NAF

NAF’s Academies of Information Technology prepare students for careers in programming, database administration, web design and management, digital networks, and other areas in the expanding digital workplace. In the 2015-16 school year, the Academies of IT served 21,532 students in 127 academies across 65 districts in 23 states, including DC. Sixty-three percent of these students are underrepresented minorities and 68% are eligible for free and reduced price lunch. AOIT curricula engages students through a series of career exploration courses. All courses use project-based learning techniques with an emphasis on strengthening literacy, project management, leadership, and team building skills while fostering creativity and innovation. The curriculum is vetted by industry professionals to ensure that the content is current and relevant. NAF has also partnered with Project Lead the Way and Cisco Networking Academy to offer supplemental curriculum options. In addition to studying career-focused curriculum and working on collaborative projects, AOIT students gain critical career knowledge through a series of work-based learning experiences both inside and outside of the classroom. These activities include job shadowing, mock interviews, resume writing workshops, and culminate with a paid internship. Partners include AT&T, Alcatel-Lucent, Verizon, Hewlett-Packard Company, Oracle Corporation, and United Technologies Corporation. Through a partnership with Lenovo and the MIT Media lab, NAF has also developed the Lenovo Scholars Network, a mobile app development project and competition. Through this partnership, NAF has developed a course extension project using Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab’s App Inventor development tool. Teachers receive resource materials and additional support from MIT including a self-guided teacher course on App Inventor, webinars and in-person trainings. Nearly 2,000 students from NAF academies focused on engineering, IT, finance, health sciences, and hospitality and tourism will participate during the 2016-17 school year.