BU partners on regional high school STEM competition

Bloomsburg University's Regional STEM Education Center, directed by Kimberly Bolig, partnered with the Community Giving Foundation and VZRscada to sponsor the Regional STEM Competition for high school students. This year, the competition was held on Wednesday, April 13, at the Columbia-Montour Area Vo-Tech School in collaboration with the Future Careers Expo & Parent Pathways Awareness Night. 

The competition challenged eight school districts to create "virtual escape rooms." The top three schools were awarded cash prizes to support their STEM programs. Midd-West School District won first place with $5000, Danville Area School District was second with $2,500, and Shamokin School District was third with $1000. 

The Future Careers Expo & Parent Pathways Awareness Night event is led by the Foundation of the Columbia Montour Chamber of Commerce, in collaboration with Advance Central PA and Pennsylvania Career Link. This event features 40 businesses for students to explore future career and educational opportunities. This year's event also featured mini-TED talks featuring topics on Careers in Aviation (led by Dr. Victor Vogel, Susquehanna STEM to the Skies), The World of AI (led by Dr. Laks Srinivasan, Return of AI Institute/Sr. Fellow Enterprise Systems Center, Lehigh University), and How Bitcoin Mining Works (led by Jack Gleim, Nautilus Cryptomine, LLC). 
Winners: 

(1) Midd-West School District: Nathan Martman, Greg Martz (VZRscada.com), Kyle Boonie, Brogan Plasterer

(2) Danville Area School District: Brian Meyers, Greg Martz (VZRscada.com), Hansen Zhang, Jeff Emanuel (Foundation of The Columbia Montour Chamber of Commerce)

(3) Shamokin School District: Erika Bellinger, Jayden McKeen, Knowledge Artis-Jones, Greg Martz (VZRscada.com), Desiree Michaels, Colton Lynch, Adell Munson, Joey DeWitt)