Foundation Supports 2022 Regional STEM Competition

April 14, 2022

The Community Giving Foundation was excited to once again support the 2022 Regional STEM Competition for high school students. This year’s competition was held in collaboration with the Future Careers Expo & Parent Pathways Awareness Night, which was held April 13 at the Columbia-Montour Area Vo-Tech School.

Eight school districts in our region participated in the STEM Competition, which challenged students to create “virtual escape rooms”. The rooms were judged based on a rubric and the top three schools were awarded cash prizes to support their school’s STEM programs. First place ($5,000) was Midd-West School District, second place ($2,500) was Danville Area School District, and third place ($1,000) was Shamokin School District. Additional sponsors of the STEM Competition included Bloomsburg University and VZRscada.com.

The Future Careers Expo & Parent Pathways Awareness Night event is led by the Foundation of the Columbia Montour Chamber of Commerce, in collaboration with Advance Central PA and Pennsylvania Career Link. This event features 40 businesses for students to explore future career and educational opportunities. This year’s event also featured mini-TED talks featuring topics on Careers in Aviation (led by Dr. Victor Vogel, Susquehanna STEM to the Skies), The World of AI (led by Dr. Laks Srinivasan, Return of AI Institute/Sr. Fellow Enterprise Systems Center, Lehigh University), and How Bitcoin Mining Works (led by Jack Gleim, Nautilus Cryptomine, LLC).

  • (1) Midd-West School District: Nathan Martman, Greg Martz (VZRscada.com), Kyle Boonie, Brogan Plasterer
  • (2) Danville Area School District: Brian Meyers, Greg Martz (VZRscada.com), Hansen Zhang, Jeff Emanuel (Foundation of The Columbia Montour Chamber of Commerce)
  • (3) Shamokin School District: Erika Bellinger, Jayden McKeen, Knowledge Artis-Jones, Greg Martz (VZRscada.com), Desiree Michaels, Colton Lynch, Adell Munson (not pictured: Joey DeWitt)