- [Anita] Coming up on "NC Impact".

Students in rural communities sometimes lack the chance to gain skills that many jobs today require.

We'll explore solutions to bring STEM education to rural schools.

- [Announcer] "NC Impact" is a PBS North Carolina production in association with University of North Carolina School of Government.

Funding for "NC Impact" is made possible by.

- [Narrator] Changing the course of people's lives, that's the impact UNC Health and the UNC School of Medicine work to deliver every day.

Our 40,000 team members across the state of North Carolina are committed to caring for you, our patients and communities as well as educating the next generation of healthcare professionals.

Individually, we can do a little but collectively, we can do a lot to create impact.

- Welcome to "NC Impact", I'm Anita Brown-Graham.

Employers are struggling to fill vacant positions in industry based in science, technology, engineering and math also known as STEM fields.

Even employers in non-STEM fields seek the critical thinking skills of such graduates.

This can be a challenge for students in some rural communities where local schools may just lack the resources to teach STEM.

"NC Impact"'s David Hurst gives us a firsthand look at this issue.

- Anita, Fleet Readiness Center East is an example of one of those employers.

FRC East is a Naval aviation maintenance and repair depot in Havelock, North Carolina.

It employs more than 4,000 workers and many of those are in the STEM related field.

They used to struggle to recruit and retain these positions but they've since come up with a solution.

A handful of the engineers at Fleet Readiness Center East grew up in this community but many weren't exposed to STEM education until college.

- Growing up in a small rural area, there were obviously barriers to education and opportunity.

- [David] Because of this, FRC East couldn't recruit from their own backyard.

Instead, they recruited engineers from some of the top schools across the country.

Those engineers would arrive in Havelock, North Carolina and soon realize they did not wanna live in a rural community.

- We found it difficult to keep people that we have recruited from farther away that have come to work for us.

Retention's always been an issue.

- [David] So FRC East came up with a solution, a local talent pipeline.

They partnered with nearby school districts and other organizations to bring STEM education into their local schools.

- Our average salary is around $72,000 a year.

You can't beat that in this area.

So it gives some of these students who are interested in these technical and STEM careers a chance to do what they love and what they want to and have a career they love but also be able to do it here in their hometown.

- [David] One education tool is the FAB LAB, a mobile STEM education hub that goes on the road visiting local schools.

It's making an impact in many schools that lack the resources to offer STEM curriculum.

- We use this as a tool, this is our mobile FAB LAB, as a way to engage some of those students and teach them about engineering skills, manufacturing skills, trade skills and to kinda spark their interests, to encourage them, empower them to maybe pursue a career in STEM.

- [David] Some local students who benefited from that outreach now work here.

- The exposure that I did get in middle school and high school was a large factor into what I am doing now today.

The outreach opportunities were a great like experience for me, to get me interested, get me excited about the career opportunities that were here and like also the fact that I knew that there was a job there.

I could still live close to my family, I could still enjoy the beach, I could still enjoy the area, that was a huge factor to me starting working here.

- [David] Both Megan and Isaac are now taking part in that outreach going into local schools.

They're hoping to inspire the next generation of STEM leaders.

- A passion of mine specifically is being able to go out and give back to my community and to be able to craft and mold the next generation to be able to give them that exposure.

- Occupations in these fields are projected to grow 8% by 2029.

That's more than double the growth rate of non-STEM professions.

- Thanks David, that's really cool.

Joining me now is Patrick Miller, Patrick is the co-director of STEM East.

Patrick, you're working with counties all across North Carolina's Eastern shore.

Help us to level set a little bit, what are some of the challenges that these rural communities and school districts are facing as it relates to providing STEM education?

- Sure.

One of the biggest issues in a lot of these rural communities is a lack of industry partners.

Again, in those rural areas, they're centered more around urban areas.

In our region, Greenville, is where a lot of those are centered.

Some of the school districts and community colleges in the rural areas can have funding challenges.

Another issue, as you mentioned at the beginning of this show is it's often difficult to find STEM teachers and keep them in rural areas.

Transportation can be an issue and what we're finding with the work in STEM East is in general, there is a lack of awareness of opportunities amongst both teachers and students in the area.

What in the world goes on in that great big building that I drive by on my way to work?

So those are a quick bullet list of some of the challenges that our partners in the rural areas face.

- It's a great bullet list.

Tell us, what is STEM East and what are you all doing to combat these challenges?

- So STEM East is an organization under the NCEast Alliance.

Our service area mirrors the East Carolina University service area which also is the ECU Health Service area.

