Passport to the Future NASA's Alan Ladwig Comes to Philly to Meet Local STEM Talent and Discuss the Jobs of Tomorrow

PHILADELPHIA, April 26, 2013—America’s community colleges are providing a critical pipeline of talent to science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) companies, including the prestigious National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

Alan Ladwig, deputy associate administrator for Communications and Public Outreach, for NASA, says community colleges currently play a crucial role in STEM workforce development. “Recent high-level reports sponsored by the White House and the National Academies of Science clearly demonstrate that community colleges provide not only general education but also essential technical skills on which economic development and innovation are based,” Ladwig says.

That’s the message Ladwig brings to the Main Campus of Community College of Philadelphia at 1 p.m. Friday, May 3, where he will meet with a group of top STEM students from the College, as well as alumni. The gathering will take place in the new $500,000 state-of-the-art chemistry lab from 1 – 2:30 p.m., Room W3-39, in the West Building, at 17th and Spring Garden streets. After touring the laboratory, Ladwig will give a presentation on America’s changing vision for space exploration and emerging STEM workforce opportunities. Ladwig will bring a NASA space suit to display at the reception. “With all these new entrepreneurial companies putting their own finances into space activities, it will create a lot of new opportunities,” Ladwig says.

The United States has the strongest scientific and technological enterprise and the best research universities in the world. However, many business and government leaders are voicing concern that the nation could fall behind if it does not increase and diversify the flow of talent into STEM fields. Numerous educational campaigns seek to connect with students earlier in the educational process and create direct pathways from high schools to high priority, high salary careers.

At Community College of Philadelphia, Professor Linda Powell, Ph.D., chair of the Department of Biology, has directed the College’s Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (AMP) grant for 19 years. AMP aims to increase the number of minorities with baccalaureate and graduate degrees in STEM fields. The program, supported by a National Science Foundation grant, has served more than 1,200 minority students to date by providing mentoring, coaching, scholarships and opportunities for students to meet with influential industry leaders such as Ladwig.

Ladwig also will serve as the College’s 47th commencement speaker. The ceremony will be held at Temple University’s Liacouras Center starting at 10 a.m. on May 4.

In a recent workforce survey, NASA found more than one in every 10 employees (11 percent) has a two-year degree. Some hold technical positions that require an associate’s degree, while others hold four-year and advanced degrees that qualify them to be rocket scientists. Others are high-ranking administrators like Ladwig, who first earned an associate’s in Business Administration from Elgin Community College in Illinois and then topped it with a bachelor’s degree in Speech and a master’s degree in Higher Education Administration from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale.

Even now, the National Academy of Sciences estimates that roughly half of the aerospace industry's workforce is composed of technical workers with two-year degrees. These are the people who work in installation, maintenance, repair and production. Indeed, a range of STEM industries from biotechnology and defense to computer science and environmental protection rely on front-line workers who have attended a two-year college or technical school.

More than 740* of Community College of Philadelphia's candidates for graduation this year—roughly 38 percent—are concentrated in STEM-related majors such as Chemical Technology; Science; Nursing; Mathematics; Accounting; Engineering Science; Culture, Science and Technology; and Computer Information Systems.

Some of this year’s graduates are hoping to follow in the footsteps of the College’s 1980 alumnus, Walter F. Moleski, who joined NASA after completing his undergraduate degree at La Salle University. “If you are interested in space, science and the universe, there is no better place to work than NASA,” says Moleski.

The computer science engineer has worked on a variety of projects starting with the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbitor, which is currently orbiting the moon and mapping the lunar surface. More recently, he has been testing software for a satellite that will measure global precipitation.

"These developments have set up a scientific framework through which to challenge and improve our understanding of processes throughout the solar system," Moleski says.