Keep Calm & Get Alison a Green Card

Hi, for those of you who don’t know me I’m Christina. I’ve never been the type to ask for help but today I will step out of my comfort zone to ask you to consider assisting a worthwhile effort. I am actually asking for help for my good friend and co-worker, Alison Stephens, who has been teaching with me in as a Technology Education teacher. The position she is teaching is one that is not easy to fill which makes us so fortunate to have her as part of our faculty.  Technology Education allows students the opportunity to learn the process of designing and engineering solutions in a hands-on,minds-on environment of invention and innovation.







Alison is an educator that has made this broad definition come to life for the students and staff at City Hill Middle School! Alison is skilled in the curriculum and is able to teach our children in many technical areas such as engineering, thru computer-aided design programs, rocket building, model car design and construction, wood furniture construction, and robotics. Her patience, skill and expertise in these areas far exceed the boundaries of that definition, and the program in our school is fortunate to have Alison as the force behind the students’ achievements.


Some recent and additional accomplishments:


*In January of 2014,Alison wrote and was awarded a grant through DonorsChoose.org for a 3D printer at a cost of $2,200 for all students to use in her technology education courses.


*After the great success being demonstrated by the students with the original 3D printer, Ms. Stephens knew she needed to obtain more of them. So she rolled up her sleeves once again and went to work from May through July 2015 with a dozen students. They built and sold 26 Adirondack chairs to raise a profit of $2,200 to purchase two more 3D printers.This accomplishment is a great symbol of her devotion to our students achievements.


*In May of 2015 Alison wrote and was awarded a $1,800 grant from the Naugatuck Education Foundation for the Seaperch robotics program to cover the cost of the materials to build the robots. Alison volunteered to run a weekly robotics club after school from October through May. In today’s  21st century society having a club like this that focuses on science and engineering is invaluable for our students to gain real world experience in today's competitive global market. She also spent multiple weekends with the students testing and rebuilding the robots as well as all day competitions on weekends.


*In June 2015 Alison wrote yet another grant to the Petit Family Foundation,which works to foster women in science, to further expand her technology education program to continue to include more STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Math) into her program. She was granted $3,500 for Vex IQ robots as an elective course at the middle school.

    

Alison Stephens has worked tirelessly for others and for the students and staff at CHMS. It is time now for the community to get to work for her. We do not want to lose Alison. She is too valuable and precious to the students and to City Hill. Please help us keep Alison in the States, here with us, teaching and advocating for our students.
To continue living and working in the US, Alison needs to file for permanent residency, or ‘Green card’ status. It is a very time consuming and costly process which needs to begin as soon as possible.  Filing such a position is estimated to cost at least $10,000, which mostly consists of attorney’s fees. Please help in whatever way you can.

Thank You!