ABE Master Teacher Fellowship Program
What is it?
The ABE Master Teacher Fellowship is a stipended year-long professional experience (6 months during this start-up year) in which up to 12 experienced ABE teachers participate in a community of practice with their ABE peers and travel to Harvard University for a LabXchange deep dive (when health and safety conditions permit). With support from the Program Office and an Amgen mentor, Fellows will explore a topic of personal interest in the biosciences and develop corresponding classroom resources, and will become advisors contributing to the development and depth of the ABE program.
Who is eligible?
Any teacher who has been teaching ABE for 3+ years at a program site that has been established for at least 3 years.
What are the benefits?
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COMMUNITY: Fellows become part of an international cadre of experienced, knowledgeable educators who connect and collaborate (both face to face and virtually) with other Fellows.
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INNOVATION: Fellows work with the LabXchange team at Harvard University to learn from and develop their own new assets to support and extend ABE.
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MENTORSHIP: Fellows will have access to mentors from Amgen staff around the world, supporting their own research and exploration of a bioscience topic of their choice.
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LEADERSHIP: Fellows will serve as program ambassadors for other teachers, providing peer advice and guidance on how to teach ABE while engaging students and connecting them with real-world, real-time applications for ABE content and skills.
What are the criteria?
Nominated teachers should be able to demonstrate tangible contributions to student learning and the ABE program, effective leadership skills, strong communication skills (in one or more media)*, a specific interest in at least one bioscience topic that would deepen and extend ABE, and explicit support for their participation from their school, district, and program site.
Note: In the 6-month pilot during 2020–21, proficiency in English will be necessary, although that will change in future years.
When and how can I apply?
Program sites will share specific time commitments and application materials with interested teachers as soon as the program launches in October 2020.
The Amgen Foundation and ABE Program Office will prioritize supporting teachers who identify as Black, Indigenous, or of color, as well as teachers who expand opportunities for Black and Indigenous students, in an effort to ameliorate the devastating effects of racism on ABE communities.
ABE Volunteer Program Pilot
The 2020–21 school year will be the third year of the ABE Volunteer Program pilot. Last year we reached out to teachers and Amgen staff (volunteers) in the Greater Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Massachusetts areas. This year we’re branching out to six U.S. sites, adding Washington DC, Tampa, and Rhode Island. The program brings Amgen staff into the classroom (in person or virtually) to share their pathways to their careers at Amgen with students. Virtual visits became a necessity last spring in the U.S. due to COVID-19, but this year we are offering it as a standard option. There are obvious benefits to virtual visits when in-person visits can’t happen, but teacher, student, and volunteer post-visit surveys from last year show that most participants felt that in-person visits gave a much richer experience to students.
Our hope is that this program can one day exist in all ABE program sites globally. Our pilot test has the goal of finding a process and online platform that is easily accessible and scalable to international sites. We’re doing our best to create a great future program for all. Read stories from the second year of the pilot on our website.