STEP Up Program

About Us

What is STEP Up?

A Secondary Transition to Employment Program (STEP) that provides Jefferson County students with opportunities to develop in areas such as career exploration, social skills, work-based learning through unpaid internships, and life skills. This program is partnered with the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and can increase participants' work experience, work stamina, and overall career readiness.

Who is this program for?

Young adults, ages 18-21 with disabilities that are in or entering Jeffco Transition Services (JTS).

What do the students do for the USGS?

Participant work is computer and technology based. It involves, but is not limited to: scanning paper documents into digitized files and folders, scanning and editing topographical maps for the USGS Maps Store, and quality checking the USGS Maps Store's website for broken links and other errors. This work is impactful to the USGS as the participants digitize information so it is more accessible to scientists and the public. The participants’ work also helps to reduce the massive amount of physical storage space being used at the Denver Federal Center.

Where are we located?

Both the classroom and worksites take place inside of the Denver Federal Center Campus.

Quotes From Our USGS Partners:

Please send my appreciation to the STEP-UP students for the wonderful work that they were able to accomplish during the past school year. They prepared and scanned over 700 folders of historic laboratory paperwork. These scanned files are now preserved on our servers and are accessible for use by USGS researchers. These students were a wonderful group to work with.

I would like to emphasize how important is the work that was completed by the STEP-UP students. While we have been working from home during the coronavirus pandemic, researchers have accessed almost 300 scanned laboratory paperwork files that we have archived on our servers. From these files, we have compiled digital data for about 16,000 samples, which are being used to support current USGS projects in Nevada and Alaska. Even though we cannot go into our offices or collect new samples in the field because of pandemic restrictions, work continues while we have historical data that can be accessed from home.

-Steve Smith

While the school year ended abruptly, our memories of the STEP-UP students will not. Each student contributed something unique, and ultimately their contributions will add to the national-scale database of mine features that serves as a foundational layer to earth scientists, academia, private industry, and state and federal governments. It was such a pleasure to have the cheerful group in our building on a routine basis.

Thank you again for providing such a valuable service and experience to our Science Center.