The jobs of the 21st century are up for grabs – a fact that NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, knows first-hand.
That’s why Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam explained the importance of coding for career success to nearly 20 high school students from the Hampton High School Academies for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) when the center hosted them Dec. 7.
“Our goal, in order to have a strong economy in Virginia, is to train youth like yourselves for these 21st century jobs,” he said. “It doesn’t matter what field you are in these days, knowing how to code is very important.”
Northam, in his first official visit to Langley as governor, was flanked by officials from his administration as they conversed with the students from nearby Hampton and Phoebus High School about the applications of computer science in the fields of space and aeronautics.
Northam declared the week of Dec. 3-9 as Virginia Computer Science Education Week, with the theme of “Mission Possible: Cybersecurity” in recognition of Virginia’s importance to the information security industry and to safeguarding United States’ national security.
“The jobs of the 21st-century are all computer-related,” he said. “Are we able to train the 21st-century workforce? If we can, then the economy will do well and these businesses will thrive in Virginia.”
Northam and his wife, Pam Northam, a K-5 science teacher, made appearances at public schools throughout Virginia during that period.
“We are big advocates and supporters of NASA,” Northam said. “So many of the things they do here help the rest of the community.”
Virginia is one of the first states in the nation to integrate computer science principles and computational thinking across the state’s K-12 standards. As part of Computer Science Education Week, Northam and administration officials encouraged school districts, teachers and students across the state to explore coding by taking part in “hour of code” programs.
When speaking to the students at Langley, Northam touted the promotion of STEM programs and careers. He also added two letters to that acronym: ‘A’ for the arts and ‘H’ for health, to call it STEAM-H.
“To be able to get them excited in these career pathways is exciting and a really neat thing,” he said.
During his visit, Northam toured the Katherine Johnson Computational Research Facility and the Advanced Machining and Development Laboratory. At the machining lab, he was able to get a virtual reality demonstration of NASA’s X-59 Quiet SuperSonic Technology (QueSST) aircraft.
“That was pretty neat,” he said. “You’re going very fast. I was just trying to make sure I didn’t get motion sickness.”
- To view a photo gallery of Northam’s visit, click here.
Eric Gillard
NASA Langley Research Center