Military children SOAR to new heights

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Amanda Morris
  • 2nd Bomb Wing Public Affairs
BARKSDALE AIR FORCE BASE, La. --  

Eleven Louisiana schools will be served in Project Supporting Opportunities for Achievement and Resilience to support more than 6,700 kids during the next school year, 1,200 which are military children.

Project SOAR is a five-year academic and mental health initiative that is being made possible by a $1.5 million grant awarded by the Department of Defense Education Activity through the Military-Connected for Academic and Support Programs grant program. Every participating school will receive $40,000 to boost their technology.

The purpose of this project is to increase academic achievement in science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics, or STEAM, using strategies for problem-based learning.

“These are challenging times for our military, our nation, and many parts of the world,” said Col DeDe Halfhill, 2nd Mission Support Group commander. “The information age has created a global, digital enterprise of such complexity that STEAM programs have become a 21st century critical element of national security. Project SOAR embraces this reality and ensures that the education of our children, specifically in the science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics fields, continue to grow and be available.”

Academic opportunities will be coordinated by a district STEAM facilitator with assessments that align with the Louisiana State Standards and STEAM modules.

“To be able to put that “a” in STEM and call it STEAM, that’s what the arts does, it brings those creative juices to help us find solutions to real world problems,” said Scott Smith, Superintendent of Bossier Schools. “That’s what this STEAM initiative is going to be, it’s going to be of such great benefit to so many students.”

The schools will utilize strategies to increase social-emotional support for military connected students that include a school-wide resiliency plan and implementation of a skills development specialist position.

The skills development specialist along with the Project Director and the Military Student Coordinator will oversee universal screening, provide professional development for school counselors, pertinent district staff and direct services of students in groups or individually.

“Teachers are the critical link into all that we do,” said GB Cazes, vice president of the Cyber Innovation Center. “We work with teachers, provide them resources with the technology package, provide them professional development and training opportunities.  Then they are going to transform that classroom, not just this year but every year they’re in the classroom, so that this $1.5 million is going to have a return on investment that is 20-30 years down the road. This is a long term plan that fits into a long term vision.”

District staff will also be trained to provide a school-wide resiliency program tailored to meet the specific needs of military students in Bossier Parish Schools.

“When inspiration – which it took inspiration just to come up with this grant - and imagination intersect, you get innovation, and that’s what Bossier schools are all about,” Smith concluded.