NOVA's SySTEMic Solutions receives Governor's Award for Science Innovation

From the Augusta Free Press:
Wednesday, January 15, 9:29pm

Governor’s Award for Scientific Innovation presented by Altria to NOVA's SySTEMic Solutions

Over the past three years, Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA) has been collaborating with area corporations and eight school divisions in Northern Virginia to develop a strategy for strengthening the STEM pipeline from high school, to NOVA, to a university or college, and into the workforce.

SySTEMic Solutions has led the development of a collaborative arrangement among school divisions, higher education institutions, and employers through the Chambers of Commerce to create a sustainable workforce pipeline in the Northern Virginia region that in the year 2016 will have nearly 40,000 students preparing for STEM careers.

Many regions in Virginia face a critical shortage of scientists, engineers and technicians.  The National Research Council and the National Science Foundation have identified the core underpinnings of a competitive economy as being the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). In 2006, the US National Academies issued a warning about the decline of STEM education in America and recommended a number of actions.  One of their top recommendations was to enlarge the pipeline of students preparing to enter college and graduate with STEM degrees.

Currently, these activities are being provided in the eight Northern Virginia school divisions in cooperation with the educational foundations and corporate partners within these jurisdictions. The SySTEMic Solutions model provides a replicable footprint to overcome the challenge of supplying the technical workforce with skilled workers through bringing a comprehensive STEM curriculum, intensive teacher training process and numerous co-curricular student enrichment opportunities together in one research-based approach that will improve outcomes for middle tier students in a regional setting. SySTEMic Solutions provides the best readily available platform to reach the entire region in promoting and educating our future workforce on STEM related education.