A group of students gather in a classroom. A thick red line and a much thinner blue line decorate the floor. The groups of people stand on opposite sides of the room.
Center for Communicating Science Faculty Fellow Laura Epperson (at left in white top) leads a workshop for student employees of the Center for the Enhancement of Engineering Diversity summer programs. Photo courtesy of Kim Lester.

The Center for Communicating Science had the privilege this summer of working with Virginia Tech’s Center for the Enhancement of Engineering Diversity (CEED) in a new initiative to provide communication skills training to high school students in CEED’s summer pre-college programs. 

    Providing encouragement and support to Virginia Tech engineering students since 1992, CEED focuses its efforts on underrepresented populations. CEED faculty and staff members have also  designed and implemented a variety of programs aimed at introducing STEM (science, math, engineering, and technology) to pre-college students from underrepresented groups, encouraging and empowering them to consider engineering and other STEM fields as college majors and career paths.

 

A Black man and a White man stand across from each other and engage in conversation.
CEED summer program employees practice their communication skills in a Center for Communicating Science workshop. Photo courtesy of Kim Lester.

    It was with summer programs for pre-college students that the Center for Communicating Science got involved. Kim Lester, CEED’s Director of Pre-College Programs, reached out last spring to inquire about helping improve communication skills of high school juniors and seniors in two programs.

    “Being able to communicate your solution is a key component of the engineering design process, something we emphasize in all of our programs,” Lester said. “After hearing about the amazing work that the Center for Communicating Science does, I felt that adding their expertise was a natural and needed extension to what we already do.”

    The C-Tech² camp (Computers and Technology at Virginia Tech), which ran from June 26 to July 9, brought 60 rising junior and senior high school girls to Virginia Tech.

A group of people gather in a classroom environment with large windows and a black/grey pattern carpet.
CCS Faculty Fellow Laura Epperson (seated, in mask) observes high school students in the Black Engineering Excellence at Virginia Tech program as they engage in theatre improv exercises. Photo courtesy of Kim Lester.

    The Black Engineering Excellence at Virginia Tech program (BEE VT), designed for rising 11th and 12th grade African-American students, had a cohort of 60 students on campus July 17 through July 30.

    Both BEE VT and C-Tech² offer participants the opportunity to explore many facets of engineering and of college life. The programs provide participants with hands-on engineering activities, seminars to help them prepare for applying to college, opportunities for exploring real-world applications of engineering, guidance in completing an engineering design project, and information about campus support programs available for underrepresented students. Both programs are sponsored by General Electric.

    This year, Center for Communicating Science faculty fellow Laura Epperson, a post-MFA in the theatre department, added to that set of opportunities by providing communication and collaboration workshops for each program. Working with groups of about 15 students, Epperson facilitated workshops at the beginning of each program to help students get acquainted, tune up their listening skills, and begin connecting across differences. Later in the 2-week program, she helped students prepare for their project presentations with a “distilling your message” workshop.

    Epperson has extensive experience working with youth to use theatre and performance to explore collaboration, identity, and change-making. 

    “I thoroughly enjoyed my experience working with the  C-Tech² and BEE VT students,” she said. “Our workshops together were different from a lot of the other classes the students took during their time at Virginia Tech, but they fully embraced the opportunity to play, create, and reflect together.”

    Epperson was invited to attend the programs’ final presentation sessions and enjoyed seeing the end result of the students’ work.

    “I was blown away by the final design presentations for each camp,” she said. “The creativity, intelligence, and ingenuity on display was inspiring. I loved having the opportunity to see the culmination of the students' hard work over the two weeks. And many of them spoke about using strategies from our workshop to help them prepare for their presentations! I hope the experience was as satisfying and fulfilling for the students as it was for me.”

Students gather in a classroom environment. Most are talking in pairs.
High school students in the C-Tech² camp (Computers and Technology at Virginia Tech) work on distilling their messages in preparation for project presentations. Photo courtesy of Kim Lester.

    According to Lester, the workshops were very well received, and the students “really loved working with Laura.” Participant surveys gave Epperson high marks and included the following comments:

    I found this a very fun and engaging activity as well as helpful.

    This was productive in bonding our team.

    It made me go out of my comfort zone and I’m very grateful for that. It also helped me prepare for the design presentation.

    This was really helpful for my final presentation.

    Ms. Epperson is amazing at what she does, and this workshop is extremely helpful!

    This really helped me understand how to communicate!

    This really helped us prepare for the presentation for General Electric and it helped our teams work better together.

    Epperson also provided orientation and communication workshops for the undergraduate and graduate student employees who worked in the summer programs. 

    “The staff training workshops at the beginning of the summer were a great way to begin the partnership between the Center and CEED,” she commented. “The staff got to work with each other in a way they might not have otherwise and I learned more about the vast field of engineering. It was fun seeing staff from those trainings throughout the summer. Many of the staff participated in the workshops with the C-Tech² and BEE VT students and encouraged the students to be open to the performance-based approach. Their support was invaluable!”