Naval STEM Superstars: DoD SAQ Award Winner – Erica Borgers Klonkowski

21 January 2022

From Alexandra M. Landsberg, Director, Mathematics, Computer and Information Sciences Division, Office of Naval Research

Naval STEM Superstars is a blog series to acknowledge the Department of Defense STEM Advocate of the Quarter (DoD SAQ) award winners. Each quarter, the award recognizes an exceptional DoD civilian, military member, or team who has gone above and beyond in STEM education and outreach.

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Congratulations to Erica Borgers Klonkowski, Naval Surface Warfare Center, Dahlgren Division (NSWCDD), for her selection as Department of Defense (DoD) STEM Advocate of the Quarter (SAQ) for the third quarter of fiscal 2021.

Borgers Klonkowski is a biochemical researcher in the safety and environment and chemical and biological defense research sectors. In addition to her role at NSWCDD, Borgers Klonkowski is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in biochemistry at George Mason University and has co-authored several technical reports and journal articles in biological decontamination.

IMAGE: Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division's Erica Borgers Klonkowski, was recently selected as the Department of Defense (DoD) STEM Advocate of the Quarter for third quarter fiscal 2021.

Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division's Erica Borgers Klonkowski, was recently selected as the Department of Defense (DoD) STEM Advocate of the Quarter for third quarter fiscal 2021.

Beyond her role, Borgers Klonkowski is an avid STEM education and outreach supporter and leader. Throughout 2020, a challenging year due to the pandemic, Borgers Klonkowski supported the NSWCDD STEM community outreach initiatives. She participated in virtual Meet-an-Engineer events with middle schools in the counties of Stafford and Culpeper, Virginia. Teaming with four individual middle schools and 12 educators, Borgers Klonkowski presented a total of 44 sessions about NSWCDD and STEM careers, including virtual demonstrations in biochemistry. These virtual sessions were an opportunity to interact with and mentor students, answer science and engineering questions and encourage the pursuit of STEM careers.

Borgers Klonkowski also supported the NSWCDD STEM community outreach program in the “Imagine Your Future” career week. The event invited middle school students and their parents to attend sessions about different careers at NSWCDD and related academic paths. Throughout the week, Borgers Klonkowski presented information on biochemistry and material sciences and explained how NSWCDD uses these disciplines to benefit the Department of the Navy.

On top of her STEM service at NSWCDD, Borgers Klonkowski is building a new YouTube channel she hopes to launch in 2022, which would provide science demonstrations to middle and high school students. The goal of the channel is to encourage viewers to pursue STEM and promote the idea that science is fun.

Within a short period of time, Borgers Klonkowski reached over 900 middle school students. Teachers reported that Borgers Klonkowski’s Meet-an-Engineer sessions captivated students’ attention, including underperforming students.

Naval STEM and the Office of Naval Research are excited to see Erica Borgers Klonkowski's growth in STEM education and outreach, and congratulate her on this well-deserved honor!

For those new to the blog series, the Department of the Navy (DON) has quite a few wins; visit earlier blogs to read about our previous winners!

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