SXSW: Vote For Fremont Speaker

FREMONT, CA — Last year, the City of Fremont partnered with FUSE Corps, a nonprofit organization with a mission to help local governments address urban challenges, and hired Fremont’s first FUSE Corps Executive Fellow, Parker Thomas. Since then, Parker has been working to build a future advanced manufacturing talent pipeline through nurturing maker education efforts in the classroom, after school programs, and more.

After a listening tour of the Fremont Unified School District, businesses, community organizations, and City departments as well as a trip to study Pittsburgh’s maker ecosystem, Parker is ready to share his insights gained in his time with Fremont with a broader audience, specifically, how to create a sustainable framework to support maker education initiatives that will benefit students, teachers, and the broader community.

Parker has submitted a speaking proposal to the 2019 SXSW EDU, a premiere education conference that gathers and empowers a community of educators and other stakeholders to advance teaching and learning.

In his proposed session, “How Little Bets Can Kickstart Maker Education,” Parker will explore how Fremont used low-cost experiments to catalyze a local maker education movement. This includes how to design little bets with the help of the community, evaluate the success of those little bets, and transform the successful endeavors into larger programs.

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To vote for Parker’s submission and increase the chances that his topic will be selected, visit this link, create a quick profile, and click "Vote Up." SXSW EDU Community voting will be open until August 30, 2018. The final decision is derived from SXSW EDU Advisory Board evaluations (40%), public voting (30%), and staff review (30%).

You can find additional information about Parker’s work in Fremont online.

— Announcement and photo via City of Fremont