District teams gathered for another Institute session on Wednesday, February 8th, focusing on sustainable partnerships within their ecosystem team as well as outside of it with local businesses and more. OC STEM invited a panel of speakers to share their promising practices in cultivating sustainable partnerships.

Facilitated by Cinda Muckenthaler from the Children and Families Commission of Orange County, the panel featured:

  • Heather Bojorquez, principal of Laurel Elementary Magnet School in the Brea Olinda Unified School District,
  • Michelle Hart, Executive Director of the CUSD Foundation
  • Mary Murray, Senior Principal Research Scientist from AMWAY Nutrilite
  • Leyla Riley, Executive Director of OC STEM Initiative.

Huge thanks to our panelists for sharing their wisdom and experiences with partnerships.

In the latter half of the day, teams were able to discuss and brainstorm new strategies for approaching businesses with the help of Eddie Tabata from Science@OC. Eddie helped them develop “elevator speeches”, a short speech they would potentially use to reach out to potential partners.

Stay tuned as the teams get closer to finishing their 12-month Learning Institute!