Warren and Bertie Counties are rural, sparsely populated and economically distressed. Between the two counties approximately 80% of their public school students are eligible for free or reduced school lunches. Even as optimistic as my partner Joe Kronner and I are about the power of afterschool STEM teams modeled on sports teams, we were not sure what to expect in an environment with so many challenges.
We were fortunate to be able to partner with two visionary school
superintendents like Dr. Ray Spain and Mrs. Elaine White. As optimistic as they are, they have each seen so many programs that were heralded as being magic elixirs implemented with disappointing results again and again.
We were excited when business partners like Perdue Farms, Duke Energy, Halifax Helps, Inc., Halifax EMC, Roanoke Electric Cooperatives, NC Electric Cooperatives, Roanoke Electric Care Trust, Inc. and Harris Equipment Company step forward to fund the program. We met for months via conference calls organizing teams and planning tournaments. Everyone involved took responsibility for one or more components of the implementation.
Jeff Stalls, Director of Operations for Perdue Farms, arranged for critical funding. He hosted the conference calls, ordered t-shirts for the teams and volunteers and provided chicken for all of the lunches at the first Roanoke River Valley Education Consortium (RRVEC) Ultineers Tournament. The school system leadership recruited teachers to become coaches as well as student teams. 
They also conducted a logo design competition among the students, Perdue Farms providing a gift card to the student with the best design (Ultineers [Ultimate Engineers] very cool!). Brady Martin, Vice President of Marketing and Economic Development at Halifax EMC, led the effort to recruit mentors from local businesses.
Dr. Spain and Mrs. White recommended that we engage with Roanoke-Chowan Community College (R-CCC) and ask them to host the tournament. There was a concern… would parents and students make the drive? It was going to take some of the participants over 1 ½ hours to travel to the college for the tournament.
Dr. Michael Elam, President of R-CCC and Dean of Student Affairs Wendy Vann created a warm and welcoming environment for the tournament. They couldn’t have been better hosts. They put their heads down and quietly made things happen.
Prior to the regional tournament, the teams were given the opportunity to scrimmage with other teams. The scrimmages helped the teams visualize what was in store for them at the 1st RRVEC Ultineers Tournament. There were a lot of “deer in the headlights” looks on the faces of the teams in those early scrimmages. As the RRVEC Regional Tournament approached none of us were sure what to expect. We didn’t worry about it. We just kept relentlessly moving ahead putting one foot in front of the other.
In preparation for the tournament Brady Martin made arrangements for us to speak to a joint session of Warren County Economic Development Board and Warren County Commissioners. A similar event was held with the Bertie County Commissioners. The purpose was to get the communities excited about the program in order to build grassroots support. The resulting newspaper articles did just that (Bertie, Warren).
The idea of implementing a program to dramatically expand the vistas of career opportunities excited the leadership of the community. They could immediately see how their county could have an “unfair” industry recruiting advantage if their graduates had STEM knowledge and life skills that are critically important to employers seeking a sophisticated workforce.
We all showed up at Roanoke-Chowan Community College the morning of the event. All of us were anxious about the team turn out early on a brisk spring morning. Then it began to snow and North Carolinians are not known for their love of snow. A few minutes later we were all relieved when we got word that school busses had arrived and all the teams were getting ready to compete.
The morning schedule was focused on the teams making presentations to the panels of judges in three areas: Research Project; Demonstration of FIRST Lego League Core Values and presenting their robot design strategy.
I was a judge along with Dr. Michael Elam of the teams’ research projects. The teams were challenged to identify a problem or opportunity under the umbrella of World-Class Learning. Each team presentation was different, thoughtful and their solutions were highly creative. Not being a professional academic I wondered if I was too easily impressed. Moments later Dr. Elam said, “I don’t know about you but I am astounded by the quality of their research and how imaginative their solutions were. I have to keep reminding myself that a few of these teams are elementary school teams.”
