There is a dire need in stenographic reporting and we all know what it is: we need more of us! Project Steno has a plan for getting young people into our profession, and we need your help to make it successful. I’m truly excited to tell you about it.
Project Steno has an Intro-to-Steno course which we call Basic Training that has proved highly attractive to young people. Now we want to promote it in high schools. We have designed a program that fits seamlessly into a high school’s schedule, it’s delivered via Zoom, and it’s free.
And we need you to let your local high school know about it!
Our ask is simple: Reach out to your local high school and make an appointment with administrators to talk about bringing Basic Training to their school. That’s all we need you to do – cross that threshold and get us a foot in the door! We’ll take it from there. We’ll meet with the teachers, we’ll meet with the principals, we’ll meet with the administrators and talk about how we have brought court reporting to high schools.
There’s a shortage of court reporters today. You can help solve the shortage by reaching out to a friend, a neighbor, a relative, someone you know in a high school, or just knock on the door of your local high school and ask for an appointment with the admin. That’s it! We even have the tools and materials to help you get that appointment.
I personally have had great success with this in my home state of Massachusetts where I’ve delivered our Basic Training course at nearly a dozen different high schools. Look at the photos to see how much fun I had sharing my passion for our profession.
Project Steno has developed an entire packet of material to make it easy to bring court reporting to a high school near you. Our program is an easy sell to high school administrators. We have the instructors, we have the loaner steno machines, we have the books, we have the quizzes, we have readback materials, and videos. We have an entire turnkey package to bring to your high school. What we need is you to get us in the door! I know there’s a high school near you. If each member of your association today could reach out to one high school, imagine how busy we’d be talking to people about this profession!
I encourage you to go to our website, ProjectSteno.org. You’ll see right on the home page a nine-minute video we call “The Best Career You Never Heard Of!” If you haven’t seen it, I want you to watch it. Past NCRA president John Prout described it as the best recruiting tool for court reporting he’s ever seen. Go ahead and treat yourself to that uplifting video. I promise it will make you feel GREAT about our profession and remind you why we love what we do.
Take a look at the other short videos on our home page. They describe the flexibility of a career in reporting, the lucrative pay structure, and the overwhelming demand for court reporters and captioners. Then watch the testimonials under the Student Videos tab, where you’ll hear heartfelt thanks from students Project Steno has helped through the donations of our many committed supporters. They’ll bring a smile to your face and hope for the future.
We need to spread the word about court reporting. That’s what Project Steno does. And we need your help in spreading the word to high schools. Time is critical. Each of us has a role to play if we are to save our profession. Please email me at [email protected] for more information or to let me know you’re ready to reach out to your local high school
Together, we can rebuild our profession. I know we can. I’m counting on you.
Nancy Varallo is the Executive Director of Project Steno.
About Project Steno
Founded in 2017, Project Steno is an independent, non-affiliated organization that relies entirely on financial support from the court reporting/captioning community. Its goals are to:
- Promote the stenographic reporting profession and recruit promising students;
- Partner with stenographic reporting schools and programs to graduate students in two years;
- Create incentives for students to reach speed milestones through the Merit Awards Program;
- Track performance of students who graduate in two years through data collection and analysis.
Project Steno is the tradename of Project TO Advance Stenographic Reporting, Inc., a 501(c)3 charitable organization. It operates entirely on a not-for-profit basis. In January 2018 Project Steno launched its program of tuition assistance and placed its first students in court reporting school. With the manifest enthusiasm of court reporters everywhere, Project Steno will continue to raise funds to promote widespread awareness of our unique profession and create a robust pipeline of students into court reporting schools and graduates into the field. Learn more at http://ProjectSteno.org.
Nancy Varallo teaching Basic Training to high school students via Zoom.
High school students receive a Certificate of Completion for their Basic Training course.
