Jeff Bott, the head of the career and technical education division at Buffalo Grove High School, said last week that he has corralled a grant from the Motorola Solutions Foundation, which he will use to fund an after-school technology program for junior high students in the BGHS facilities.
“We’ve got a lot of really cool labs that the kids will get to go to,” Bott said. “[If] you can expose the kids to the different types of opportunities that are out there for them, they can start to make an educated decision about high school and a post-secondary plan.”
Bott is starting a new chapter of the “Next Generation Engineers” program, which he said aims to get middle schoolers — particularly girls and minorities — more involved in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
Beginning in the spring semester, the 15 or so participants will take school buses to BGHS after their regular class day ends, and study computer coding, green architecture, robotics and more.
He is starting his third year at Buffalo Grove, having come from Wheeling High School, where he said he helped create Township High School District 214’s premiere science lab, which opened in 2011.
He said the Next Generation Engineers curriculum would convert easily to what BGHS has: the auto shop, the graphics lab, the coding and programming classrooms and the metal, plastic and wood prototyping labs. WHS has had a Next Generation Engineers program since 2008, and Bott said he had been trying to fund a new one since switching to BGHS.
“Any time a company invests in us, it feels awesome,” he said of being selected by Motorola. “You feel like what you’re doing is moving in the right direction. It’s hard to explain how that makes me feel, because these are the classes in high school that I loved to take.”
Motorola’s grant is worth $15,000, which Bott said will fund busing and snacks, in addition to some teacher salaries. The money will run out at the end of the second semester, but Bott said he had no doubts that he would find new supporters for a second go-around.
“It’s an expensive program,” he said. “There are tons of grants out there that are available for things like this, you’ve just go to go for them.”
BGHS’ Next Generation Engineers club will be open to public school students from Cooper, London and Thomas middle schools, as well as private school students from St. Mary School in Buffalo Grove and St. James School in Arlington Heights.
rwachter@pioneerlocal.com
@RonnieAtPioneer
