Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Worldwide Campus recognized campers at the Clarksville Youth Enrichment Programs June 12.
Representatives from ERAU presented T-shirts in hopes to fuel students’ interest in fields heavy in mathematics, science and engineering. The university, in conjunction with the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics initiative, promotes those skills, especially in middle and high school students.
“Embry-Riddle is taking STEM a step further through our Center for Aviation & Aerospace Leadership,” according to their website. “The Center is co-funding an initiative to build a national Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Manufacturing (STEM+M) Database to help meet the need for properly educated aviation and aerospace workers.”
“The Fort Campbell campus wanted to support the efforts of the Clarksville enrichment programs summer workshops and STEM skills,” said Regina Watkins, the director of the Fort Campbell, Ky., campus of Embry-Riddle University Worldwide. “We wanted to (give shape to) what the students were doing.”
Watkins has seen firsthand the excitement that is fostered by the STEM program – her daughter’s teacher, Brooke Knight, is also the director of the CYEP.
“I’m so grateful,” said Brooke Knight. “It’s wonderful to have (a university) like that recognize the work these kids are doing.”
“(Knight) is very passionate about teaching her students, and I can see it within my daughter,” Watkins said. “She so inspires students in math and science during the school year.”
However, Knight’s muse for her enthusiasm is the student.
“The kids are our future,” she said. “They will be the ones to solve all the problems of the world and come up with all the answers. They are really the inspiration, here.”