An evening for STEM, hosted by OSLN at COSI

More than 100 friends of the Ohio STEM Learning Network, including educators and school administrators from around the state and outside Ohio's borders, descended on Columbus on December 12 for a gathering to support the success of the program.
 
The evening, hosted by OSLN at COSI, focused on the success of the 4-year-old network and the success that still lies ahead.
 
"The network started because of the great vision of Battelle, Ohio State University, the Ohio Business Roundtable and many others, including many of the people in this room," said David Burns, director of STEM Innovation Networks for Battelle, speaking to the gathering.
 
"There are lots of educational reform organizations throughout the country, lots of planning commissioners and plans to change education," he continued. "But there are planners and then there are doers, and this room is filled with doers."
 
The network began in 2007 when Battelle, the Columbus-based non-profit research and development firm, OSU and KnowledgeWorks partnered to open Ohio's first STEM school, Metro Early College High School, in Columbus. Later that year, network support gathered steam from state legislators, who passed a $13 million earmark for STEM programs in the state, and from a $12 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
 
A year later, the network began to take shape.
 
Burns remembered OSLN's beginnings during the December event. The key was finding a way to duplicate the Metro school's success elsewhere. 
 
"We scratched our chins and said to ourselves that you can't just do it in the schools. You have to build an infrastructure, something that ties them all together, so that the STEM professionals can work together, learn from each other and support each other," he said. "Oh, and one more thing — we need to do it for free, because we want all that money to go directly to the schools."
 
From that, he added, the non-profit OSLN was born. Four years later, the network supports schools in Columbus, Dayton, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Akron and Reynoldsburg, as well as seven STEM hubs throughout the state.
 
"We do it not just because every child deserves a chance to reach their full potential," Burns continued, pointing out the increasingly technical and competitive global job market. "We do it, frankly, because it's a national imperative."
 
After a few short presentations, those in attendance got a chance to meet and speak with other educators from the around the state — many of whom they'd only exchanged phone calls or emails with before.
 
Aimee Kennedy, principal of Metro, was happy to finally put faces to some of the names.
 
"I've spoken with so many people here for the first time, face to face, people that I've spoken to on the phone or traded emails," she said. "It's really great to see people from Cleveland that I've talked to, or Cincinnati, or Dayton, come here so we can celebrate what we've been able to accomplish."
 
The event was also a showcase of the OSLN family to educators from around the U.S.
 
Representatives from schools in Oregon, Washington, North Carolina, Texas, Tennessee and New York were in attendance.
 
"Ohio's at the forefront, but we need to bridge past our borders," said Burns. "When we go to Tennessee or New York, and we talk to them about our network, they're like 'Well, what does it do?' The only way to explain what our network does is to bring them here and show them. It turns out to be a real eye-opening experience for them. Their next question is, 'How can we join?'"
 
Mark Threshar, an executive vice president and chief financial officer with Nationwide who also serves of the board of trustees chairman for COSI — the network's home — said that was a particularly enjoyable evening.
 
"The network is just outstanding, and COSI's involvement is fun for us. What's really interesting, though, is seeing the reaction of the out-of-state visitors," he said. "It's great to hear them talk about the great facility we share and all the support OSLN has throughout the state. And they'll say, 'We just don't have that where we are.'"