St. Mary Help of Christians School expects to finish construction on its new STEM Center by fall 2024. STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. This building will allow students to explore these disciplines and will include an elementary-level ecology lab and small auditorium.
The upcoming, two-story facility will cost about $7.3 million to construct.
According to Assistant Principal Matthew Kuhn, funding was provided for the school by St. Mary Help of Christians Catholic Church.
“The money for this building was raised entirely by parishioners of our church. … We had a capital campaign [that] lasted about a year. And it wrapped up before the building project started. So we're really, really thankful for our really gracious donors,” he said.
Jane Timmerman’s middle school robotics class shed some light on the importance of having ample learning space for STEM-related classes, which this new facility will provide.
This class competed recently in a statewide robotics tournament in Greenville — its second competition — in which it placed 14th. In robotics tournaments, students maneuver a robot across a playing field as it completes specific tasks. Currently, St. Mary’s robotic students don’t have enough space to keep a practice playing field up in the classroom.
“Next year, with the new building and … more space, … we can keep the field up the whole time,” sixth grader Ryne Lavelle said.
Dennis Terry, a volunteer robotics mentor said the class has built practice structures out of “old parts” because “we don’t have room to set up a field.”
“We’ve outgrown our current space. It’s only about 500 square feet,” Kuhn said of the robotics classroom. “So we’re really excited to have several thousand square feet.”
Timmerman said that the school is “blessed” to have the new STEM building because these disciplines are essential learning for modern students.
“We're in 2024 right now, so our students need, I feel, more STEM than anything,” she said. “We need to make sure our children are engaged, that they are ready for the future. … There are hundreds of jobs out there for engineering.”
Many students from St. Mary’s are expected to benefit from the new facility, one such student being sixth grader Ella Paige James.
“I’m a science girl, I want to be an engineer myself … an aerospace engineer,” she said.
“It's exciting for the school, it’s exciting for the church … it's really an exciting moment,” Timmerman said.
“We're so very fortunate that we've been able to add this facility to our school campus,” added Kuhn.
