Bring Your Network to the Classroom
I am a STEM professional who transitioned from industry to the classroom. As a senior mission manager with NASA, I launched Earth-orbiting satellites and planetary missions to Mars. It was like being an operator on the bridge from Earth to space.
Now that I am a full-time STEM educator working to prepare this next generation of 21st Century leaders, I am operating on a different bridge. The bridge takes my students from mere dreams to unlimited possibilities.
As a former STEM professional, I often remember I have a lot to bring into my class. However, it is neither my past accomplishments nor any professional accolades that I am most eager to share with my students. Instead, it is my professional network that I am most excited to have my young scholars engage. And the best part is that I do not have to wait for Career Day to make it happen.
If you are a STEM educator, you, too, have the same opportunity to tap into your rich network. This is a way to inspire and motivate your students to see themselves as leaders in the 21st Century. Whether through industry, academia, or professional organizations, you have access to connect your students with current trends in STEM from a personal level. In other words, you can introduce and expose your students to possibilities and opportunities they did not realize existed for them through people you know personally.
One experience I recently created for my students was an introduction to fellow former NASA engineer, innovator, researcher, and inventor Dr. Lonnie Johnson. He has an innovation research and development firm in Atlanta, and he also partners with the 100 Black Men of Atlanta to sponsor robotics teams. His firm often hosts school groups to work on robotics and tour the facility.
Dr. Johnson will typically greet and offer a brief welcome to the visiting groups and turn the event back over to staff. However, my students received an unplanned/unscheduled invitation to join Dr. Johnson in his conference room on the day of our visit. As he indicated, he wanted to just tell them his story himself. No Google search beats that! He had the students’ full, undivided attention. For me, the best part was that the students saw someone who looked just like them, who was very accomplished and did not mind sharing the possibilities in store for their future.
I am also a Georgia Tech alumna and have taken advantage of opportunities to connect my students to the university. In addition to summer STEM programs, my students have participated in enrichment programs focused on nanotechnology during the school year. Most recently, I used this connection to host a hands-on lab where the program coordinators shipped the materials to my classroom. The coordinators conducted the lab virtually, fully engaging the students. Yes, my middle school students were taught by college professors for the day.
For my future student entrepreneurs, I brought in the president of a construction firm. When I shared that he has close to 400 people on his payroll, I paused and asked them to process what that means. I asked the students to imagine being responsible for providing a salary, health insurance, and meaningful jobs and opportunities for that many people. That’s when I shared the connection that the president of the company and I attended the same church. And once again, they saw someone who looked like them, who was accomplished and did not mind showing them what could be possible.
We share our network because we want our students to realize they are not limited to gaining exposure, insight, and understanding from only their STEM educators. We can be a doorway to opportunities they do not know exists. We have such deep resources from which to pull and benefit our students. That is what I want to invite you to do. Continue to bring your network to your students. There is no reason to keep your students from catching a glimpse of the future through your connections.