In 2012, Scott Frauenheim was named Director of CICS West Belden, and he enthusiastically led the school through The Fund’s Summer Design Program (SDP) in 2013.
His team used the SDP to rethink professional development within the school to include virtual instruction and collaboration for teachers. The professional development addressed teachers’ ability to use technology to more effectively differentiate instruction for students. It started as a small program, but soon produced much more.
“The SDP has had a major impact on me and the entire CICS West Belden community,” Scott said. “My team has adopted the design-thinking model and we put it into action for every idea we have in our building. Our first question for everything we do is this: Why are we doing this, is there a problem, and how will it affect students, teachers and families?”
Scott leveraged his experience with the SDP to propose the adoption of a whole-school blended model at CICS West Belden, and his team submitted a winning application to Breakthrough Schools: Chicago.
Thanks to the SDP, Scott is confident as he undertakes this work. “I personally learned so much about transformational leadership and how to implement a school-wide initiative with a full-team approach,” he said. “I learned how to think through the design process, which has helped me focus my leadership on our school needs for overall success.”
Note from The Fund team: We’ll be launching applications for SDP 2016 later this month. Stay tuned for details and more success stories!