Trish Luddy

As I was sitting at my desk during my planning period today, with all of my blue lighting on, I heard a knock on my door and in walked one of my assistant principles. But, she wasn’t alone. Behind her were 2 people from the Foundation for Orange County Public Schools and they were carrying a huge check! You know…. the ones you see on tv when someone wins some big prize.

Before I saw what was written on the check I knew what it was for. Back in September I had applied for a Lockheed Martin Stem Teacher Impact Grant. If you have never heard of Lockheed Martin, they are the leading global security, defense, and aerospace contractor, ensuring those they serve always stay ahead of ready. They have a large facility in our county and always do what they can to give back to the community whether that be through volunteerism or corporate giving. They have events where they send some of their employees into classrooms to help teach engineering concepts. The students then take that knowledge and compete in different events at the Lockheed Martin facility. For students graduating high school, they provide jobs for students and pay for their college in an engineering field. We have had several students in years past benefit from this program. In addition, each year they donate thousands of dollars to our school district for grants to help cultivate the STEM workforce of the future.

Enter my giant check (which I did not get to keep). I had applied for a Lockheed Martin STEM Teacher Impact Grant for just under $5,000 to purchase gaming computers for my classroom. This is my 3rd year teaching AP Computer Science and being the eSports coach from our school. I have also recently added 2 different after school coding clubs. The problem is that the desktops in my classroom and the laptops the students have are not powerful enough to run programs like Unity or Unreal Engine and I have students wanting to learn to use those programs. Through grants for my esports program in the past I have been able to get gaming monitors, keyboards, mice, and headsets. Those grants had restrictions on them though that I could not purchase computers. The platform we play our games on offers Rocket League as a title but up until now we have been unable to play. Also, I received an Extra Yard for Teachers Award last winter and was able to use the award money to purchase three Quest 3 VR headsets. This grant is going to give my students opportunities many of them wouldn’t have otherwise. We will be able to use them for students to play Rocket League, for my AP Classes to experiment with different coding languages, and my after school coding clubs will be making games. I am extremely grateful to be able to provide these opportunities for my students through these grants. I will let you all know how it goes once we get everything in.