For the Long Haul
Wiley students getting year’s worth of mentoring from Innovation Quarter personnel
(pictured above: Future Innovators Yarita Noyola and Elijah Best with their mentors, Mohammad Albanna and Daniel Yohannes (right).)
For science-minded students, the Wake Forest Innovation Quarter is a perpetual playground with something new to discover and ponder at every turn.
The minds of 10 Wiley Magnet Middle School students are being set free there this school year to explore, absorb and create their own brand of innovation.
Wiley Science Teacher Betty Moore helps the pairs complete the robotics program she designed.
Wiley, whose STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, math) magnet program is just about a year old, has partnered with the downtown science and technology hub for a year-long mentoring program – Future Innovators. It pairs each Wiley student with his or her own mentor – an employee from one of Innovation Quarter’s various divisions. Each month through the end of the school year, the students will visit the Quarter to work on science-based projects with their mentors. During each visit, a different topic will be tackled. Last Friday, when students made their first visit, robotics was the theme; microbiology is on tap for October. Students will present projects of their own creation for their last visit next May.
Principal Sean Gaillard cheers on Chris Ledford’s work.
“This is not just a field trip; this is not just a one-off,” Wiley Principal Sean Gaillard said, emphasizing the importance of giving his students a sustained educational experience.
Teachers recommended students they thought would be ideal for Future Innovators. Those chosen have a keen sense of curiosity and a hunger for learning. They are also a motley group reflective of Wiley’s diversity, Gaillard said.
Jayshawn Fluitt (seated) works on the robotics project with his mentor, Vishal Khanna.
Future Innovator Jayshawn Fluitt imagines a future in technical engineering, where his hands and mind can work in unison.
“I want to build things – like cars, from scratch,” he said.
His mentor is Vishal Khanna, director of marketing and business development for Wake Forest Innovations, a division of the Quarter that turns science and technological advances into money-making ventures. Jayshawn’s very first mentor, though, was his grandpa.
“He can fix almost anything,” Jayshawn bragged.
Janel Suburu works with Wiley student Haley Moore.
As an icebreaker, the student/mentor pairs began their session by using bags of Legos to build something that they both like. Elijah Best and his mentor, Mohammad Albanna, constructed an artsy “S” because they both love science and STEAM.
Terrell Harris and his mentor, Chad Campbell (right), work with Steve Susalka.
Albanna, a Wake Forest Innovations product innovation and commercialization associate, said he was about Elijah’s age when he knew he wanted to pursue a science-based career.
Katherine Brown and Carliyah Bradshaw(right) work together.
“I always had this questions of ‘why’ – why things did what they did,” he said.
There was no Innovation Quarter or hands-on robotics lessons like the one the student/mentor pairs completed Friday to satiate his childhood curiosity.
“I would have loved to have something like this,” Albanna said as he helped Elijah program a robotic vehicle to complete a series of tabletop tasks. “It would have been great.”
Wake Forest Innovations Associate Director of Commercialization Steve Susalka developed the Future Innovators curriculum and is one of the mentors. He said helping to cultivate young minds and making community inroads are part of the mission of the Innovation Quarter, an ever-expanding biomedical science and information technology oasis that includes Wake Forest Biotech Place, Inmar and the newly-opened 525@Vine.
Steve Susalka works with students Jada King, Chris Ledford and Terrell Harris.
Recruiting mentors was a cinch, Susalka said.
“Who wouldn’t want to spend an hour doing this?” he said, gesturing to the excited robotics-rapt kids and their equally excited mentors.
Even if the students don’t turn out to be the next Steve Jobs or Neil deGrasse Tyson, Wiley Physical Education teacher Lamar Wilkerson thinks Future Innovators will make them more confident and motivated in school and in life.
Wiley teachers Lamar Wilkerson and Susan Darville-Zuck take in the scene.
“That young lady there,” he said pointing to one of the Future Innovators, “I’ve never seen her smile like that.”
Pointing to another student, he said, “I have never heard him speak out the way he just did … This is awesome. It’s really going to help these kids.”
