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Scientists and engineers from throughout the directorate
took time out of their work schedules this summer to
participate in the AFRL LEGACY program. LEGACY, which stands
for Leadership Experience Growing Apprenticeships Committed
to Youth, is an outreach program that focuses on
under-represented or underserved students interested in
science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, or STEM,
fields.
As part of the LEGACY program, students from
the sixth through the tenth grades participate in one of
five summer Craftsman camp events. The camps introduce
students to STEM through hands-on activities, team-building
events, and personal interaction with professional
researchers. Although only in its first year, the program
has already reached over 100 local students through the
camps and apprenticeships for high school students. LEGACY’s
first college-aged students will be eligible for
apprenticeships in 2018.
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June 30, 2017 - LEGACY (Leadership Experience Growing
Apprenticeships Committed to Youth) students toured the AFRL
Materials and Manufacturing Directorate labs as part of the
program’s Craftsman camp events. Directorate volunteers participated
in the camps this summer to promote youth interest in STEM-related
fields. (U.S. Air Force photo by Marisa Alia-Novobilski, AFRL)
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This summer, Materials and Manufacturing Directorate volunteers
contributed to the effort through participation in the summer camps.
At these five-day events, three directorate volunteers shared their
knowledge, experience, and unique activities with the students,
actively engaging them and giving them a glimpse into the life of an
Air Force researcher.
Materials researcher Dr. Joy Haley said
she used a simple experiment to give the students an interactive
introduction to her work in photonic materials.
“I brought
an experiment that allowed groups of two to mix their own chemicals
and observe chemiluminescence. We investigated what would happen to
the intensity of light with different concentrations of mixtures,”
she said.
Haley said that although her work at AFRL does not
specifically involve chemiluminescence, it was a good way to
demonstrate and discuss the importance of light, what it can do in
the realm of science, and how AFRL can use and manipulate light to
perform functions on aircraft. It also gave the students a hands-on
learning opportunity.
Materials researcher Dr. Marie Cox
teamed up with fellow researcher Katelun Wertz to demonstrate the
basics of metals and metal fatigue.
“We did a demo on metals
by fatiguing a paperclip and breaking it, comparing it to simply
pulling on an unfatigued paperclip. We also did a very basic heat
treatment demo, where we overaged a metal and compared it to the
same properly annealed material, showing that the very same metal
can be affected by the amount of heat applied to it.”
Cox
said the pair also helped the kids make a homemade slime made from
glue, water, and detergent. She said the students enjoyed learning a
little bit about polymers through the hands-on experience of mixing
their own concoctions.
“We want to get students excited about
STEM careers at a young age,” said Justin Earley, LEGACY program
manager. “Through the LEGACY camps, we’re hoping to find an
overlooked special talent from the local community and guide them
toward a career in STEM.”
Earley said he is especially
encouraged by the number of female participants in this first year
of the LEGACY program. For the Craftsman camps, girls made up 35 of
the 81 participants. Overall, nearly 45 percent of the LEGACY
program participants were female, half were minority students, and
76 percent were from schools under-represented in STEM.
For
the RX volunteers, the outreach experience offers benefits for the
scientific community as well as for the students themselves. They
see it was a way of enriching the future of materials science with
fresh and diverse talent, while also getting an opportunity to
support local youth.
“Outreach is important to me because it
provides an opportunity to reach that one child who might in the
long run decide that they want to be a scientist,” said Haley.
Cox added that she sees the LEGACY program as a way to give back
to a community that encouraged her to enter the field of
engineering.
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June 19, 2017 - LEGACY (Leadership Experience Growing
Apprenticeships Committed to Youth) students enjoy a group activity
as part of the program’s Craftsman camp events. AFRL Materials and
Manufacturing Directorate volunteers participated in the camps this
summer to promote youth interest in STEM-related fields. (U.S. Air
Force photo by Kwame Acheampong, AFRL)
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“One of the things that drew me into mechanical
engineering undergrad studies was a summer camp I
participated in at the University of Maryland. So I felt
like this was a nice way of giving back to something similar
to what I had participated in.”
Earley said one of
the goals of the LEGACY program is not only to instill in
students an interest in STEM fields, but to grow them
through the program. Students can begin in the Craftsman
camps, and then graduate to the Junior Apprentice level,
where they can work in world-class laboratory environments
and build personal relationships with mentors in their area
of interest. Starting in 2018, The Apprentice level will
allow qualified college students to continue their
laboratory work and engage in independent research
opportunities.
“We want to see students come back year after
year and build their careers through the LEGACY program,” said
Earley. “LEGACY is mentor-driven. We can’t function without quality
volunteers for our camps and quality mentors to groom our students
in the labs. The more mentors and volunteers we have, the more
opportunities we can provide to our students.”
The Materials
and Manufacturing Directorate has already taken a big step toward
extending its involvement into the LEGACY apprenticeships next year.
Materials Integrity Branch Chief Segrid Harris recently committed to
accepting six LEGACY interns within her branch in 2018.
“When
I looked at the camps and the progression to the Apprentice level, I
saw that it was an action plan to meet our directorate’s goal to
develop a more diverse workforce with multiple skillsets for
Materials and Manufacturing.” Harris said, adding that she also
appreciated the program’s reach to a broad range of students beyond
only those at the top of the class.
“Sometimes we miss great
candidates because we’re only looking at students with a 4.0. A 4.0
does not tell you everything about a person.” Harris said. “That’s
not where all your knowledge comes from. We’re looking for
well-rounded student achievers.”
Harris said she hopes that
by being one of the early sponsors of LEGACY Junior Apprenticeships,
she will help these opportunities expand elsewhere in the
directorate and throughout AFRL as well.
Earley said he is
working with fellow LEGACY program manager Nicole Lange to expand
the program to other locations, including Eglin Air Force Base. He
said talks are also in the works to meet with officials at Robins
Air Force Base, and the Air Force Academy is being targeted as a
potential participant as well.
“Our goal is to provide
opportunities to students who might not otherwise have one. It is up
to us to provide the opportunity, and up to the student to make the
most of it.”
By U.S. Air Force Holly Jordan, AFRL
Provided
through DVIDS
Copyright 2017
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