Corning Employees Help Teach Gifted Students | Community Involvement | Corning

Community Involvement

Community Involvement: Teaches Students

Community Involvement: Teaches Students

Corning Employees Help Teach Gifted High School Students

Corning Employees Help Teach Gifted Students

July 2014

A group of engineers and staff from Corning’s Optical Communications business segment went back to college this summer, not as students but as teachers of high school students who could one day become innovators.

Earlier this month, several Optical Communications employees volunteered for the “Kids in College” program at Lenoir-Rhyne University. The program seeks to educate gifted and talented students on how to solve scientific and technological problems they might face in everyday work situations.

Corning’s involvement in the program continues the company’s ongoing commitment to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Manufacturing)-focused education and learning.

Employees guided students through problem-solving exercises involving physics, chemistry, and optics.

One of the students’ activities during the week-long camp was to select a real-world problem, and then invent a product that would help to solve that problem. The students were then tasked with providing a sales pitch on that product to a panel of judges.

“The most impressive part of the week was how the students combined existing ideas to create a marketable solution,” said Rebecca, one of Corning’s volunteers. “For example, they didn’t stop at a customizable headband. They addressed a real problem – pain caused by the headbands – and solved it by adding padding to the pressure points.”