So it's 29 counties east of I-95 from the Virginia border down as far south as Dukeland and Enslow counties.

So we're working with 29 school districts and 14 community colleges at the intersection of education, workforce, development and economic development.

What we're working to do is bring about awareness of these opportunities for jobs in our areas so that teachers are aware and they in turn can make students aware so that in middle school, they can hopefully engage with some of these opportunities.

In high school, work towards earning an industry valued credential or an associate's degree and go right to work right after they graduate high school or shortly thereafter.

The end goal is to create a sustainable workforce right here in Eastern North Carolina so that we're not exporting all of our greatest resource which is our children.

- Patrick, we're gonna come back and talk about some of the collaborations you see happening through STEM East but let's take a look at another story first.

Schools with exemplary STEM programs in North Carolina are recognized as STEM Schools of Distinction.

There are 33 schools with that active designation in our state.

Three of them are in rural Green County.

"NC Impact"'s Sloane Heffernan shows us how a school district with limited resources has become a leader in STEM education.

- It's a program built on partnerships, partnerships that have transformed classrooms from kindergarten to high school.

Sebastian Gualito made a big discovery about himself through the STEM program at Green Central High School in Snow Hill.

- Once I joined high school, I was like a quiet student but now I can socialize with other people without being nervous.

- [Sloane] The STEM curriculum places students at the center of learning with a focus on working together.

- And beyond that collaboration is that critical thinking.

You're actually asking students to troubleshoot, problem solve which it goes beyond just simply completing a worksheet or just sitting there and copying notes.

- [Sloane] Green Central High School was the first rural school in our state to be recognized as a STEM School of Distinction in 2015 by the North Carolina Department of Education.

- Prior to stem, I was definitely one of those like book PowerPoint teachers which is completely a foreign subject to me now.

You guys are ready then.

- [Sloane] Teacher Kristen White now uses fun exercises like building roller coasters to teach lessons in this STEM physical science class.

- They were able to calculate the speed of their marbles, the acceleration, how much momentum, but I was also having those conversations with them about well, how can we make this rollercoaster better based on the science that we know?

- [Sloane] In the STEM forensics class, honor students study blood splatter like a real crime scene investigator.

- That class is definitely a class where you learn more by just doing the work.

Then reading books and studying about how to measure things, we're gonna learn how to do it 'cause we're gonna actually measure them.

- [Sloane] The STEM Education Director says the program would not be possible without valuable partners.

- In a rural community, there's an opportunity gap.

And so when you talk about an opportunity gap, you talk about lack of resources, lack of opportunities, lack of partnerships, and lack of support.

- [Sloane] The district has 40 state and national partners including Duke Energy and ECU.

The partnerships fund this STEM focus and offer opportunities for collaboration.

To give back, the district created grand challenges, project-based learning initiatives where students work in teams to find solutions to real world problems.

- For us, it's been a culture shift and when I say culture shift, I'm talking about the students are acquiring the skills that your employers are looking for.

- [Sloane] Students in this rural community are becoming the problem solvers of tomorrow.

For Gualito, the future already looks bright.

- I guess it gives me like a boost of confidence.

So once I get that good grade kinda gives me motivation to keep on going in school.

- An experiment in education that is paying off in this rural school district.

In addition to the high school, Green County Middle School and Snow Hill Primary School are also STEM Schools of Distinction.

- Thanks so much, Sloane.

Joining me now is Akua Carraway.

Akua is a program associate for the North Carolina Science mathematics and Technology Center.

So let's just start with what is, Akua.

What is your role in this organization?

How are you helping to link rural schools with STEM partners and resources?

- Thank you for having me here today.

Yes, I'm with the North Carolina SMT Center.

As the program associate, I work very closely with our president and CEO, Dr. Sam Houston.

And the mission of our center is really to impact education across the state of North Carolina for all students.

And I want to emphasize that.

And when I say all, I mean each and every student.

And that means to open up pathways for them to have successful careers, be good citizens and be able to advance our economy in our state.

And when you're looking at all students, I think this package around the rural communities of our state is just so important 'cause it matters.

And all of our work is connected to just that.

We believe that STEM is not only science, technology, engineering and math but really strategies that engage minds and a lot of that was embodied in the video that you just showed through the students and the educational leaders there and that's what's important.

- Well, I have to say nothing in that video reminded me of any science technology or math class I ever had while I was in high school.

So what we've seen in these stories, the work often requires buy-in from more than just the school district.

Talk to us a little bit about how other stakeholders can get involved to help improve access to STEM education?

