joint work to encourage and assist African American and other underrepresented minority youth in their pursuit of STEM careers.
Sometimes obstacles are placed in our lives to encourage us to make changes. Changing is difficult and tends to generate unwanted fears. Often, we hear people say, “that is how we always did it.” COVID-19 has caused all of us to make some new adjustments in our lives. Today, we live in a world of virtual workdays comprised of virtual meetings, virtual education for our children and grandchildren, virtual graduations, and virtual programs and events.
COVID-19 has meddled with how CABPES has run its after-school programs for the past 40 years. We can no longer go into a school and speak to STEM classes or hand out flyers at parent-teacher meetings or other community events. Recruiting students to participate in our after school programs has been challenging in 2020.
I discussed my frustrations with a colleague a couple of weeks ago who works in leadership in public schools. This person stated, 90% of all nonprofit organizations like CABPES face the same problem. My friend went on to tell me that students are facing Zoom fatigue. Students are not interested in participating in after-school programs in Zoom because of being in front of a computer all day. I was informed that 30% of Denver after-school programs would not survive COVID-19.
This enlightenment was a wake-up call for me. I learned that even though CABPES numbers are not where we want them to be. We are doing better than most after-school programs. I begin to reflect on the things that CABPES is doing to generate success. However, we are nowhere near our ultimate goals.
CABPES has dedicated and committed volunteers that are meeting the challenges of teaching in a virtual environment. To date, we ran successful summer online JETS and MEP programs. Our virtual Future City Competition Program is operating almost flawlessly. Our fall online Math Enrichment and SAT/ACT programs are improving daily. Our volunteers continue to generate new ideas and different ways of doing things every day in this virtual environment. Our students and volunteers are working tirelessly in IXL, a computer math software program.
CABPES increased its marketing and branding efforts one-hundredfold. We have a brand-new website that promotes all the work we do in teaching STEM to our students. CABPES elevated its grant writing efforts to overcome lost revenue from not hosting our largest fundraiser event in May 2020. We are improving our social media presence through Facebook and LinkedIn. Our quarterly newsletters, marketing brochures, program flyers, and videos are produced with a passion for presenting the excellent work that CABPES is doing in serving our students. Finally, we are writing a 3 to 5-year Development Plan to ensure our organization and its programs continue the trajectory that we are currently experiencing.
Parents and educators, if you are looking for an organization that can help your students stay on track for academic success, please contact our office. To the many companies that are looking for volunteer opportunities for your employees, “the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.” To the numerous foundations and companies looking for organizations to invest your funds, please contact CABPES; we are the #1 STEM Program in Colorado.
Blessings,
Dewey F. Brigham, Jr., Ph.D.
CABPES President and Executive Director
As we continue to grapple with COVID-19, many thought it would be gone by now. CABPES found itself between a rock and a hard place. How do we keep our afterschool and summer programs running? What is next for our organization. Do we sink or swim? We chose to weather the coronavirus and “see it through.”
Public schools, colleges, and universities, across the United States, turned to virtual learning to get through the spring and summer semesters of school. Many struggled to develop their online classes leaving parents frustrated and worried about their students’ educational future. The CABPES organization decided to roll up its sleeves and produce the first-ever virtual JETS Program.
Our engineers designed a successful six-weeks virtual JETS program. We created classes for middle and high school students. We enrolled 102 students into the virtual JETS program. Students that registered for the program came from Alabama, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, and Texas. The classes that we taught included aerospace engineering, automation engineering, biomedical science, civil engineering, and computer science. Our engineers did an outstanding job teaching the classes.
Also, we ran an online math tutoring program using IXL computer software. Sixty-seven students enrolled in the online math program. Students picked up where they ended during the school year. As of today, our students have solved over 71,000 math problems.
I want to thank the following staff and volunteers for their hard work and dedication to the virtual JETS program. Many thanks to Ishmael Thomas, Janice Jennings, Erin Rist, Dr. Shirley Leali, Terry Manns, Mark Smith, Adrien Bossogo-Egoume, Reuben Patterson, Dr. Charlotte Brigham, Earl White, Dr. Jimmie Jacobs, Austin Dada, Dr. Arthur Antoine, Marsha Nelson and a host of volunteers from the City & County of Denver, Department of Transportation & Infrastructure.
Also, thanks to the dedicated students and parents for participating in our first-ever virtual JETS program.
Lastly, virtual learning in the CABPES organization is here to stay. We are in the process of planning our fall programs. CABPES will not have face-to-face classes in the fall. Please stay tuned; we will be sharing our fall plans in the next couple of weeks. Be Safe!
Blessings,
Dewey F. Brigham, Jr., Ph.D.
CABPES President and Executive Director
On January 18, the CABPES Junior Engineers, Tomorrow’s Scientists (JETS) student’s team, Team Tropicana, participated in the Colorado Future City Competition at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, CO. Team Tropicana student team members include: Jahmil Butler, Kori Hill, William Mitchell, Rahil Shah, Benjamin Yimer and Zachariah Yimer.
Future City is one of the nation’s leading engineering education programs and has received national recognition and acclaim for its role in encouraging middle school students to develop their interest in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). Future City is for 6th, 7th, and 8th graders and challenges them to provide an answer to the question, “How can we make the world a better place?”
Team Tropicana designed a Future City that had one of the most advanced technological water quality systems in the competition. This was our first time ever competing in the Future City Colorado Regional Competition. Our students took the 3rd Place Team Award; the John Elway Future Transportation Award; and the American Society of Civil Engineers, “Dream BIG Award.”
Congratulations, CABPES is proud of our JETS students!