EL SEGUNDO, Calif., (June 24, 2014) — The Aerospace Corporation celebrated Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics by hosting the 37th annual Robert H. Herndon Memorial Science Competition. This year’s event had the highest participation ever for the competition with the increased breadth of schools, number of students, and employee involvement. Ten STEM winners were awarded in grades 6-12 each in Chantilly, Va. and Southern California schools.
The corporation held competitions on April 3 in Chantilly, Va. and on May 22 in El Segundo, Calif. The main component of this event is a science fair in which high school and middle school teams are challenged to create innovative science projects based on scientific facts and principles. A team of Aerospace employees judge the science fair and individual essays. Students are encouraged to develop unique scientific or engineering approaches or questions, and to investigate and demonstrate their projects. A full list of this year’s winners can be found here –http://www.aerospace.org/2014/05/28/social-conscience-on-display-at-herndon-science-fair/.
Aerospace established the Robert H. Herndon Memorial Science Competition in 1977. The award is named for the late Robert H. Herndon, an Aerospace engineer and manager who served as a mentor for many at the corporation. The competition events are designed to stimulate interest among minority students in STEM and increase diversity across the aerospace industry.
Aerospace continues to be recognized for STEM and inclusion with the recent selection of the corporation by Winds of Change magazine as one of the Top 50 STEM Workplaces of 2014. It is the third year in a row that Aerospace has received this recognition.
Winds of Change magazine asked companies to complete surveys designed to demonstrate their overall diversity recruitment efforts and/or indicate that they were included in at least one published list from two different sources that recognize top firms dedicated to diversity recruiting within the past year. Additionally, these companies also recruit for occupations within the STEM fields and have specifically recruited within Native American and Alaska Native audiences within the past two years.
The Aerospace Corporation is a California nonprofit corporation that operates a federally funded research and development center and has almost 3,500 employees. It provides technical guidance and advice on all aspects of space missions to military, civil, and commercial customers to assure space mission success. The Aerospace Corporation is headquartered in El Segundo, Calif., with multiple locations across the United States.