- I think that's an important observation that you can't do this work on an island or in a silo.

It's very important to have all stakeholders engaged in the work because all of us are interested in both moving our society and economy forward and really that future is at the feet of our children.

So when you think about looking at statewide, we have a statewide ecosystem.

And when you hear the word ecosystem, that's right, and the idea of complex systems and interconnectedness of these individual entities and really think about that as far as STEM education across the state and we wanna engage not only our school systems in higher education but organizations, community members, homes, families in what that looks like and what that means going forward.

An example of kind of leveraging and maximizing our impact through the ecosystem is the leap into science program and connecting our state libraries associations with our museums and our center for afterschool program.

And leveraging our regional STEM networks like STEM East, STEM Scenic and STEM West in moving that work forward and really providing that support system to ensure that it's sustainable and not just a one-off activity.

- I love that, stick with us please.

Partnerships are taking shape all across the state.

Resources in urban areas are being deployed to support programming in rural communities.

"NC Impacts"'s Evan Howell takes a look at one of these partnerships working to make a difference in Gates County.

- Logan are gonna be in a play in January.

- Oh really?

- Yes.

- [Evan] Crystal Harden wants to level the playing field in education.

- The children here are just as bright as the children in the triangle.

Did you catch anything?

- [Evan] It's why she helped start a partnership between Morehead Planetarium and Gates County schools.

The goal is to give students a hands-on exploration of science and a chance to learn about new opportunities.

- Their academic skillset or their academic level may be all over the board; from your academically gifted to your diamonds in the rough.

However, they all have an interest and a love for science and for STEM.

- No, we don't have anything like this in school.

I happen to like this one because it's relatively interesting to me.

- Right now I'm interested in being something in the medical field.

- Right now I'm looking at being a physical therapist.

- [Evan] The events are called Saturdays of Science where young students who may have an interest in science show and tell about it to even younger ones.

- We don't have the opportunities that some other school systems might have.

And then to open this up on Saturdays to any child in the county just opens up that door for science.

- [Evan] Gates County leaders created a partnership to solve the problem of access.

With a population of just 16,000, they say they couldn't afford to sit back and let their children be left out.

- So one thing about Gates County, we're kind of in a desert.

It's not just a food desert, it's educational desert and there's not a lot of things going on in Gates County.

One thing about Gates County, we're on the Virginia line, we're in a squasi populated area of the state that is rural, 100% rural so we don't get a lot of the outreach and a lot of the activities that come that other cities in the state get.

- Is he gonna climb the ladder and drop- - [Evan] With only around 1,600 students in the county, school officials say it was imperative to create what in a sense was a second set of educational opportunities for students.

- If you're not willing to step outside the box and think about how to generate funding or generate resources and provide kids with opportunities, then we need to be looking at something else to do.

- All right, and make sure when your people come through- - [Evan] Harden says taking a chance was a big motivator in developing the program.

She says listening to community's needs began that process.

- But there is still a lot of challenges for us because it requires a lot of time to build those deep relationships where people in the community trust us and want to be a part of what we're doing.

And so it takes time for us to be here in the community and giving back up our time to build that trust and relationship.

- [Evan] Harden says the more resources that are made available in rural counties will only help level that playing field for these students.

For "NC Impact", I'm Evan Howell.

- Thanks so much, Evan.

Let's bring back our experts.

Joining us for our "NC Impact" roundtable is Charles Yelton.

Charles, you're the regional network chief at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences.

One of my most fun places to play.

Talk to us a little bit about how the museum which is located in Raleigh creates opportunities for students all across North Carolina.

- Well, thank you for having me today.

The Museum of North, excuse me, North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, we're the state museum.

We're interested in serving everyone throughout North Carolina regardless of their location or background.

And we're tracking that through what we're calling the 100 counties project.

So through that project, we're tracking all of our services and how we're able to deploy them throughout North Carolina in order to ensure our statewide coverage.

Some of these initiatives include our North Carolina Science Museum's Grant Program.

Through this program, we actually provide both monetary and in-kind support to other science museums throughout the state.

Currently we serve 55 of these institutions and through their work, we're actually reaching an additional 1.3 million students in addition to the ones that we see in Raleigh.

- So this question is really for any of you to answer for me.

We saw in the example with Morehead Planetarium an example of taking the resource to rural areas.

What other solutions are you seeing that are expanding STEM programming in rural areas across the state?

- Sure, so I will start by mentioning our partner in the very first video that we saw, Fleet Readiness Center, they're more than willing to bring the FAB LAB out to a school district site.

