Over 100 students from across the state and beyond took part in opening activities Sunday at The Beeches for the second annual Project Fibonacci STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, math) Conference.
Students from ages 16-22, including one from France, are taking part in the week-long conference that includes various workshops and field trips in addition to several celebrity speakers.
The Project Fibonacci youth leadership program is being spearheaded by Rome-based ANDRO Computational Solutions.
Students on Sunday were greeted by Mayor Jacqueline M. Izzo, and took part in an entrepreneurial panel on “turning your STEAM passion into profit,” according to an announcement by ANDRO and the Project Fibonacci Foundation.
The panel included artist and motivational speaker Tom Varano; Maryann “The Cookie Lady” Mazzaferro; owner and founder of Underground Greens, Christina Carambia; Jason Gulla of Gulla Graphics; Rome Free Academy music teacher and marching band director Jake Meiss; Maci Peterson, founder and CEO of On Second Thought, who created an app that allows people to recall a text message sent to the wrong person before the person reads it.
Students also were addressed by Andy Drozd, Project Fibonacci founder and ANDRO
president and chief scientist, who discussed the importance
of math and why the arts should be included with STEM.
He quoted astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson: “Art and science are the only two things we create that last beyond ourselves. We measure the success of a civilization on how well they treat their creative people.”
Varano closed the opening-day activities with a performance of “Turning emotion into art,” offering his life story and artwork along with advice for students; he said if they fully pursue their passions, they will profit from it in their lives.
The first celebrity speaker today at RFA at 6:30 p.m. is Christine McKinley, musician, engineer, and host of History Channel’s “Brad Meltzer Decoded.”
