Expanded Learning Opportunity (ELO) Innovation Fellowship Announcement
Beyond School Bells will announce the four winners of the first-ever Expanded Learning Opportunity (ELO) Innovation Fellowship. The announcement will take place on February 12 at 12:30 p.m. at Nebraska Innovation Studio (NIS), where the fellows will be based.
During the year-long fellowship, the Innovation Fellows will form a multi-disciplinary, collaborative team creating exciting, engaging and inspiring afterschool and summer programs that will be used in ELO programs serving youth all across Nebraska.
The Innovation Fellows are University of Nebraska-Lincoln sophomores and juniors, with expertise in the arts, engineering, design, computer science and entrepreneurship.
“As a lifelong educator and advocate for afterschool and summer programs, I am very excited to participate in the launch of this Fellowship program,” said Bob Whitehouse, NU Regent.
“I have seen first-hand how afterschool and summer programs provide critical learning opportunities for Nebraska youth and am confident that this Fellowship program, by engaging the talents of some of UNL’s best and brightest students in developing new afterschool programming, will have a long lasting impact.”
Jeff Cole, Network Lead for Beyond School Bells, said picking the Innovation Fellows was no easy task.
“We were blown away by the quality of the candidates,” said Cole, who will be directing this program. “The students we selected had unique skills and interests. We’re confident they’ll make a dynamic design team and bring fresh ideas and boundless energy to Nebraska’s afterschool and summer programs. We’re excited about partnering with Nebraska Innovation Studio to launch this initiative, which to our knowledge is the only one of its kind in the nation.”
The ELO Innovation Fellowship is a partnership between NIS and Beyond School Bells, Nebraska’s statewide Expanded learning network, dedicated to supporting high quality, school-based and community-powered afterschool and summer learning experiences. Beyond School Bells is a program of the Nebraska Children and Families Foundation.
Nebraska Innovation Studio is a University of Nebraska-supported makerspace at Nebraska Innovation Campus.
FOR MORE INFORMATION: Contact Jeff Cole, Network Lead, Beyond School Bells, 402 477 6422, jcole@nebraskachildren.org