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Danforth Middle School in Syracuse Receives $5,000 STEM Grant for Afterschool Programming

John Smith/WAER News

Danforth Middle School in Syracuse has been awarded a $5,000 dollar to support additional STEM programming.  The school will create a new afterschool club through the STEM Talent Pipeline Grant from the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.   Spokesperson Laura Perloff says the “hands-on” training could lead to one of the currently more than 53,000 bio-pharmaceutical jobs in New York.

“So, that could be pharmacists, scientists and researchers who work in the lab.  It could be the men and women who work on the assemblyline and the actual production of the medicines or other folks who work on the clinical trial side and evaluate the tons of information collected through our research studies.”

The nomination for the award came from Assemblymember Pam Hunter who visited the school in the past.

“We need to be able to provide opportunities to all of the schools and be able to provide technology and resources when they need them in order to be able to uplift the students here.”

Credit Kaitlyn A. MacLeod / J. Strategies Inc.
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J. Strategies Inc.
Students at Danforth Middle School.

Hunter says her son Nathaniel has been heavily active in STEM with robotics as a student in the Syracuse City School District and is interested in mechanical engineering.  Danforth Principal Katrina Allen says the grant will allow the school to purchase costly STEM instructional materials for afterschool programming.

“…with the STEM programming they’ll have more opportunities to play with new devices, build something new, tap into engineering and math.  I was formerly a science teacher and I know that through STEM we can change the world, one person at a time but, it’s even better in teams.  And we need to expose our children to that, so they can see how they also could change the world.”

Allen says serving students in public schools is community-wide effort and she welcomes professionals to be a guest speaker at Danforth and share their career.  

John Smith has been waking up WAER listeners for a long time as our Local Co-Host of Morning Edition with timely news and information, working alongside student Sportscasters from the Newhouse School.