Supporting a New Pilot Program through Project Management

I have been a social studies teacher for the past five years at the Jefferson Union High School District. During the summer of 2022, I have had the opportunity to work at Meta’s Reality Labs as a fellow in the Business Enablement Team, housed in the Business Operations department. Reality Labs is the division of Meta which develops items such as Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality devices, in addition to managing the Metaverse. My task has been to research the supply chain strategies of other matured, public companies in order to suggest how the Reality Labs team can increase their competitive advantage. Towards the end of the fellowship, I will present my findings in a slide deck to relevant stakeholders. While at Meta, I have also gained insight into their corporate project management (PM) practices. The Reality Labs team continues to utilize concepts of traditional PM, but their recent focus has been integrating agile management practices with the “Atlassian Suite,” particularly applications such as “Confluence” and “Jira.” Though the agile aspect of PM may not be as relevant to managing programs in public education, the traditional PM approach is very valuable. Thus, I have connected my Meta fellowship with my educational setting through a plan that will integrate corporate project management principles. Through this ETP, I will be outlining a Staff Development plan that facilitates long-term planning in the 2022-2023 academic year with a group of 8 teachers who are piloting a new course. They will be teaching “Introduction to Ethnic Studies” for the first time at JUHSD.