CodeJoy is thrilled to welcome Colleen Smith to our team as a Partnerships, Network, and Engagement Consultant. With a rich background in education and a passion for community-building, Colleen brings a wealth of experience and a unique perspective to our organization. In this engaging conversation with Amanda Jeane Strode, CodeJoy's Director of Learning, Colleen shares her journey through various roles in education, her commitment to equity and inclusivity, and her vision for her new role at CodeJoy. From her early days at Butler County Community College to her recent work with ABC CREATE, Colleen's career has been defined by a dedication to supporting underrepresented communities and fostering STEM education. Join us as we delve into Colleen's inspiring story and learn about the valuable insights she brings to the CodeJoy team.
Amanda Jeane Strode (AJ): Hi Colleen, tell us about yourself and what kind of work you do.
Colleen Smith (CS): I'm Colleen Smith, and I have worked in education since I got my first real job out of college. I've grown up supporting education in a variety of forms. I initially started out working in Higher Ed at Butler County Community College and supporting high vulnerability students, who needed additional support coming into college: first generation, students with learning disabilities, students with high financial need. And then, throughout my years at the community college, I worked in Financial Aid, continuing education and just a smattering of other opportunities.
I stayed home full-time for a while when my kids were young, and then I went back to Butler County Community College. And I worked with a program called New Choices/New Options. My role in that program was primarily career development, so I worked with participants to create a resume, prepare for interviews - that sort of thing.
I remember one woman from the program, she was a nurse practitioner who hadn’t worked for a few years when she raised her kids. She had married a doctor, but the doctor left her. She was highly skilled and yet didn't feel like she could jump back in. She was worried her value had faded, and she struggled to represent herself without apologies. With support and preparation, she landed a good job with a regional hospital with a high paying salary and was able to provide for herself and her children. Another younger woman who had not had a smooth path growing up, was very anxious about sitting with me to draft her resume. She said, “You're going to ask me to write down all of my failures. I have been fired from every job I've ever had and you're gonna make me tell everyone.” We had to talk about what to say and what not to say, so she could gain confidence and represent herself in the best light. She left relieved and smiling with burgeoning faith in her future.
Next, I picked up a role helping to guide and grow an NSF STEM Guitar grant at Butler County Community College. There was a faculty member at BC3 who was involved in this national level grant working with high school teachers and college faculty to teach others how to teach high school and college kids to build electric guitars. The students got to build an electric guitar using their hands while they were accidentally learning about math and physics.
With our nationwide partners, we were able to build this up and spread the program across the country. My role with the program was as an administrative facilitator. The faculty member needed support to be able to navigate all the NSF requirements, the community college needed support, and NSF has a whole bunch of requirements in terms of accountability and systems. So it was my job to dig out the details and say, “Let's figure out how we're going to make that happen.” That role really got me into The STEAM space.
(AJ): How did you get involved with Penn State and your job there?
(CS): I became involved with Northwestern PA STEM, and I facilitated our regional conference. Through my interactions, I met someone who worked at Penn State’s Electro Optics Center, the EOC. Her charge was to get out in the community and figure out what the needs are in STEM. The EOC held a number of government contracts and research grants, so we had a lot of scientists, a lot of engineers working on a range of projects. We wondered, “How could we use their capacities in the community to enrich the education and STEM experiences in the area?”
In my role there, we dug a lot into engaging girls in STEM and into building partnerships throughout the community. I was able to learn from national assets like AAUW, the National Girls Collaborative Project and Techbridge Girls to apply research-based strategies to establish and support more inclusive environments.
I did that for a couple of years and then moved into my previous role at Penn State New Kensington as the STEAM Outreach Coordinator. One of my jobs there was to launch ABC CREATE. It had been designed by school district leaders and the chancellor at Penn State, New Kensington. But it didn't have any infrastructure. I brought it to life and helped it to grow and nurtured it. I was really excited to create and develop relationships with educators and administrators in the region and across the state. I was able to meet and develop relationships with people across the state who are leading some major initiatives.
AJ: I love hearing about all of the work that you've done and I see an emphasis on community, especially supporting underrepresented communities or communities that have high levels of need. Whether that is women in troubled situations or teachers who need access to support systems. How did community become so important to you?
(CS): Gosh, you’re really making me think. As I was growing up, my dad was a school board member, and my mom was a public high school teacher. My dad was involved very much in the community. He was in local theater, and was more of an extrovert, who got excited by the people. He also taught in the English Department at a public college; in addition to composition, and film and theater, he taught a course in Black American literature.
Both my mom and dad taught courses about religious literature - from a variety of perspectives. So there were lots of conversations swirling around me when I was young, that I didn't absorb in an academic way, but I think they shaped my thinking about equity and justice and fairness.
I had an older brother, and my dad would say, “Attaboy”, when I would do something good. Then he'd catch himself and say, “Attaboy…girl! … attagirl!” It sounds silly now, but at that time, nobody said Attagirl, it was Attaboy. My dad was very aware of women's issues and that I could do and be anything. He was definitely planting that into me.
