Emily Simone

Emily Simone
Director of Global Community Outreach
Lockheed Martin Corporation

2011 Corporate Philanthropy

Over the last five years, 4-H has cultivated a science program that seeks to engage one million young people in the fields of science, engineering and technology. This is a bold vision for the organization, whose roots are planted in agriculture. With rapidly growing project areas such as robotics, the 4-h Science program is well on its way to achieving this goal.

4-H has more than 60 robotics clubs and teams that compete in programs such as MATE (Marine Advanced Technology Education) and FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), where youth are challenged to build robots that can complete certain tasks and challenges in a sport-like atmosphere.

Lockheed Martin provided a grant to support the development of a national 4-H Robotics curriculum to introduce youth from 4th to 12th grades to engineering. The comprehensive series can be used in 4-H clubs across the country.

“Lockheed Martin recognizes the importance of inspiring the next generation of scientists and engineers,” said Emily Simone, director of global community outreach for Lockheed Martin. “Through our partnership with 4-H, we have an opportunity to work with talented students to inspire them.”

An example of the success of the 4-H Science program is “The original G-FORCE,” a FIRST 4-H Robotics Team from Garrett County, MD. In addition to being the national second-place winners of their division at the FIRST Robotics championship games, G-FORCE is a leader in their community. They’ve used their experiences to provide more than 1,500 hours of robotics mentoring to other local youth.

Using the new robotics curriculum, G-FORCE will be able to demonstrate the physical science and engineering concepts that will be the foundation for skills necessary to solve many other science projects they may encounter. G-FoRce is one of many 4-h robotics clubs preparing America’s next generation of great engineers.

Lockheed Martin Corporation
Corporate Headquarters: Bethesda, Maryland
Website: www.lockheedmartin.com
Primary Business: Global Security and Information Technology
Employees: 126,000