STEM + C community day, after its initial meeting with a small group of cybersecurity students. They were one of three presenters for the event, in addition to a heavy equipment engineer and a genealogy professional. Each presenter informed students about their work, as well as how school learning ties into the job.

“ We wanted to get community members involved, multiple grade levels involved, and get community members here to talk about careers related to STEM-C,” said Grant Sample, a Business and Instructional Technology teacher at Gateway High School.

“ The goal ultimately is to get more alignment with our programming and to understand how to make our kids valuable in the workforce from the start, so that when they leave here, they’ re already hitting the ground running.”

Sample stressed that the district already does an“ excellent job” of exposing students to STEM careers and preparing them for the workforce, and that the STEM + C program will

only help fine-tune those efforts. Sample, as well as Perhac, Regan Reeder, Dr. Dennis Chakey, Dr. Rhonda Threet, Jodi Piacenti, and Troy Ulewicz have participated in the program.

Grant programming has included professional development at the AIU and site visits to companies such as Google, Eaton Corporation, and the Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing( ARM) Institute. Additionally, Ulewicz, the district’ s Technology Coach, has implemented podcasting at Gateway Middle School and Gateway High School through the grant. Specifically, STEM + C funds supported new podcasting equipment at Gateway High School, which has been used to start the STEM + C podcast, where students interview STEM professionals.

“ That’ s part of our plan to keep the grant work going. We have speakers come in, and then we might not see that speaker again,” said Sample.“ Now we’ ll have a record of it for kids to listen to and learn about different careers that they’ re interested in.”

While STEM + C learning will provide more overarching guidance for future programming, the partnership with Paradigm Cyber Ventures has yielded plans for a potential four-course Cybersecurity pathway, which will connect students with colleges and employers. The efforts are emblematic of Gateway, a forward-thinking, career-focused district that continues to adapt to an ever-changing world and workforce.

“ There’ s a half-million unfilled jobs in this general field in the United States and that’ s not going away. This is only becoming a bigger field and the threats are becoming more complicated and harder to figure out,” said Kohne.

“ Forward-thinking school districts like Gateway are at the forefront of that saying,‘ we’ ve always got to be thinking about what’ s coming next, and we’ ve got to do it in a way that really challenges our kids with the newest, the best, and the brightest, so that they’ re ready for that.’”

GATEWAY SCHOOL DISTRICT

MONROEVILLE ❘ SUMMER 2026 29