There are other entities in our region that will do that.

I think one of the benefits that came out of the pandemic and for schools and all is learning that we can do exactly what I'm doing with you right now, Zooming, to open up opportunities for students to interview and see, talk to NASA astronauts, to doctors who were doing robotic heart surgery.

You name it, we can figure out some way to bring those opportunities to students even in the most remote or rural areas as long as we have a stable internet connection.

So I think that modern technology has allowed us some opportunities that we did not certainly have even five six years ago.

- So Akua, how do you respond to that?

It then sounds as though we should be able to create all sorts of opportunities for awareness and modeling.

What should we be worried about then?

- Well, I agree.

Being able to increase the awareness of what is available, what is out there, to be asset minded, to look within the community and be able to leverage those assets and lift those up and have a level of visibility for our students to know what is available.

Our industries are shifting and changing with the time becoming even more STEM focused and based.

We do have a STEM center as a portal that's statewide that is both searchable by region and also interest area to allow students and teachers and community members to be more aware of the opportunities and activities that they can tap into to expose themselves to more and more opportunities that are available.

- Absolutely.

And of course Patrick, we won't take for granted that there is adequate broadband available to all of these places but that is a topic for another show.

- Yes, ma'am.

- Charles, why does this matter?

Why is it important for everyone in North Carolina to be thinking about exposure of our students to these kinds of activities?

- Well, I think what has been brought up before and that there is a real shortage in trained employees for STEM fields in our state.

As our state's STEM industrial capacities increase, we're facing the shortage of skilled labor to fill these valuable jobs throughout North Carolina.

Many of our rural counties have been left behind with training of students and potential employees.

And I think that initiatives like these are key in retaining that valued workforce as well as attracting new industry.

You know, not only are we able to provide people, students as well as adults with the knowledge and skill sets that they need in their daily lives, we're also providing informal science education and other activities that are then seen to enrich people's daily lives and attract new industry.

- So we talked about making sure that the resources that are in urban areas can be deployed to rural areas but Akua, talk to us a little bit about homegrown initiatives.

Obviously, we've also seen examples of rural communities figuring out how to build from the ground up these kinds of STEM programs.

Share a little bit about what does a community start thinking about if they want to engage in this kind of programming?

- Your question immediately makes me think of various frameworks and how to engage a community to impact any STEM innovation around education.

And I think it's vital that the community be involved in that.

That speaks to the sustainability of it.

As leadership changes, organizations may shift but if it is rooted in the community and culture, it will stand and and will ultimately impact futures in generations after generations.

And so I think that's important.

And to have the voices, all voices represented at the table when gathering, what do we want?

What is the vision that we see for our children in our community?

And then attaching some next steps to that and making sure that you leverage the partners you have in that community to push it forward.

- Thank you.

I'm not going to end this show since we're talking about assets, without pointing out to our viewers that Patrick was the superintendent in Green County, the county that was highlighted for having these three STEM Schools of Distinction.

So thank you for your leadership and for building an asset based there and now you're doing it in 29 counties.

Is that what we should understand?

All across these counties, we're looking for STEM Schools of Distinction, right?

- Yes ma'am.

That is our plan.

- I love it.

Patrick, Akua, Charles, thank you for joining us and for helping to highlight this really important issue for our kids today but certainly for our workforce of tomorrow.

Thanks for all you do in the state.

And of course, we thank our local leaders who agreed to be featured in this episode.

We don't ever take for granted their generosity in letting us share their inspirational stories of working together.

And of course, we never end without thanking you, our amazing audience for watching and engaging.

You know, solutions are out there if we work together.

We want you to tell us what your community is doing or how we can help you.

You can email us at ncimpact@unc.edu or send a message on Twitter or Facebook and be sure to join us every Friday night at 7:30 on PBS North Carolina for new episodes of "NC Impact".

Coming up on "NC Impact".

A young adult not connected to school or work may experience long lasting adverse life effects.

We'll find out how communities are helping turn opportunities into careers.

[bright upbeat music] ♪ [bright upbeat music] ♪ - [Announcer] "NC Impact" is a PBS North Carolina Production in association with the University of North Carolina School of Government.

Funding for "NC Impact" is made possible by.

- [Narrator] Changing the course of people's lives, that's the impact UNC Health and the UNC School of Medicine work to deliver every day.

Our 40,000 team members across the state of North Carolina are committed to caring for you, our patients and communities as well as educating the next generation of healthcare professionals.

Individually, we can do a little but collectively, we can do a lot to create impact.