Employees support STEM students’ big ideas for the future
Middle school students throughout Wisconsin have some big ideas about how cities could be better designed in the future. Sixth, seventh and eighth grade students shared their ideas at the Future City Competition last month at Milwaukee School of Engineering during Wisconsin’s regional competition. And American Transmission Co. employees had the opportunity to share in the students’ positive energy.
Future City is a national program that encourages students to use science, technology, engineering and math to solve real‑world problems. This year, students across the country designed a city that addressed age‑related accessibility issues. They created a virtual city, wrote a 1,500‑word essay, created a physical scale model, drafted a project plan, and presented their city to judges. The team from St. Alphonsus School in Greendale, Wis., won the Wisconsin regional competition. The team is headed to Washington, D.C. to compete in the finals in February.
For Wisconsin’s regional competition, the Southeast Wisconsin chapter of Project Management Institute chose to offer its own award, the PMI Planning Award, to a team that presented an outstanding project. Three ATC employees who are members of Project Management Institute, Cerise Reed, senior desktop administrator; Devonne Wilhoit, business relationship manager; and Cheryl Nowak, business relationship manager, helped select the winner of the PMI Planning Award.
“The criteria for the project management award included showing consistent understanding of communication, collaboration, planning, prioritizing, effective problem solving and time management,” said Wilhoit.
The team from Golda Meir School in Milwaukee won the PMI Planning award.
“It is so inspiring to see the energy, compassion and technical curiosity that these young groups bring to our community,” said Wilhoit. “The ideas presented were very well thought out. It is an honor to support our leaders of the future and to be a part of their forward thinking of how they can contribute to what is to come.”
ATC is committed to supporting quality STEM education. ATC employees frequently visit middle and high schools throughout ATC’s service area to share their own stories about successful careers in STEM. ATC also helps schools design projects that give students real‑world experience solving engineering problems.
