Second Baptist STEM camp kicks off Aiken STEAM Week

Stephanie Hill, Aiken Standard, S.C.
·3 min read

Aug. 3—This week, children at Second Baptist Church will get a better understanding of STEM and participate in related activities .

A camp hosted by Sky is the Limit Foundation, True To Your Sole and Second Baptist Church in collaboration with the Naval Information Warfare Center Atlantic sought to introduce area children to STEM by teaching them to create their own websites.

Marcus Schoultz with the Naval Information Warfare Center Atlantic, said this week is Aiken STEAM week, and 51 campers took part in the recent camp.

"We kind of have the template set out so we'll talk about their goals, what will their goals be. We had an ice breaker, each student introduced who they are and what are their goals," Schoultz said. "So the website will be them talking about what they learned this week and what they are inspired to do. Our goal is to find that one niche of each student and hopefully help engage them and help them pursue and hopefully get them ready and fired up for school."

The goal of the camp is to let students see that STEM and more than a computer program.

"You can do cyber, you can do project management," Schoultz said. "So our goal here is to impact and lead. One thing with NIWC is we want to make sure that we're making imprints in different areas, but with this opportunity with me coming back to my hometown, I'm very excited to be able to come back to the CSRA and give back and have an opportunity to (do this)."

Throughout the week campers were able hear from different speakers. On Monday they heard from Dominick Sanders, the South Carolina Department of Education computer science state supervisor, who talked about computer science and STEM and why it's needed.

"I think it's very important to show individuals, especially individuals of color that STEM is out there and there are also individuals out here doing the work in STEM," Sanders said. "I'm really big on the quote 'you can't be what you can't see,' so it's very important for me to also show my face and share my story about computer science and just STEM in general."

Christopher Emanuel, executive director of Sky is the Limit Foundation which is involved with the event, said the camp is important because it's vital to invest in the youth.

"They're going to one day be taking care of us, so helping them identify their gifts, their talents and their callings so they can be assets to this community," Emanuel said.

The camp will wrap up the week with Aiken STEAM Day from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at Second Baptist Church.

"We'll have 24 exhibitors set up, such as NIWC Atlantic, NASA, SRNS, Dominion Energy and much more," Schoultz said. "So at that event we'll have free school supplies, free interactive STEM booth, S.C. Works will be out showing attendees about different opportunities for jobs. One of our main goal is to impact, lead and inspire."

Second Baptist Church is located at 1151 York St. N.E.