Apply Now for American Center STEM Program

Deadline: 12-Jul-20

The U.S. Embassy Hanoi Public Affairs Section (PAS) has launched the call for applications for the American Center Hanoi’s STEM Program.

Priority Areas

Proposals for projects must focus on one of the priority STEM programs and target audiences specified below:

Robotics Club: Courses aimed at high-school and college students to learn about robotics concepts and STEM fields. Classes should be scheduled at a regular basis and captured with capstone project to evaluate the impact.
Coding and Programming Club: Courses aimed at students and young professionals on coding and programming languages.
STEM literacy: Courses aimed at high school and college students who have zero knowledge of STEM applications in data science, computer science and Internet of Things (IoT) in order to help participants widen their choices of higher education and STEM-related career opportunities.
Digital Innovation: Courses aimed at high school and college students to learn about Artificial Intelligence (AI), Business Intelligence (BI), Big Data/Analytics, 3D Assembly Modelling, and Internet of Things (IoT).
Makerspace: Courses implemented at the American Center’s Makerspace to nurture high school students’ STEM curiosity at an early age to enhance creativity, innovation, and problem solving skills.
STEM and Business: Courses aimed for participants currently working in STEM-related business to introduce fundamentals of enterprise development, supply chain, and marketing practices that are essential to creating STEM startups. The program will help build a network and ongoing mentorship opportunities for students and young professionals in practicing STEM and entrepreneurial processes.
Video Production Club: Developing production of short videos on topics related to fundamental freedoms, trade, economy, investment, environment, health, energy, and wildlife.
Audio-Visual Club: Courses on the functional basics of audio-visual technology to include sound systems, film, 3D-printing, photography, editing, and design basics.
Photography/Graphics Design Club: Courses designed to teach basic photography skills, photojournalism, photo editing, and graphic design for social media.

Funding Information

Award Amount will be up to $10,000
Length of performance period Duration can be up to one year. Successful projects will be eligible for renewal.

Target Audiences

The target audiences for successful projects are Vietnamese students and young professionals ages 15 – 40.

Priority Regions

Activities should be mainly implemented/conducted in the American Center in Hanoi and/or Thai Nguyen University Learning Resources and Information Technology Center.

Eligibility Criteria

Submissions are encouraged from U.S. and Vietnamese entities with relevant programming and/or teaching experience. This experience should be documented in the proposal. Eligible entities include:
- not-for-profit, civil society/non-governmental organizations
- universities; non-profit educational institutions
- individuals
For-profit entities are not eligible.
Previous federal award recipients who are not/were not in compliance with the terms of their financial and program reporting requirements are ineligible to apply. It is the applicant’s responsibility to ensure they are in compliance with all applicable terms, conditions, and Office of Management and Budget guidance and requirements. Those organizations found to be in non-compliance may be found ineligible for funding or designated high risk if selected for funding.

Evaluation Criteria

Criteria used for evaluating the proposals are as follows:

Overall design and implementation plan for programs at the American Center Hanoi and/or Thai Nguyen University Learning Resources and Information Technology Center should closely align with one or more of the target audiences listed above.
Target class sizes should range between 25 and 150 students.
Competitive proposals will have 1.5 hours to four contact hours per week, with a minimum of 20 contact hours in total.
Duration of the grant could be a maximum of one year.
The grantee is encouraged to recruit students and course attendees.
The language of instruction could be English or Vietnamese.
The proposal must include detailed information about the project members and instructor(s), including CV, resume and other relevant professional experience.
The instructors of the class should be trained teachers or working professionals
The grantee is responsible for obtaining visas and any other legal documents required by the Government of Vietnam for staff to work in the country.
Budget in the proposal must include:
- Cost of teaching materials for teachers and learning materials for students
- Salary of teachers
- Marketing and recruiting costs
- Field trips/Transportation cost (if any)
The proposal must include a syllabus and a course monitoring and evaluation plan. Marketing strategies to recruit attendees are recommended but not required
Provide post-course feedback on the students’ performance.