Who We Are
futurePREP'd focuses on bringing relevance and design thinking to students. By providing experiences with community and business partners, students are able to explore careers, work on leadership skills, and get ready for their next steps.
Within futurePREP’d, students will have the opportunity to solve a real challenge with a local business and/or community partner. Using the Creative Sequence, a Design Thinking process, students will progress from investigating a real challenge to coming up with ideas to pitching a solution to a business partner. Along with this, students will practice and perfect the Skills4Success, a set of softskills that every student needs in order to be successful and productive.
2024-2025 School Year Programs
PREP'd Connect (9th - 12th Grade)
PREP'd Connect is an after-school program in which students get introduced to a variety of careers, build their professional network, and practice their Skills4Success. Students can also earn one college credit, visit a college campus, attend a Chamber event, and work towards potential internships and work experiences.
Meetings are roughly once a month after school from 3pm-6:15pm at different business locations. Dates are determined by participating school districts.
High School Academy (9th - 12th grade)
Through Academy, students work together as a team to develop new and innovative solutions to real-world problems faced by local companies. Students will solve these challenges on-site at their business partner.
Academy is open to all high school students.
2024-2025 Winter Program Dates: January 6-March 1
Teams will meet twice a week. Days and times will be determined by individual teams.
Middle School Academy (6th - 8th grade)
Through Middle School Academy, students work together as a team to develop new and innovative solutions to real-world problems.
The Middle School Academy is open to all middle school students at participating schools.
2024-2025 Program Dates: January 6 - February 28
Teams will meet once a week. Days and times will be determined by individual teams.
Please email Denise Smyk or call 616.738-8950 ext. 4176 for further information on Academy teams.
Elementary School Academy (4th and 5th grade)
Through Elementary Academy, students work together as a team to develop new and innovative solutions to real-world problems.
The Elementary Academy is open to all 4th and 5th grade elementary school students in participating schools.
2024-2025 Program Dates: January 6 - February 28
Teams will meet once a week. Day and time will be determined by individual teams.
Please email Denise Smyk or call 616.738-8950 ext. 4176 for further information on Academy teams.
futurePREP'd Educators
Our futurePREP'd team works to train and partner with educators within the Ottawa Area ISD to bring design thinking, relevance, and project-based learning into the classrooms of thousands of students. We continue to support 400+ futurePREP'd educators with professional development, networking opportunities, innovative programming, and local community connections. We partner with our educators and 100+ community and business partners to help students become equipped with 21st Century Skills and start to decide what is next for them.
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