One Small Step for Man, One Giant Leap for Students

Lately there's been talk about our education system being broken. We have a shortage of scientists and engineers and even Wired magazine recently noted the shortage of geeks. What is the world coming to? Well, the system may be broken, but I'm here to tell you our students are NOT.

So, let me ask you a question: What do you think you'll get if you put five high school students together for four months? Spit ball fights, YouTube videos of their garage bands or of them riding motorcycles or dirt bikes, or images of their cat climbing a rope.

No. Here's what we get. We get teams of high school students ranging in age from 13-17 to participate in our Spirit of Innovation Awards and we get 170 potentially commercially viable products — products designed to solve problems from energy to environment and from oceans to aerospace. We get teams of students who get patents and who get featured in Popular Science magazine, and get interviewed by the BBC to present at the Copenhagen Climate Conference.

Daniel and Isaac from Katy, Texas were 17 when they created a product that results in low cost energy production. The product has caught the attention of the Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and he is in discussion with the Department of Energy. Chairman Wellinghoff is assisting these students to bring their product to the commercial market place.

Talia and her teammate, Michael from Los Angeles, created sun glasses that not only block UV rays but also measure vital signs in a constant read out. Talia's dad is a scientist. She had gone 180 degrees away from science when she entered our competition. Talia is now at USC, studying science and plans to make a career as a computer scientist.

I know from personal experience what can happen when students are given an opportunity to reach their potential. My last husband, Pete Conrad, was the commander of Apollo 12 and the third man to walk on the moon. But before that, Pete was expelled from school in the 11th grade; he was flunking all of his classes because he couldn't read and he couldn't spell. They just didn't know what dyslexia was in those days. Pete wasn't broken, the system was. Fortunately his mother enrolled him at the Darrow School in New York where a caring headmaster saw something special in Pete and took him under his wing. Pete went on to earn a scholarship to Princeton, become an aeronautical engineer, fly four flights in space, be awarded a congressional medal for rescuing Skylab of our first space station and create four companies... All because a caring educator took the time to see his potential, to shape his potential and to give him his moon shot.

Join us as we help the next Daniel and the next Talia and the hundreds of Daniels and Talias as we take them under our wing, and give them their moon shot. I challenge all of us... What can we do to foster the next generation of innovators. www.conradawards.org

Photos courtesy of Conrad Foundation.