Our Mission and Plan
OUR MISSION:
Project Steno promotes the stenographic court reporting/captioning profession through community outreach, with the goal of building a robust pipeline of students into school and graduating them in two years.
OUR PLAN:
Step 1 – Getting the RIGHT Students into Court Reporting School
The first step with Project Steno is to enroll prospective court reporting/captioning students in Basic Training, our introduction-to-steno program. Delivered by volunteer court reporters across the U.S., the Basic Training program will:
- Expose large populations of prospective students to the profession;
- Teach them the fundamentals of shorthand theory and acclimate them to the steno machine;
- Assess successful graduates of the introductory programs and identify candidates most likely to succeed in school.
Importantly: Basic Training is NOT a substitute for court reporting school. Consider it a screening tool to let candidates decide for themselves whether a stenographic career might be a good choice for them – without committing to a big decision with the corresponding financial expense.
Step 2 – Sending Students to the Right Court Reporting School
Once students complete Basic Training, it’s important to pick the right court reporting school. There are some bricks-and-mortar schools (not many) and many more online schools. Project Steno will help students find the right school for their circumstances.
Project Steno will develop and publish statistics about our students as they progress at these schools and programs to help prospective students make an informed choice of school.
Step 3 – Reducing the Cost of Tuition for Students
Project Steno’s Merit Award Program is designed to reward students based on achievement. $1,000 Merit Awards are available. To be eligible, students must register with Project Steno within 30 days of starting steno school.
Registration form and applications can be found at the Getting Started page of this website.

Project Steno’s online Basic Training program offers potential students an introduction to court reporting and captioning — without making a financial commitment.

Project Steno’s will partner with schools whose program meets our goals and is geared to graduate students in two years. We require programs to use training tools such as Realtime Coach and provide individual coaching based on each student’s specific needs.

Project Steno offers two $1,000.00 Merit Awards to students who meet our benchmarks.