ROME — The Project Fibonacci Foundation has announced the winners of its annual Adopt-a-Scholar Corporate Challenge. The challenge involves local companies and businesses competing to nominate and sponsor their staff interns and employees’ family members of high school age to attend the annual STEM plus Arts (STEAM) Youth Leadership Conference, which took place last week on the Griffiss Business and Technology Park.
In accordance with the selection criteria, the winners of the 2023 Adopt-a-Scholar Corporate Challenge finished in a three-way tie: Business Machines & Equipment (BME) Company of Mohawk, D’Arcangelo & Company, LLP and Worthington Industries of Rome.
The corporate challenge winners receive media recognition plus complimentary passes to the foundation’s ESTEAMed Speaker Series and other social networking events over the next year, plus two complimentary registrations per company for their interns and staff’s family members to attend the 2024 STEAM Leadership Conference.
According to foundation executives, the corporate challenge is meant to steer local youth toward rewarding STEM careers, academic and vocational pursuits, and cultivate an entrepreneurial mindset to launch business startups in the Mohawk Valley.
“We are thrilled to work with our local business partners like BME, D’Arcangelo, Worthington, and other organizations in creating positive outcomes for our youth and community,” said Foundation Chairman Andrew Drozd.
The 2023 conference, which focused on understanding and adapting to climate change, included presentations by experts in the field, celebrity guest speakers, workshops, field trips, tours of local STEM companies and arts facilities, a Fuel Your Future college/career fair and concluded with a STEAM Fair where the Cohort 5 STEAM scholars pitched their weeklong projects to the public at Rome Free Academy.
In addition to the student sponsorships under the corporate challenge, Drozd acknowledged the financial support of the Griffin Charitable Foundation, UpMobility Foundation, Shoreline Group, NYSTEC, Jim and Anita Dulak, Mele Family Fund under the Community Foundation of Herkimer-Oneida Counties, Dr. Mitchell Wilbert, the Washburn Fund, Berhard Family Scholarship, Rome College Foundation, Anne M. & Carl A. Panasci Fund, United Way, and the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Syracuse Section.
“All the money raised was fully reinvested in the Rome and greater Mohawk Valley area to provide a high-quality event that draws youth to our area and expands their awareness of what we have to offer,” Drozd said.
The next corporate challenge will be launched in January 2024.
Next year’s conference theme will be “Artificial Intelligence, the Smart Machine, and the Human Factor.”
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