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Last Updated: Feb 13, 2017 - 1:45:37 AM |
Photos by Dominic McIntosh and Allie Kent
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Nassau, The Bahamas - Suggestions to prevent frequent power outages and
technological strategies to help the Royal Bahamas Defense Force were
among the ideas students presented to facilitators at this year’s
STEMBoard’s Hack.IT camp. The middle and high school students, who will
also learn to operate drones this week, will be vying to win prizes when
Dr. Bernard Harris, Jr., the first African-American to walk in space
serves as a chief judge this week at St. Andrew’s School. The public is
invited to attend on Friday at 10:00 a.m.
Aisha Bowe, the youngest
Bahamian American woman to work with NASA, along with John Martellaro
co-founded STEMBoard, the company hosting the summer program for
Bahamian youth. The team made certain to include students from the
Family Islands and through the generous donations of sponsors, the camp
is free of charge, complete with lunch and for some students, bus
transportation.
Day one of the camp began with Bowe immediately
encouraging an impromptu thinktank, splitting the youngsters into teams
and inviting them to come up with resolutions to technological
challenges facing The Bahamas.
16 year-old Stephen Seymour
presented four ideas with his team on how the Royal Bahamas Defense
Force could benefit from using advanced technology.
“I want to be an
astronaut,” he said excitedly. “Or maybe an engineer. I’m very
interested in these types of things and working in the STEM field.”
With an interest in becoming an aerospace engineer, Wilfred Moss was one
of over 50 students who showed up to participate in the camp. His
father Celi Moss said that the camp not only provides hands on learning
but also allows his son to see firsthand the possibilities to make it in
an industry that seems overlooked in The Bahamas.
“The STEM
industries are the way forward,” said Moss. “I look at my son and the
other like-minded young people here and wonder which one of them could
be the next Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg or Steve Jobs. We really need to
consider investing in our youth in this arena because there are so many
possibilities. I’m very proud to know that Aisha has come back to
nurture the next generation of thinkers who can very well change our
world. I’m excited to see what the future will hold for all of the camp
attendees.”
During the opening of the camp, author, BET talk show
host and entertainer Derek ‘Fonzworth Bentley’ Watkins gave attendees
some entrepreneurial food for thought. The Morehouse graduate revealed
he worked as a researcher in a genetics lab after earning a degree in
biology before heading on the hip hop circuit to work with the likes of
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs and Kanye West. He also signed copies of his book
“Advance Your Swagger”.
“There are some students from last year who
are back this year,” said Bowe. “I personally am very excited to work
directly with these students. They have global mindsets and have already
put in research into their projects. So far, they are working well in
their teams on their various projects and we are all excited to see what
they will be presenting at the end of the week.”
This year’s
STEMBoard camp is sponsored by Millennium Engineering and Integration
Company, the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism, URCA, CBS Tech Emporium, K3
Enterprises, Adorn the World, Change Catalyst, Caribbean Innovation
Ventures and Production Services Management Inc. The week of activities
concludes on Friday.
For more information visit bahamascamp.com
© Copyright 2015 by thebahamasweekly.com
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