This year’s Science and Society Award goes to a “couple” of STEM education leaders
The Science and Society Award honors those who have tirelessly worked to increase public understanding and appreciation of science and engineering in the United States. Recipients have demonstrated leadership by inspiring scientists to engage with the public, fostering inclusive excellence in STEM and strengthening the relationship between science and the public.
Mennella and Hemelt have done nothing short of that. As life-long STEM educators, they have brought a motivated spirit, innovative talent, and diligent attention to every person and institution with whom they have worked.
“Rocco and Jane are two of many behind-the-scenes champions of our science and engineering ecosystem.” Victor McCrary, Acting Chair of the Board, said. “It is because of them and the work that they do that students from all backgrounds are inspired to climb the steep paths of science, and we couldn’t be happier to recognize them for it.”
“Our driving force has always been to open doors of opportunities for students,” say Jane and Rocco.
Grassroots efforts in growing STEM
Few high schools have computer science curricula. And even fewer did in the 1970s — except for DeMatha High School.
When Mennella began his teaching career at DeMatha Catholic High School in 1967, after graduating from the Catholic University of America, the school had four courses in its math curriculum. With his support and effort, just a few years later the school had a dozen new courses to offer, including programming courses, Calculus III, and Differential Equations — typically reserved for upper-level college students. Mennella also spent his time directing school plays, filming sports events, sponsoring a film club and teaching photography for the school.
Mennella moved to Prince George’s Community College, a predominantly Black institution, in 1983 to work with students across the math, science and engineering departments. He continues to teach there to this day. In the words of one of his students on March 14 of this year: “You’re never gonna find another teacher like this.”
Mennella has also been active in supporting students and teachers in the Science & Technology program at Eleanor Roosevelt High School (ERHS) in Greenbelt, Maryland. Where Mennella assists students and teachers in honing their STEM skills, Hemelt has served as the coordinator of the program for 33 years.
Hemelt joined the Science & Technology program at ERHS after teaching math and chemistry courses at Holy Redeemer School and DeMatha Catholic High School. She became coordinator after four and a half years teaching in the program. While working with the program, she has made it a life mission to make STEM education more accessible and more impactful. As program coordinator, she helped add new courses, redesigned the senior year research course, offered student stipends, obtained advanced lab equipment, organized professional development opportunities for teachers and garnered support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Under her leadership, the College Board recognized ERHS as the school with the highest number of African American students succeeding on exams in AP Biology, AP Chemistry and AP Physics B.
Extracurricular activity
Mennella and Hemelt have taken their STEM education advocacy outside of the classroom as well.
They have each organized a student research symposium for the National Consortium for Secondary STEM Schools, which gave about 100 high school students from across the country an opportunity to present their research to science and engineering professionals from local institutions.
Since 1989, Hemelt has also coordinated and planned out, to meticulous detail, the ERHS senior research showcase, where each of the school’s 200+ seniors presents their original research during a poster session. Those in attendance have a wide array of occupations — science professionals, local and state officials, other educators and members of the business community. Due to the quality of the research and the level of professionalism shown by the students presenting, some students have secured internships or summer research opportunities as a result.
Hemelt also organized a drive collecting backpacks and school supplies for a poor school in Haiti and an ERHS graduate took the 1100 pounds of supplies to Haiti.
Perhaps the most striking example of Mennella and Hemelt’s advocacy came in 2007, when the ERHS internship program was in danger of ending due to a new work permit requirement, and internship mentors informed Hemelt that the permits would make the internship unfeasible for them.
Hemelt presented her case to the Maryland Commissioner of Labor and Industry, who issued a document to all Maryland high schools stating that these student internships did not require a work permit. Though their combined contributions span more than a century and have impacted over 24,000 students, their tireless commitment to helping students advance has remained true.
Media Contact: Nadine Lymn, nlymn@nsf.gov, 703-292-2490