CAPS goes international with latest affiliate; builds new student connections with Summer Bash

A Johnson County-born professional studies program for teenagers is going international, said Corey Mohn, announcing CAPS’ new partnership with Holy Trinity School in Ontario, Canada.

Corey Mohn, Blue Valley CAPS

“I feel like we can learn from working with a different system and with students from a different culture,” said Mohn, executive director of the Blue Valley School District Center For Advanced Professional Studies, commonly known as CAPS. “We are really excited about it.”

The program already has 68 affiliate programs throughout the U.S. Its campus in Overland Park opened in 2010. 

“We take pride in starting in Kansas City and the expansion has been a steady growth,” Mohn continued, characterizing the effort to connect students to authentic professional learning opportunities as “bringing people out of chaos and into opportunity.”

Click here to read about CAPS’ previous effort to launch a cross-cultural program in India.

CAPS’ now-international network allows affiliate programs to collaborate, experiment, and learn from each other while all creating programs that look slightly different, he said.

Click here to learn more about CAPS.

CAPS as a whole took time during the initial months of COVID-19 shutdowns to pour energy into connecting students virtually across the different programs, Mohn added.

“In May, we launched our first CAPS Career Week,” he said. “It was a four-day experience with 20 different guest speakers and each professional was representing a different industry. The days ran from 9-to-4 and were filled with networking and learning opportunities for students.”

“We had 2,000 people register and I am still blown away,” Mohn said

Blue Valley School District Center For Advanced Professional Studies, photo courtesy of CAPS

Even through the inevitable virtual transition, the program’s leaders discovered a better understanding of CAPS itself — rather than simply settling on the most obvious COVID-era solutions, he said.

“There is something about being virtual and freeing up from traditional structure that has given us massive opportunity,” Mohn said.  

One big benefit: no worries about travel or getting speakers and students to one geographic location.

“This makes opportunities like ours more accessible to more people and we have loved it,” Mohn said. “It shows the power of the network and that we can move farther virtually. All of this would have been impossible without using technology.” 

Following the success of CAPS Career Week, Mohn and other CAPS affiliates were inspired to launch another event — Summer Bash — across the network July 21.

Click here to register or learn more about the free six-hour, one-day Summer Bash event for thought leaders and students.