A new STEM complex is planned at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
Its focus will be on connecting students from pre-K through 12th grade with science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. The goal is to give youth hands-on experiences in the field of aerospace–cultivating a new generation of technical professionals.
Project organizers hope the STEM Talent Development Complex will be completed by 2031.
The proposed facility will be 90,750 square feet and feature classrooms, dorms, labs, high-bay collaborative spaces, and community areas for events, such as drone races.
Tuesday morning, key partners ceremonially signed paperwork that opens the door for preliminary environmental studies, fundraising and contract development of 16 acres at Wright-Patt for the complex.
Jessica Short is chief operation officer of DO STEM, one of the tenants in the complex. She said her group connects STEM students to real-life opportunities.
"We need to start at the earliest age, at three years old," she said. "They need to see themselves with a STEM identity. They are engineers. They're problem solvers. They are working toward these types of critical technologies and skills that need to happen in order to be successful in these STEM fields later in the future."
The base’s Air Camp will be another tenant. Trustee Joe Sciabica believes students who choose a STEM career in aerospace will eventually be in a position for good paying jobs.
"Jobs that range from high-end manufacturing, in terms of the level of knowledge that's required and engaged with them. They're in the government sector. They're the health care, medical field sector, education, those types of areas. Engineering, technician-type jobs are coming in," Sciabica said. "Proponents of those jobs are two-year associate degree or less type jobs. And they're good jobs to better than living wage jobs."
He sees this complex as another resource helping Ohio develop an advanced skilled workforce attractive to international companies.
Project organizers just launched a capital campaign to cover the estimated $38 million to $40 million price tag, seeking federal, state and local dollars.
Air Camp Board Chairman Vincent Russo says this is an opportunity for ordinary people to invest in an endeavor that will benefit generations.
"We have set up this fund with the Dayton Foundation where anybody could donate anywhere from ten dollars to any amount you want," Russo said. "The Dayton Foundation will hold the money as a charitable offering and when the time comes to break the ground and build the building, they'll move the money to us. So it's a wonderful opportunity for the community to get involved."
Once ground is broken on the center, it will have a
50-year no cost lease.
Besides DO STEM, other tenants at the complex will include Air Camp, Inc., WPAFB Educational Outreach Program, the Strategic Ohio Council on Higher Education (SOCHE), and the Montgomery County Educational Service Center.
Russo also believes this complex will succeed because it's using collective impact principles.
"If you have five groups of people each doing something great, if you put those five together, the output would be much greater than the sum of the individuals," Russo said. "Physical contact is very, very important. The ability to see people, to talk to people, to walk with them out to the parking lot. And you're amazed sometimes at what happens in unofficial settings."
