This letter is in response to the article in the Sunday, June 19, 2016, edition “STEM workers for MetroWest” by Dr. Susan F. Lusi.
The Retiree’s School Volunteer Association (RSVA) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose purpose and mission is to enhance the science and math education of students in our local communities. Our members are retired engineers, mostly from Raytheon, where we continue Raytheon Company’s emphasis on using volunteerism to help spawn and motivate the engineers and scientists that will replenish and sustain the U.S. technical workforce in the coming years.
We have mentored students both in-class and in afterschool activities such as career development, science clubs, robotics competitions, math clubs, science fairs and homework helper sessions in over 20 school districts in Eastern Massachusetts.
In support of the Massachusetts initiative for STEM education (science, technology, engineering and math), and with financial assistance from Raytheon, we created the RSVA STEM Award. Since 2012, this annual award has been granted to male and female students who have shown the most outstanding performance in STEM subjects and activities during the school year, selected by the school faculty and administration.
The award consists of a recognition certificate and gift certificate to Barnes and Noble. Each selected school is given a plaque with provisions to mount leafs each year with the students’ names, plus an annual grant ($1,000 in recent years) to support their STEM activities.
This year, in the MetroWest area, we made awards to the three Framingham Middle Schools (Cameron, Fuller and Walsh), to Natick’s Wilson Middle School and to Marlborough High School.
GERALD H. BRODY
Framingham