About Us: 4empowerment®

Welcome to 4empowerment®, where student, education and community organization members make a difference through secured connections and meaningful real-world activities.

Since 1999, 4empowerment has been empowering personal development, conceiving and implementing over $6 million in federal technology education grants. 4empowerment delivers the means to collaborate, learn and take action on the mosaic of issues affecting individuals, our communities and our planet.

4empowerment is a “permission based” online community, designed for student and education organizations, empowering participants to impact their community and environment. 4empowerment is approved and invited by student organizations and schools to help them make a positive difference.

Our Programs and Partnerships

Our K-12 programs, designed with the active involvement of our customers – students, teachers, administrators - educators, teachers – are designed to:

• Provide fun, engaging, interdisciplinary community service and learning activities
• Allow for project collaboration and knowledge sharing inter and intra schools
• Bridge virtual and real-world interactions
• Actively involve community leaders, higher education and businesses in the overall learning experience
• Provide grade and subject specific lesson plans and classroom activities based on research-based, proven findings and best practices
• Incorporate teacher professional development tools and resources that can be used to develop customized teacher development plans
• Align to federal "No Child Left Behind" (NCLB) mandates and state standards

Cyberways and Waterways® Program

4empowerment’s award-winning K- 12 program, Cyberways and Waterways®, delivers a new paradigm for teaching and learning – a supplemental science program that integrates technology into the classroom through an innovative set of inquiry-based, authentic learning activities and lesson plans facilitated through the 4empowerment website. The program includes customizable teacher training tools and resources for technology and professional development competency needs. Cyberways and Waterways is a showcase for effectively involving higher education, scientists, community and business leaders in local classroom activities. This award-winning program has been implemented in classrooms across 22 Texas school districts, serving over 150 teachers and 50,000 students while involving over 30 private/public sector partners. Click here to learn more about Cyberways and Waterways.

The vision is to engage students, teachers, and communities around the world through innovative, compelling, technology-rich programs .

Partnerships Making a Difference

4empowerment partners with national and local entities to create and implement unique programs that seamlessly integrate technology into education. Through the use of innovative interdisciplinary curricula, online collaboration, and project-based, hands-on activities, our partnership programs make a difference.

Collaborative programs have included:

	Cataclysms and Catastrophes -- Through funding from the National Science Foundation, this program (administered by the University of Texas at Austin's Institute for Geophysics and in partnership with 4empowerment) created inquiry-based learning activities for K-12 science education, providing opportunities for these teachers to integrate technology into science learning.
	Empowering Science Education through Technology (E-SET) -- With support from the Texas Education Agency, this comprehensive program conceived by 4empowerment served a consortium of 16 school districts under the direction of San Felipe Del Rio CISD and integrates technology into science education for grades 6-12. The E-SET program has been awarded one of the prestigious Technology Applications Readiness Grants for Empowering Texas (TARGET) funded by the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB).
	Making the Connections (MC) -- With support from the Texas Education Agency, this comprehensive program conceived by 4empowerment served a consortium of 13 school districts and focuses on technology integration into English and Language Arts for grades 6-12. The MC program has also been awarded one of the prestigious TARGET grants funded by NCLB.
	Texas Accelerated Science Achievement (Texas ASAP) -- With support from the Texas Education Agency, the program provided after school and summer school programs designed to increase student achievement as measured by the science portion of the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills tests. In partnership with the UT Dana Center, 4empowerment’s Cyberways & Waterways® (CW) science program provided schools with innovative online and field study learning activities that engage all student groups and reinforce science knowledge and concepts
	Texas Association of Student Councils (TASC) -- The Advisory Board for TASC approved 4empowerment’s environmental program for use by their 1,300 middle and high school members. 4empowerment participates in local and state-wide events, engaging kids in community service and environmental stewardship.  To visit the offical TASC site click here.

How to Get Involved

Are you interested in learning more about our programs and collaborative opportunities? Please contact us: staff@4empowerment.com