September 11, 2006

Nine-months after Hurricane Katrina ravaged Mississippi’s Gulf Coast, four towns banded together to bring a little excitement back into their students lives. The mayors of Gulfport, Biloxi, Pass Christian and Long Beach (MS) May 4 and 5 hosted Science in the School Day, part of Cities United for Science Progress (CUSP) reaching over 200 children.

CUSP is the educational partnership between the U.S. Conference of Mayors and DuPont. The goal of this partnership is to encourage students to pursue math and science at an early age and this time around there was extra motivation to engage the kids in something constructive. “It was amazing to see these children who have been through so many obstacles over the past few months take a moment form their day to just be kids and learn from a DuPont engineer how much fun science can be,” said Gulfport Mayor Brent Warr.

Although Hurricane Katrina’s devastation reached far and wide, much of the attention was focused on the repercussions in New Orleans. Mississippi’s Gulf Coast endured the brunt of the storm, which caused a 30-foot storm surge resulting in $125 billion dollars in damage and an immeasurable amount of distress and heartache for its residents.

In Biloxi, where 90 percent of the all buildings on the coastline were wiped-out, Mayor A.J. Holloway welcomed this opportunity to offer some encouragement to his city’s youngest residents, “The city of Biloxi would like to thank DuPont and the U.S. Conference of Mayors for bringing the Science in the School Day to the children here in our city… these children have learned that by working together and that by problem solving there is always a solution to difficult solutions,” he concluded.

Science in the School Day, pairs the mayor with a DuPont engineer and together they perform an experiment, which teaches the students basic engineering principles. “Our DuPont DeLisle plant was excited to be a part of such a worthwhile program, especially after Hurricane Katrina,” said Pat Nichols, plant manager of DuPont’s DeLisle Operations. “Anything we can do to help get kids excited about math and science benefits everyone. This program introduced area children to math and science, exposing them to excellent career opportunities while at the same time ensuring that we have future engineers and scientists to keep our country viable in the ever-competitive global market.”

The 200 children who participated learned the same basic principles real engineers are using to rebuild the Gulf Coast. And although Hurricane Katrina may have brought these communities together –preparing for the future by stressing math and science education is propelling them forward.