The benefits of the Region 5 STEM Center will be presented at lunch
Published on Tuesday, August 13, 2024, 06:49
- A new student-built aluminum sculpture has been installed in front of the Region 5 STEM Center.
A luncheon for community and industry stakeholders was held Monday at the Louisiana Region 5 STEM Center.
The STEM Center, the City of Lake Charles and the Calcasieu Parish School Board have partnered to coordinate the luncheon to showcase the benefits of the center and highlight how stakeholders can contribute to its growth.
As the epicenter for science, technology, engineering and mathematics for Region 5 – Allen, Beauregard, Calcasieu, Cameron, Jefferson Davis and Vernon communities – the STEM Center provides educational programs and opportunities for local residents.
The year it opened, the center served about 2,000 students from public, private and home-schooled schools, said Mark Arseneault, director of the STEM center. So far this year, it has served about 10,000 students. He expects that number to double by the end of the year.
Clint Coleman, administrator of the LASTEM and cybersecurity program, said Louisiana’s nine STEM centers provide educational opportunities from pre-K to pre-K and also offer professional development for teachers.
LASTEM is the “statutory” STEM advisory council created in 2017 to strengthen STEM education in Louisiana, “particularly to link that education to labor market opportunities in our state,” he said.
Region 5’s STEM Center is the only one housed in a preschool through 12th grade school system.
Arseneault explained that Region 5 works with local industry partners and universities to offer summer camps, programs such as Future Engineers – which teaches students fundamental engineering skills through the incremental integration of engineering – and STEM-based competitions such as Pumpkin Chunkin, Cardboard Canoes and the Vex Robotics competitions.
Missy Amidon, public affairs manager at CITGO Petroleum, said partnerships prepare students for careers, creating a talented local workforce.
“It provides us with what we need for our future workforce,” she said. “It gives our kids a little bit more real-world experience that we just don’t always get to experience in the classroom.”
The STEM Center programs have been financially supported by ESSER funds, but these are gradually running out.
Lake Charles Mayor Nic Hunter called the Region 5 STEM Center an overlooked “gem,” noting that the center’s aesthetics and facilities currently do not match the talent and programs it houses.
“We have some of the brightest, most intelligent and most capable students in Calcasieu Parish of any parish in the state of Louisiana,” he said. “We should have the best STEM center in the state of Louisiana.”
The Region 5 STEM Center upgrade was part of a bond proposal approved by voters last year. Both the city and CPSB allocated $1.25 million for the upgrade, which included converting the existing auditorium into a “STEM theater.”
Hunter said that while “money certainly helps,” advocacy alone can help the STEM center reach new heights.
