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 attend a Partner Program and 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.