ArcelorMittal has awarded a Community Investment Grant to Michigan City's Safe Harbor afterschool program to help expand local robotics programming. The grant will help Safe Harbor nearly triple the number of robotics teams available to local youth as part of the afterschool enrichment programming provided by Safe Harbor.
Safe Harbor Program Director Sherri Silcox said, "With great support from the community and ArcelorMittal, Safe Harbor has operated a robotics team at the high school level for the past five years and two robotics teams for 5th and 6th graders over the past four years. For the first time, with grant funding from ArcelorMittal, Safe Harbor can now offer a robotics team at the middle school level and three new teams at the elementary level for third and fourth graders.
“Overall, the Community Investment Grant from ArcelorMittal will allow Safe Harbor to increase our robotics programming from three teams to a total of eight teams. With these new teams, we have closed the afterschool robotics programming gap in the early elementary grades and in middle school. Starting this fall, students from 3rd grade through senior year in high school can participate on afterschool robotics teams. The robotics team students and their families are very thankful for the great support from ArcelorMittal," Silcox added.
ArcelorMittal said, "We firmly believe in the many benefits students receive by participating in these afterschool activities,” said Jolice Pojeta, manager of corporate responsibility and communications, ArcelorMittal. “Such science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) opportunities are critical to pave the way for a successful future for these young people. ArcelorMittal is pleased to support this robotics programming and help shape the future aspirations of these talented Safe Harbor students.”
Lead Michigan City Robotics Mentor Al Walus said, "The expansion of afterschool robotics programming aligns with our long-term goal of informing youth about the many career opportunities in STEM. Research published by Indiana University identifies two critical factors that impact the choice of pursuing STEM careers: an initial experience that sparks an interest in STEM and then sustained STEM activities over time that maintain that initial spark of interest. The ArcelorMittal grant leverages the Safe Harbor afterschool program infrastructure to add age appropriate robotics programming in order to initiate and then maintain youth interest in possible STEM careers.”