Good afternoon dear readers and welcome back to kenbaxter.com! I am Ken Baxter of Las Vegas and today is Tuesday, June 10th, 2014. After a short break from sharing the latest featured news stories on our blogs, I am happy to announce that we are back and better than ever! Big changes are afoot here at the office, as we devote each and every day to paving the way for the revolution of the manufacturing industry and the next generation of manufacturing leaders – our students – right here in America!
One of the many exciting things we have been diligently working toward, and the topic for today’s blog post, is promoting education in the manufacturing industry. One of the ways we promote education is by spearheading the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) program for students in order to eliminate the skills gap. We focus on these areas not only because specialized skills and knowledge in each discipline are essential for student success, but also because these fields are deeply intertwined in the real world and in how students learn most effectively.
STEM is an interdisciplinary and applied approach that is coupled with hands-on, problem-based learning. Promoting the STEM program to our local students and teachers is one of Made In America’s top priorities, as it is a gateway to valuable progress in educational standards on the whole and for those specialized fields which utilize applied sciences the most – such as manufacturing and engineering!
Made In America also continues to follow the progress of my good friend, fellow philanthropist, and visionary, Sir Richard Branson’s “Galactic Unite” program which was developed to inspire the next generation to solve global challenges through science and technology. Galactic Unite, like Made In America, believes that it is of the utmost importance to inspire and “skill up” the next generation and use their talents and expertise to promote progress in the manufacturing and engineering industries. In addition, Virgin Galactic maintains their focus on the STEM education program to revolutionize space technology and offers innovative award-based programs for students based on their achievements. Like Virgin Galactic, Made In America believes that focusing on student achievement and encouragement is one of the most significant things we can do to impact the future of manufacturing!
In fact, we recently received a special invitation from Clark County School District’s Will Beckley Elementary School to participate in Career Day! The purpose of the event is to provide students the opportunity to be introduced to a variety of different career genres and expose them to positive role models so they may realize that anything is possible for their futures, and how their own interests, skills, and school work are related to their future goals. My lovely wife Linda and I were asked to present the manufacturing industry and related career opportunities to students and we got to teach them first-hand about the benefits of working within the manufacturing industry!
Linda and I got to meet with three separate groups of students, grades Pre-K through 5, and taught the importance of doing well in school, keeping up with homework, and especially the significance of learning the applied sciences and subjects related to STEM. We were thrilled to find that these kids were just as excited to learn about their futures as we were! One great thing about children, especially at the elementary school level, is that their minds absorb everything you teach them – just like a sponge! We had many little eyes and ears watching and listening; enthralled at learning all the possibilities in store once they follow through on completing their educational goals.
One of the biggest benefits of STEM education, and a notion that we shared with the students and teachers at Will Beckley, is that there are more job openings in STEM related fields than there are qualified STEM job seekers. Due to the shortage of a qualified workforce and a steady increase in available technology related jobs here in the U.S. and all over the world, as supply and demand dictates, higher paying jobs will prevail for those willing to follow through with the STEM education program.
In addition to teaching the students, I also got to share with them my adventures as “Rocketman” and all the specialized training you must go through to become an astronaut, a career with very intensive applied sciences and technical requirements, in which STEM education is 100% necessary to succeed! The kids were very excited to see me in my Virgin Galactic space suit, and were thrilled to hear about my upcoming trip to outer space on SpaceShipTwo, to become the first ticketed passenger on Virgin Galactic’s maiden commercial voyage.
All in all, the event at Will Beckley Elementary School was very rewarding for both Linda and I and for everyone at Made In America. We were honored to be a part of a special day that will always stay in the students’ memories as they go forward in their educations, careers, and their futures as the new wage-earners, leaders, and decision makers of this great country!
We at Made In America tirelessly work to resurrect the manufacturing industry in the USA and be the driving force for the new Industrial Revolution here at home. We hope you will join us in our mission! Please visit our website: http://www.mianv.org/ for more information and to learn all about our public charity and our participation in many noteworthy events.
To learn more about our parent non-profit organization, K & L Baxter Family Foundation, dedicated to Education Reform and Climate Change Reversal, please visit http://klbff.org/.
Have a wonderful day!
