Aerospace Academy About Us

Mission

The Aerospace Academy is charged to collaborate with education, industry, government, economic development, and community groups to advance Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) career development. Through innovative P-20 student and educator programs, and career enhancement activities supporting STEM professionals, the Aerospace Academy supports activities to bridge the gap between education and industry.

Industry Support

Since its creation, the Aerospace Academy has developed close ties with the aerospace industry community in the Texas Gulf Coast region. It has facilitated multiple grant-funded training programs, serving more than 5,500 employees from approximately 60 companies. Through these training programs, employees have received critical skills upgrade training, enabling their companies to remain on the cutting edge of technology and bring continued success to our nation's space endeavors. The Aerospace Academy, housed on site at Johnson Space Center, is uniquely positioned to gauge the changing needs of the aerospace industry and respond accordingly with customized programs. The Aerospace Academy has begun working with other critical, high-technology industries in the Gulf Coast region.

Educator Professional Development

The Aerospace Academy recognizes that producing a highly-skilled, high-technology workforce for the future will require a qualified educator community. Because students' career decisions are shaped both inside and outside the formal classroom, the Aerospace Academy sees both formal and informal educators as critical partners in filling the STEM pipeline. The programs it creates and facilitates for educators seeks to expand STEM content knowledge, to present cutting edge methods and technologies for teaching these subjects and to provide valuable field experiences in industry settings. Projects have utilized exciting new technologies, such as distance learning, podcast, and online learning, to enable more educators to benefit across a wider geographical area.

Student STEM Programs

To ensure that our nation is equipped with the high-technology workforce that it will require in the future, the Aerospace Academy coordinates innovative educational experiences for students enrolled in pre-school all the way through advanced university degree-work. All activities focus on STEM subjects. The objective is to encourage students to pursue education and careers in these fields, thereby filling the pipeline of highly-skilled, technical workers which will fuel future innovation. Students are recruited locally, state-wide or nationally depending on the specific opportunity.

Goals

1. Increase the number of STEM graduates
2. Encourage and support diversity in STEM fields and respond to changing demographics
3. Bridge the gap between education and industry
4. Inspire and provide career development for new, transitioning, and current workers
5. Collaborate with SJC faculty for content expertise, mentorship and research opportunities
6. Serve as a hub of information collection and distribution for regional STEM grant resource development, collaboration and partnership building