Last week, local prominent corporations had a presence at East Lake Elementary School’s STEM Night in the school’s cafeteria.
NASA and Sea World, known throughout the country, were there along with local names such as Toho Water Authority and Osceola Technical College.
Around the cafeteria, the various companies could be seen situated around their respective booths eagerly offering information about their jobs to the wide-eyed children and curious parents who were equally as interested to learn. Though most importantly, all the present companies shared a common purpose: the desire to give back to the community by educating the next generation of young minds on the many opportunities that lie in a field that is constantly growing and expanding.
Megan Epperly, a member of NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems program detailed the company’s connection with attending youth events like East Lake’s.
“Outreach is a huge thing for us, all we want to do is inspire the next generation – getting kids into STEM is extremely important, so we do any event like this that we can,” Epperly said.
She said the program’s main job is building all the components that make up rockets. Exploration Ground Systems hopes to get to the moon within the following year with the ultimate goal being Mars. Though she is aware that it is the next generation that will be fulfilling these ambitions, thus making the need for reaching younger audiences even more important.
Taylor Driggers, a clerk typist at Orlando Technical College, also had a similar outlook on her company’s connection to the event.
“We really enjoy going to the elementary schools, talking to them, and getting them prepared to think about their future, even as little as the elementary school age,” Driggers said. “We want them to always use their creative minds and imaginations to think of anything that is limitless”.
Employees of other companies that attended the event such as Boeing, Lynx, and the NeoCity technology district all shared comparable ideas about their hope to better inform children about the multitude of career opportunities that lie within the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math. This is something that was highlighted by Stephanie Burk, manager of marketing at Lynx, when asked about her company’s connection to the STEM event.
“I think a lot of people don’t realize that transportation is just like engineering and the mechanics behind it, so it really correlates a lot to STEM,” she said.
Burk also went onto state that the event was a good opportunity to connect with the youth which is something that Cortez Whatley, local government affairs and public policy manager at Orlando Health, also emphasized when questioned about his company’s connection to the school district.
“We just love giving back, being a part of the community, being involved, and specifically helping out the kids whenever we can” he said.
This answer truly encompassed the goal of all the companies that invested their time and energy into attending STEM night.
