Why Not Us?
By Annie Hornsby
Each spring I take a school bus full of excited middle school students from our small town in the western North Carolina mountains, all the way to the other side of the state. The purpose behind this seemingly endless, but actually only 7ish hour ride on a school activity bus, is to let them participate in the annual Engineering Open House hosted by NC State University in Raleigh.
NC State is the largest Engineering school in the state and the only one within driving distance that actually opens up their labs and sets up information booths manned by current engineering students. Our kids love it! They come away so inspired, and so convinced that THEY can actually come to this place and make a difference.
“It IS a tremendous amount of work to plan, fund, and supervise a trip like this, but I would encourage anyone from a small town or rural area to seek out similar experiences.”
Like many small rural towns, Franklin, NC (population 4328), is a wonderful place to live and raise a family, but offers very limited exposure to high-tech careers. We started making this annual trip about 10 years ago in order to help talented students catch a vision of themselves “doing big things in big places”.
We helped them feel comfortable in a big, different world by having the campus tours led by current NCSU students from our county. Through navigating the campus bus line, evening debrief gatherings, and quiet moments to reflect and journal, we set the stage for them to feel capable, connected, and ready to imagine themselves thriving in that space.
One of the most wonderful things that often happens is that we run into current NCSU engineering students that first became aware of engineering careers when they themselves took that long bus ride across the state as a 7th or 8th grader. We have had wonderful impromptu Q/A sessions as the new kids are so excited to actually see someone from their home town.
“They come away so inspired, and so convinced that THEY can actually come to this place and make a difference.”
Growing up rural, most of our students already have a deep appreciation for the natural world and feel a protectiveness over it. After a day touring, talking, and gathering bags of brochures at the Open House, kids who grew up hiking and fishing with their families can now see the path to making a professional career of protecting these treasures they love, perhaps as an environmental, chemical, or systems engineer.
It IS a tremendous amount of work to plan, fund, and supervise a trip like this, but I would encourage anyone from a small town or rural area to seek out similar experiences. It is so worth it.
Wonderful things can happen.
Sometimes, wonderful things happen that you were not even expecting.
Take 2024, for example. The Engineering Open House is in March. So is March Madness. And for the first time in a very long time, the NCState Men’s Basketball team was on a roll! A sign that we saw on campus, intended for the tournament, took on a whole different meaning for us. We made it ours. Why Not Us?
