Startech
The Cyber Education Center (CEC)
Field: Formal Education
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Requested sum: $21,500
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33% of total budget
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Location: kiryat Gat
// About the Organization
The Cyber Education Center empowers underprivileged Israeli youth with 21st-century skills, exemplifying the transformative impact of technology and education on social mobility and Israel’s future.
// Project Description
StarTech is a two-year informal excellence program for eight and ninth graders, held after school hours. It serves students from the periphery, building broad technological knowledge along with motivation and self-confidence. Participants study cyber, programming, networks and computers through project-based learning such as apps, games and animations, while strengthening computational thinking, teamwork, leadership and presentation skills.
// Project Goals
The purpose of the program is to reduce social gaps by preparing Jr. high students from the periphery for tech excellence high school programs. 68 percent of graduates join cyber units in the IDF and 84 percent build meaningful tech careers. The goal is for a 50 percent acceptance of StarTech graduates in Kiryat Gat into army cyber units vs. 25 percent from the overall Israeli population.
// Target Population
8 and 9th grade students with high potential. In Kiryat Gat, 45 students from 3 schools participate in StarTech. Indirect impact includes parents, siblings and the entire community which gains quality education and human capital development.
// Outcomes
Expected short-term outcomes include expanding access to tech education to periphery pupils, reducing socioeconomic gaps and building skills such as programming, problem solving and teamwork. In the long term, to encourage science and computers studies and increase integration into academia and the tech industry.
// Project Timeline
September: Recruitment & screening. October- November: Program launch. December- February: Parent's exposure events, Technological social excellence activities (volunteering in local communities). March-June: ‘Week of Good Deeds’, Hackathon.
// Budget Sustainability
The Cyber Education Center plan is that additional government agencies, such as the Ministry of Education / Ministry for the Development of the Negev and Galil, will step up to support the project, ensuring its continued financial sustainability beyond the Partnership’s funding.
If the Partnership cannot fund the full requested sum, CEC (Cyber Education Center) will continue to seek funding from other philanthropic sources. However, this may require scaling back certain activities, potentially impacting our beneficiaries and the program outcomes.
// Project establishment status
The program is already successfully operating in the Partnership Region.