STEM Advocacy and Informal Education

The Director and staff annually brief Virginia Congressional and state legislators as part of Aerospace Day at the General Assembly. VSGC also works with state officials and legislators to assist with STEM and aerospace policy advocacy. The Director serves on the Governor’s Aerospace Advisory Council. The Director is also a member of, and co-facilitates with the NASA Langley Center Director, the Informal Aerospace Working Group of about a dozen aerospace sector leaders including the NASA Wallops Flight Facility Director, the Directors of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, National Institute of Aerospace and the Virginia Department of Aviation as well as industry representation. VSGC is a member of the Virginia Aerospace Business Association and also the Wallops Island Regional Alliance.

VSGC supports a number of informal education programs and projects. Informal education members of the Consortium include: MathScience Innovation Center, Science Museum of Virginia, Virginia Air and Space Center.

VSGC is pleased to sponsor the Virginia Air and Space Science Center’s STEM Into Space program for 2021-22.
The Virginia Air and Space Science Center works closely with school divisions to identify Virginia Science
Standards of Learning strands in need of remediation in the classrooms. Specifically, VASC has been directly
involved in STEM enrichment programming for schools in Hampton Roads since 2016 through our
multi-setting, multi-platform 4th and 5th grade STEM 360 Program & Research Project (STEM 360), and has
been expanding access for Title 1 schools through our Opportunity Program since 2004. With these two
programs, VASC serves approximately 15,000 students each year by providing free/subsidized STEM
enrichment programs (virtually since 2020). VASC also provided evening STEM events before the COVID-19
pandemic for families at Hampton Healthy Families, a local parenting support and resource center, through a
program called STEM into Space.