I remember being in elementary school, and he was speaking to the parent teacher's organization. I was with my dad at the meeting because I was little, and my mom was probably in class. And I don't remember what my dad was talking about, all I know is that he said something like, “And my daughter, she's a feminist.” And I was like, “I am? What's a feminist?” The term definitely described my approach and expectations even though I didn’t yet have the language to put to the notions.
I'm reading things now that were lying around our house my whole life. I was in third grade and there would be some Toni Morrison book that my dad was teaching in his Black American Lit class. My dad died about 10 years ago, and I’m now trying to catch up to his reading lists.
AJ: Thank you for sharing about your dad and the ways he helped shape your pursuit for equity. Are there any other influential moments you’d like to share?
CS: Fairness was really important to me. I still live in a community where I'm still working to find my voice. I'm still working to understand. I think community is part of my personality. I've always wanted to feel comfortable and I want other people to be comfortable. I know what it feels like to not feel like I'm wanted or like I belong in certain arenas.
I grew up in a neighborhood with a lot of kids my same age; we were kind of free-range children.
One of the boys in the neighborhood had a tree house his parents’ built for him, and his parents believed that this was like the clubhouse for the guys. My friends, the girls in the neighborhood, got together and were a bit outraged, “Why can't we get in there”? So we figured out how to “break-in’ by crawling up over the top. We’d climb this tree next to it and hop over from this tree into the upper deck of the treehouse. Back then I thought, “Why would we not be allowed in there?” Those gender-based restrictions really stuck with me, and as I worked through them as an individual I began to recognize some things are within your control to shift and change by questioning, by pushing back, by finding your voice.
In every experience, when I am part of a community, I know I feel better when I belong. I feel like I have people who I feel safe with. So, I want to support that for others. It makes me feel comfortable with what I'm doing. I feel like it's a common selfish need.
AJ: How did you meet CodeJoy? How did that happen?
CS: When I first started with ABC CREATE, we were connected very quickly. One of the first projects that the educators in ABC CREATE wanted to undertake was working with the Hummingbird Robotics Kit. When I called BirdBrain Technologies to initially get info on the kits, Tom Lauwers (the founder of BirdBrain) answered.
Then, I called back with purchasing questions, and Tom answered. Each time, it was Tom who talked me through things, because he was all by himself at that time (maybe his wife was also working behind the scenes) - just getting BirdBrain started . Getting involved with BirdBrain in the early days, I got to watch it grow. I was aware when Matt was hired; he did professional development with the hummingbird kit when he first came on board. Then, we worked with Kelsey when she joined, so I got to know them both through our experiences with Bird Brain.
Over time, they worked closely with teachers in our network. They would really listen to teachers, and they could understand teachers’ experiences and perspectives, and that helped them with ideas on how to adapt and enhance Birdbrain. For example, they’d say, “we better put some training on the website!” Because Matt and Kelsey worked so closely with classroom teachers involved, they recognized teachers are not going to sit down and watch boring stuff, so they created content that was relevant, just the right length, and entertaining. I watched BirdBrain develop, and I watched Matt and Kelsey grow in their roles. Then, Matt & Kelsey stepped into their roles at CodeJoy and met the needs of the teachers that I work with by being receptive and responsive. Kelsey and Matt carried the quality of delivery, content, and relevance along with maintaining that sense of relationship with them from their past experiences, from BirdBrain through to CodeJoy. That sense of community stayed as such an important element. Then, what kept me going with my involvement with CodeJoy, was when educators would say, “This is the best professional development I've had in my 30 years of teaching.” You gotta stick with that kind of quality.
AJ: What are some of your favorite things about CodeJoy?
CS: One of the things that helped me build the relationship with Codejoy was responsiveness. As CodeJoy became their own, we would have conversations about what we needed with ABC CREATE. “How can we make this work, and what's gonna look like?” I felt like we established a good, direct relationship. I could say, “This is what I need.” CodeJoy would make it happen and be able to have that kind of communication, responsiveness, and receptivity that best supports teachers. This increased my respect for the working relationship and the culture and value of CodeJoy, a company of relationships. The sense of safety and belonging is there.
AJ: What is your new role with Codejoy?
CS: As a Partnerships, Network, and Engagement Consultant I'm going to listen and learn from those invested in enhancing educational opportunities for educators and learners - with particular attention to better understanding the web of support for the new PA STEELS standards. I see my role as being supportive of educators. My role is connecting people, networks, and systems. I think there's so much work to be done, and we can help to solve the challenges of the education space.
It's about developing skill sets in our communities. I think everybody should be given the chance to build all the skill sets to the best of their ability, all the way, as far as they can go. I want to have coders who communicate well and be creative. I want to have doctors, who can communicate and be receptive to understanding and utilizing technology. STEAM is the gateway.
AJ: What is something you're looking forward to?
CS: The first thing that came to my mind is my cousin, my niece and myself, spending time at my niece's house on the coast of Maine. She just moved there!
I am looking forward to the opportunity to maintain relationships I've built over time and to continuing to work with existing partners and new partners. One of the challenges in education is to be part of the advancement towards solutions. I am excited to support the communities we have in PA. I want to live in a community that is strong, and we can only be strong when we are serving the needs of all of the community members by working together.
Keep up with Colleen’s work by following @CodeJoyEdu on socials!
