DVIDS – News – USMA Math professor earns DOD-wide recognition for promoting STEM education, outreach in 2022

Lt. Col. Andrew Lee, assistant professor within the Division of Mathematical Sciences, not too long ago acquired the Division of Protection’s Science, Expertise, Engineering and Arithmetic (STEM) Advocate of the Quarter Award for the third quarter in Fiscal 12 months 2022.

The award acknowledges excellent STEM training and outreach efforts that advance the DOD mission. Lee’s mentorship and advocacy for STEM training, significantly planning, coordinating and executing West Level’s digital and in-person summer time STEM camps, has been integral to encouraging the following era of scientists and engineers.

Cadets from the Middle for Management and Variety in STEM (CLD STEM), which seeks to recruit and retain African People, Hispanics, Native People, females and different under-resourced populations in STEM, function mentors, group leaders and hosts to the center and highschool college students collaborating within the annual program.

Since 2016, CLD STEM has carried out greater than 160 cellular STEM workshops throughout the nation, supporting greater than 3,000 center college and highschool college students.

These workshops reveal Lee’s immensely optimistic influence in West Level’s STEM outreach efforts and for the nation’s youth.

Brig. Gen. Shane Reeves, fifteenth Dean of the Educational Board, emphasizes the influence on each cadets and the neighborhood.

“These civic engagement initiatives are necessary to growing a love for studying within the subsequent era and bridging connections between our army and the communities we swear an oath to guard,” Reeves stated.

“CLD STEM has executed these outreach occasions for years, and the recipe for fulfillment is twofold: Cadet mentors and competitions,” Lee stated. “Each scholar that attended this occasion weren’t solely impressed towards STEM careers, however that they had real enjoyable interacting with friends and peer-mentors.”

As cadets influence the success of CLD STEM, so too has this system impacted the cadets, even earlier than enrolling on the academy. Forty-seven Class of 2026 cadets said that that they had participated in a West Level STEM occasion as a center or highschool scholar.

Additional, the CLD STEM workshops are a singular management alternative for cadets with over 250 collaborating yearly within the packages, serving as small teams leaders in addition to hosts to teams that attend the STEM Camps at West Level.

Throughout STEM workshops, they’re challenged to show and lead by instance as they assist educate the following era. The cadets achieve useful consciousness of range points and obtain glorious service, mentorship and management expertise as they assist develop and train the workshops alongside school.

“Along with studying concerning the depth and creativity concerned in STEM,” the cadet-in- cost of STEM Camp, Andrew Medrano, stated, “we received the privilege to study constructing groups and forming lasting relationships.”

The scholars mentored by the cadets additionally study an important deal. This system aspires to supply members with the arrogance to know their objectives are inside attain with the precise mindset and willpower.

As one 2022 camper defined, “All of the laborious work, enjoyable occasions and supplies that I realized on the camp have made my expertise there unforgettable.” A guardian went on to specific how the camps instill the love of studying Reeves extols.

“My son,” she defined, “had an unbelievable time and is much more wanting to focus his future research round STEM associated subjects.”

Comparisons of pre- and post-surveys for every camp reveal an analogous development; the variety of college students that strongly agreed with “I’m contemplating pursuing a profession in STEM” rose from 35% to 90% because of their participation of the STEM camp.

The CLD STEM mission aligns with the nation’s have to offset the shrinking pool of proficient STEM consultants by rising their numbers, thus enabling the nation to drive innovation, compete internationally and defend nationwide safety.

This want is equally vital to that of the Military, which requires officers with a better degree of scientific and technological literacy who can successfully lead in an more and more complicated operational surroundings.

This makes the influence of STEM outreach profound for West Level, the Military and the Division of Protection.

The Middle for Management and Variety in STEM is housed within the Division of Mathematical Sciences. Beneath the management of Lee, school and cadets come collectively from throughout the educational program to develop and encourage the following era of STEM expertise.

Departments and facilities offering mentors and STEM fanatics on a standard foundation are Programs Engineering, Geography and Environmental Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Laptop Science, Civil and Mechanical Engineering, Physics and Nuclear Engineering, and the Division of Navy Instruction’s Simulations Middle.