An educator recently shared with me a great quote. It’s good to recall when working with youth, especially if you haven’t in a while.
“Children are who they are. They know what they know. They bring what they bring. Our job is not to wish that students knew more or knew differently. Our job is to turn each student’s knowledge and diversity of knowledge we encounter into a curricular strength rather than an instructional inconvenience. We can do that only if we hold high expectations for all students, convey great respect for the knowledge and culture they bring to the classroom, and offer lots of support in helping them achieve those expectations.”
—P. David Pearson
Reclaiming the Center
To that end, our challenge remains clear: engage youth in science, technology, engineering, and math-related (STEM) activities that pique their curiosity about mechanical things, escape the two-dimensional life of a video device screen, and put into their hands and minds the tools to make things.
It’s time to encourage everyone who knows a high school-age student to have him or her look into the AMA scholarship offerings. Our Youth membership numbers now approach 30,000. Many of these members would benefit from the application process, as well as the potential for funding assistance paid to the university of his or her choice.
The AMA Scholarship Program has awarded more than $800,000 since its inception. Last year more than $40,000 was awarded to five recipients. Sadly, the number of applicants is extremely low. Although our recipients are greatly deserving, it would be wonderful to see a real increase in the number of our youth vying for one of our financial awards.
I see the opportunities growing through our new Foundation and the continued wonderful donations of so many members and clubs specifically directing their donations to the AMA Scholarship Fund.
We’re excited to add a new scholarship in 2013, the Basil and Dorothy Cooper Memorial Scholarship. The deadline for application this year is April 30, 2013; for the 2014 awards, the application deadline is June 30, 2013.
The AMA Executive Council (EC) recently approved two more exciting changes.
The Charles H. Grant Scholarship is our largest, and it will undergo a couple of tweaks. We plan to place model aviation activity on even footing with academic achievement in the selection process. This will open up the opportunities to more applicants and better reflect that we are indeed a model aviation organization.
Additionally, more awards will be given in smaller increments. In other words, we want to celebrate more kids with roughly the same amount of money. The grant award was $30,000 this past year (2012), so we’re pleased to be able to spread that around to more students.
Finally, the EC also approved the future development of an application process for matriculated students. Limiting our applicants to high school students eliminates a large number of students attending secondary education who need financial assistance.
As always, three years of consecutive membership is a requirement.
All of you can help with this. While all donations are greatly appreciated, there are other ways to participate. Maybe your club could have an event earmarking our scholarship fund.
Perhaps there are Youth AMA members who are currently flying with you whom you could simply encourage to apply. Maybe those students are unaware that we have scholarship funds available to them. Remember to offer plenty of support to help them achieve their expectations.
What else can we do? Tie STEM activities to model aviation activities. Give us a call and order AeroLab today.
Fly and have fun!
