January 12, 2024 | Harold Hare
A Shared Vision: New York City Public Schools
How Find Your Grind Supports “Reimagining the Student Experience” Initiatives
New York City Public Schools (NYCPS), one of the nation’s largest and most diverse school systems, continually strives to enhance its educational offerings and address the unique challenges faced by its students. Explore the top educational priorities currently at the forefront of NYPS’s agenda and how Find Your Grind can strategically support each area.
Reimagining the Student Experience:
Initiatives such as the Career Pathways Initiative have been introduced to create career-connected learning and pathways for all students, fostering passion and purpose.
NYCPS is committed to ensuring that all students graduate with a strong plan for the future, including having skills such as civic engagement and financial literacy.
Find Your Grind’s flipped approach to career exploration uniquely supports this vision. Rather than simply matching students to career titles based on traditional assessments, Find Your Grind’s curriculum organically creates better career-connected outcomes through our Lifestyle-first approach – naturally aligning career pathways to students’ life goals, purposes, and passions. Knowing that implementation is the key to successful learning, Find Your Grind also offers a unique and robust curriculum that inspires students to create the life that they want to live. The curriculum offers several core topics and themes: Self-discovery, personal brand, networking, pathway readiness, lifestyle design, mental wellness, leadership, financial literacy, and more!
After all, it’s not what you want to be but who you want to be!
Prioritizing Wellness and Link to Student Success:
Acknowledging the critical role of social and emotional well-being in academic success, NYCPS is prioritizing SEL initiatives. The goal is to cultivate students’ emotional intelligence, resilience, and interpersonal skills. Schools are implementing SEL curricula, training educators in trauma-informed practices, and fostering a positive school culture that supports the mental health of both students and staff.
Find Your Grind’s secret sauce has always been our unique ability to blend the social-emotional and career readiness conversation together. Anchored by our researched-based Future Ready Framework, Find Your Grind integrates the five CASEL competencies for SEL through the lens of workforce development. Making us one of the only learning solutions that bridges the gap for young people between their personal development and how that will prepare them to better navigate the future of work. And we don’t just help students develop their social-emotional skills; we prove through data that students are growing in each area. Find Your Grind’s Future Ready Indicator tracks students’ growth over time in their social-emotional and career readiness development.
Virtual Learning and Technology Integration:
NYCPS recognizes the importance of integrating technology into the classroom in an ever-evolving digital age. NYCPS has invested in infrastructure, provides teachers with professional development opportunities, and equips students with the necessary skills to thrive in a technology-driven world. Initiatives include the expansion of digital learning platforms, additional learning devices, and internet access to students who may lack these resources. NYCPS has also expanded its virtual learning opportunities, understanding that traditional education models are not the best learning environments for all students.
NYCPS and Find Your Grind share a common belief that we are preparing students for a rapidly changing world and that technological advancements will change how we work. To support this, integrating technology and virtual learning experiences into the academic day will better support the transition for students. Find Your Grind’s learning experiences are rooted in the latest advancements in educational technology. Delivered through a Gen-Z-friendly user interface and learning design, Find Your Grind has been developed to meet students where they are and how they like to consume content. Find Your Grind provides NYCPS with the most advanced digital learning experience, from researched-backed bite-sized learning to digital-native learning patterns and interactions.
Designed to be an independent and autonomous learning experience, Find Your Grind can support in-person and virtual learning environments. As more NYCPS students gravitate towards online schooling opportunities, Find Your Grind will serve as a trusted district program to support however and wherever students want to become future-ready.
Emphasizing Family Engagement to Strengthen the Partnership Between Schools and Families:
This is what the educational landscape should look like. NYCPS and Find Your Grind understand the importance of community and family engagement and how one’s career journey can be interwoven with the community where they live, fostering meaning and action that will translate to communities thriving with more future ready graduates than ever!
After overwhelming requests from our partners to make our proprietary Lifestyle Assessment available to the communities where they work and live, Find Your Grind is proud to announce the release of our Lifestyle Assessment tool online, available now! Parents specifically can experience Find Your Grind alongside their students, creating deeper and more meaningful connections.
Multilingual Education:
Given the diverse population of New York City, promoting multilingual education is a priority. NYCPS is expanding dual-language programs, providing additional support for English language learners, and celebrating the cultural richness students bring to the classroom. These initiatives aim to create an inclusive environment where all students feel valued and supported in their language development.
Find Your Grind understands that offering a multi-language option is critical to serving diverse backgrounds in our communities. In 2023, we launched our first language feature, Find Your Grind en Espanol! As we expand implementation in NYCPS, we will work alongside district leadership to prioritize language inclusiveness that represents the vibrant communities of NYC.
Shared Responsibility:
New York City Public Schools’ commitment to educational excellence is reflected in its strategic focus on family and community engagement, technology integration, social and emotional learning, college and career readiness, and multilingual education. By partnering with Find Your Grind to support addressing these priorities, NYCPS is preparing students for academic success and nurturing well-rounded individuals equipped to thrive in an ever-changing world. As these initiatives continue to evolve, the future of education in NYC looks promising, with a steadfast commitment to providing every student with the tools they need to be future-ready.
Connect with our team today to learn how NYCPS is implementing Find Your Grind and how our program could support your school!
