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Embry-Riddle Hosts SECME Summer Institute for K-12 Educators and Students

Daytona Beach, Fla., June 21, 2007 -- Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and its College of Engineering and College of Arts and Sciences will host the 31st annual SECME Summer Institute at the university’s Daytona Beach campus June 23 through July 1, 2007.

The Summer Institute will bring together more than 200 educators, administrators, parents, and students at the K-12 levels to receive innovative STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) professional development.

“Embry-Riddle is excited about hosting the Summer Institute,” said Dr. Christopher Grant, College of Engineering Associate Dean for Undergraduate Programs and Chair of the Freshman Engineering Department. “The program’s theme, a Launch Pad for the Next Generation of Explorers, mirrors the focus on aviation and aerospace that has distinguished Embry-Riddle for more than 80 years.”

SECME is a pre-college alliance that links engineering universities, school systems, and corporate/government investors. Its mission is to increase the pool of historically underrepresented, underserved, and differently abled students who will be prepared to enter and complete post-secondary studies, spurring the growth of a diverse and globally competitive workforce.

SECME’s name at its founding in 1975 was an acronym for Southeastern Consortium for Minorities in Engineering. In 1997, the organization changed its name to SECME Inc. and was chartered as a nonprofit corporation.

The SECME Summer Institute at Embry-Riddle includes an Aviation and Aerospace Academy, a Parent Mini-Academy, and an Education Stakeholders Forum. Among those attending will be National Student Program Mousetrap Car Competition finalists at the middle-school and high-school levels and their chaperones, as well as a representative of the new class of college-bound SECME/ExxonMobil State and Overall Scholars.

Among many other activities, teachers may attend presentations on Engineering the Future and a mini-TeachSpace workshop conducted by Embry-Riddle professors on the topics of Human Factors in Space Exploration and Rocket Propulsion.

Besides Embry-Riddle, the SECME Summer Institute is sponsored by the Exxon/Mobil Foundation, Lockheed Martin, John Deere, and Dupont.

For more information, contact Dr. Grant at (386) 226-6665 or christopher.grant@erau.edu.

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, the world’s largest, fully accredited university specializing in aviation and aerospace, offers more than 30 degree programs in its colleges of Arts and Sciences, Aviation, Business, and Engineering. The university educates more than 34,000 students annually in undergraduate and graduate programs at residential campuses in Prescott, Ariz., and Daytona Beach, Fla., through the Worldwide Campus at more than 130 centers in the United States, Europe, Canada, and the Middle East, and through online learning. For more information, visit www.embryriddle.edu.