Press Releases

ACES Wintergreen Interdistrict Magnet School Selected as an Amazon Future Engineer School

May 6th, 2021

ACES Wintergreen Interdistrict Magnet School is pleased to announce that it has been selected as an Amazon Future Engineer (AFE) school - a partnership between Amazon and Project STEM to improve access to computer science education in communities currently underrepresented in the technology field.
According to the Bureau of Labor statistics, by 2020, there will be 1.4 million computer science related jobs available and only 400,000 computer science graduates with the skills to apply for those jobs. Many students eager to fill that gap and obtain a high paying job in technology do not have access to computer science in their middle and high schools. Often schools want to offer these courses to their students but do not have access to curriculum and/or teacher
support materials.
Dawn Fitzpatrick, Library Media Specialist at Wintergreen, applied for the program for her students. She explained, "They all have some kind of technology and are now immersed in it from day to night. It’s clearly a field that is the future for living and careers and it needs to be explored by our student population." Fitzpatrick said Amazon described it best in their welcome letter to her, stating, “At a time when every industry in every state is impacted by advances in computer technology, this program gives students the opportunity to understand how this technology works, and to learn how to be creators, coders, and makers — not just consumers."
Amazon and Project STEM are partnering to address this gap by sponsoring teachers and administrators who demonstrate this need and are committed to bringing computer science to their school with access to content such as: CS Explorations 1: Fundamentals in Scratch, Computer Science Fundamentals, AP Computer Science Principles, or AP Computer Science A courses. This content also includes fully sequenced and paced digital curriculum for students,
and professional development for educators new to learning or teaching computer science. Interested schools can learn more at www.amazonfutureegineer.com, including how students can access college scholarships and internships at Amazon.