THANK YOU to Lauralee Sikorski of the La Porte Civic Auditorium for your presentation to our club on May 25th.! It was great to hear the history and future plans of the Civic.THANK YOU to Lauralee Sikorski of the La Porte Civic Auditorium for your presentation to our club on May 25th.! It was great to hear the history and future plans of the Civic.
This U.S. Rotarian has worked with young people from urban neighborhoods for two decades. Many of them now work in science, technology, and engineering jobs.JonDarr Bradshaw, a former military aviator and contractor for the U.S. space agency, has a different kind of mission now: mentoring the next generation of scientists and engineers, especially youth from underserved neighborhoods.
Bradshaw grew up fascinated by science and technology through watching his father, an air traffic controller, and his mother, a biology teacher. Bradshaw’s father was one of the few nonwhite people in his profession, and Bradshaw found himself in the same situation early in his own career at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
“But NASA has worked very hard to change that,” says Bradshaw, a member of the Rotary E-Club of World Peace, D5330. “They have been in the forefront in regard to integration.”
Helping NASA continue that has been a big part of Bradshaw’s work for more than two decades, as he finds young people from backgrounds that have been traditionally underrepresented in science and engineering and gotten them interested in those topics. His bosses at NASA were partly motivated by the desire to increase diversity, but also to overcome what they perceived as a shrinking pool of qualified candidates to carry on the agency’s mission.
Bradshaw also helped popularize science for the masses, appearing on U.S. television programs such as “Space Age” to talk about Mars and as the Science Guy on “Nashville Tonight.”
His career trajectory took him through roles at various science centers before he landed at the Great Lakes Science Center in Cleveland, Ohio, USA, where he’s the community engagement coordinator and leads aerospace education programming. He visits schools, libraries, and community centers throughout the area to get young people excited about science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM).
“You start by having somebody who looks like them who is doing science and engineering and doing it in a fun way, who can engage kids while they are young,” Bradshaw says. “Because if you can engage them while they are young and ignite the flame early, that flame will burn long after I am gone.”
Click below to enter a tax-deductible donation to the Rotary Club of Michigan City Foundation to help us provide Service Above Self for our community and world.
.png)
