BCS Advantage Magazine Special Edition #9 | Page 8

Lightning Rod for STEM Careers
By Tim Reaves, Communications Department
A local business reminded A.C. Reynolds Middle School
students that they don’t need to look far for a promising
STEM career!
Alltec LLC, a Canton-based company that produces
lightning and surge protection systems, hosted an essay
contest about lightning and the effects it has on daily life.
“It’s always a great thing for a local company to come
out into the school system,” said eighth-grade English
Language Arts teacher Amy McCollum. “It opens students’
minds to professions that are out there. Everybody got
excited that you could work for a company that deals
with lightning!”
“There are a lot of different technical positions within
our type of company,” said Alltec President Chris Bean.
“And we’ve been fortunate to work with a lot of local
graduates.”
A.C. Reynolds Middle School Assistant Principal
Heather Brookshire, left, and Alltec LLC President
Chris Bean, right, pose with eighth-grader Hayley
Bleasdale-Velky, who won an essay contest about
lightning and the effects it has on daily life.
Hayley Bleasdale-Velky took top honors in the essay
contest and won a full scholarship to cover the cost of
the annual eighth-grade field trip to Charleston, South
Carolina.
“I was impressed by her level of detail,” Bean said. “She
really did her homework.”
The company also donated several monitors to the A.C.
Reynolds Middle School media center. The school will put
them to good use, said principal Stanley Wheless.
A.C. Reynolds Middle
School students help
deliver computer
monitors, which were
donated to the school by
Canton-based Alltec LLC.
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A.C. Reynolds Middle School Principal Stanley Wheless