This week the SASDI office visited Chicago Vocational Career Academy (CVCA). CVCA, a Chicago Public High School in the Avalon Park neighborhood on the south side, is one of the 5 STEM specific schools participating in STEM Launch. SASDI collaborated with the IIT Chapter of Engineers Without Borders to bring Michael Cipoletti, Founder of FNE International, to speak to CVCA students about the sustainable development and service projects he has led throughout communities in Nicaragua for the past 15 years.
Michael first spoke to a group of 90 CVCA freshmen and sophomores who are majoring in Medical Technology and STEM about how he became involved in international development work and the history of FNE as an organization. He then had the opportunity to speak with a smaller group of 10 juniors and seniors majoring in the same fields about the relationship between Medical Technology/STEM and international development work, as well as his experiences in higher education. The students had a lot of great questions for Michael about how they could become more involved in international development work, access to higher education, and potential partnerships between FNE and CVCA.
After Michael’s presentations we had the opportunity to tour CVCA’s brand new facilities, including STEM labs and med tech rooms. It was really great to see where our STEM Launch students from CVCA learn! We are very thankful to CVCA for hosting us and are looking forward to welcoming more Cavaliers to IIT’s campus this year for STEM Launch programming.
Check out pictures from our visit here!