Building a brighter future for future generations

 By Rebecca Reeves
Contributing Writer 

Sylvie Nelson, an Edna native, has gone on to do great things that help benefit high school students. Nelson is currently the director of Authentic STEM which is “a focus on science, technology, engineering, and math internships at the high school senior level internationally” said Bret Baldwin, the Texas representative of Authentic STEM. 

Students who take part in Authentic STEM work in a team setting and they learn many life skills that can be carried over into their future endeavors. “The company we prefer [to work with] is international so they would have an office in Germany, Switzerland, Europe, or maybe Asia whereby the students would then work together with high school students here and the high school abroad. The skill sets that they’re learning are more today skill sets. Number one, Zoom and virtual meetings are now the norm…. The teams have to learn to work together for virtual communication. Secondly, time zones. You’re managing time zones. Thirdly, you’re managing work ethics. Different countries and different cultures have different styles of working” explained Baldwin. 

“In a nutshell, you have two sets of students from two different countries preferably – could be two different states. They’re learning to work through language, time zones, work ethics, culture, and to produce results for the international company” Baldwin added. 

Schools across Texas have the opportunity to offer classes that allow students to get involved with Authentic STEM. Baldwin went on to explain, “There are CTE TEKS – career technical education TEKS – of which this would fall into. The STEM pathway. There are 14 different programs of study. There are about four different pathways and STEM is one of them. [Authentic STEM] falls right into the pathway and right into the program of study. There’s actually a study whereby the students and the school get financial support, extra dollars for the school district, and hopefully workforce development for the school district. The actual peak opportunity would be if one of these companies were to work on a project with students from this area they may say, ‘You know what, we see value.’” 

Students who take part in Authentic STEM have the opportunity to not only learn many great skills and build connections but also possibly receive scholarships or job offers. “I would encourage people to look at themselves and not look at just what they have today but to look at the future. The students that are going to graduate in several years are going to be the leaders of the county,” Baldwin said. While Authentic STEM has only been around for three years, the organization is hopeful that more students will become aware of this opportunity and take part in everything it has to offer.