ABSTRACT
Felecia Pittman, STEM coach from the UT Dallas T-STEM Center, provided support to the campuses she served as they were working to change the culture to embrace STEM and a STEM mindset. She partnered with campus leaders in finding strategic alliances, and establishing relationships with community and university partners. In her administrator coaching sessions Pittman discussed the need to create an advisory board:
Gaining ground on some of the T-STEM Design Blueprint benchmark items was very hard for most campuses. I was there to support, provide examples, and help to generate ideas. I attended all their STEM advisory council meetings. Creating a STEM culture was a challenge. We worked on planning how it looks on the campus and what does that look like in the portrait of their academy STEM graduates. We worked on what they should share with the public in campus newsletters, stationery, and on their website. The website was their vehicle for outreach. Image may not have been as critical in a one-campus town but when a STEM academy is a school-of-choice, it needed to portray the campus as a viable option for student achievement and success through STEM.