I was awestruck. We had over 80 students present their thoughts on these heavy subjects that educators find daunting. One of the teams started their presentation by telling Michael and I that their school consistently performed poorly on math end of grade tests. They talked with experts and learned that calculating the slope of a line would be an important part of the test. Their mission was to find a way to teach their peers how to calculate the slope of a line and do it in ways that address the needs of students with the three most common learning styles. When the students finished their presentation, Michael led the 5 minutes of questioning. We were both awed by the depth of thought and the quality of their research.
By noon the teams were finished with judging and ready for a much needed break. The food provided by Perdue and the college looked like a feast to the hungry kids. Then the fun began. The bleachers filled with family, friends, volunteers and the media. The teams were lining up in the hall for team photos and the volume was turned up on the music. The gym began to rock to the strains of “We will, we will rock you!” The judges, referees, volunteers and sponsors lined up in front of the bleachers.
The PA system boomed the names of the team, school, coach and mentor. The team ran into the gym and high fived the referees, judges, volunteers and sponsors. The teams cued up for their turn on the competition table. They were so focused on their robots that theyinitially didn’t pay much attention to their score. Each team would have 2 ½ minutes to complete as many of the 15 challenges as possible. Then a few of the kids walked over to see the scores that were projected up on the wall. This caused many of them to begin working on their robot in their pit area in preparation for the next round of competition. 
As the afternoon wore on Amy Wiggins, the college’s Registrar and our disc jockey for the afternoon, began playing the Cha Cha Shuffle. I smiled as a few of the students began to line dance. I was so engrossed in the robot run that I was startled when I looked back and found 2/3 of the teams line dancing!
Dean Kamen the founder of FIRST Robotics was on the money when he said, “I want to cause kids to have so much fun that they have no idea about how much they are learning about science and math.”
Robots are as addictive as video games. The kids have so much fun with them that they have no idea the complexity of the challenges that they are solving.
During the awards 
ceremony the teams were asked if they had fun. Their response was a deafening scream of “Yes!” Asked how many wanted to be on a robotics team in the fall almost every hand was raised including many of the siblings who came to watch.
The superintendents, principals, coaches, college staff and parents smiles told the real story. 
A major breakthrough happened and a deep STEM connection was formed with these students. So many wonderful things happened it is hard to catalog them. It began with a powerful collaboration among the school systems, regional business leaders and the community college. The coaches and mentors kept showing up and encouraging the students. The students had fun from that first afternoon after school with the unassembled robot and a bucket of Legos. They could not wait to make their first rudimentary robot and cause it to bend to their will with those first few programming steps. They quickly learned about team dynamics. The 1st RRVEC Ultineers Tournament tested their teamwork and ability to collaborate under pressure. The results were enough to bring smiles to the judges’ faces. When the robot failed to meet their expectations, they quickly gathered as a team and began to correct the programming flaw.
Sponsors, superintendents and community college leadership are anxious to embark on the next stage of the journey. We recognize that for the effort to have impact we must have a program that spans from kindergarten through 12th grade. If the National Science Foundation is correct in their assessment that 80% of all jobs being created require a working knowledge of STEM, then we are going to need lots of “shiny hooks” in the water if we are to “hook” a substantial percent of our students on STEM. It requires developing a vision of how to accomplish that in a way that excites students and is sustainable.
In rural North Carolina there are lots of obstacles that must be overcome. We are fortunate to have a team of leaders from across the region who have tasted success and have a passion for opening up vistas of career opportunity that heretofore were unimaginable. One of the major challenges is to help these young people discover their passions and connect them with exciting career pathways. In Warren and Bertie Counties there are no pharmaceutical, biotech, or aircraft manufacturing facilities. They will need to see those kinds of places…a buffet of exciting career opportunities. That must be a part of the vision.
As Bertie and Warren County develop a large student population with passionate interest in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math the Economic Developers will need to figure out how to leverage that unique outcome and recruit high tech and high paying jobs that will transform the economies of the counties.
We have taken the first steps in an exciting journey. It is a long and rewarding path that we embark on.
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