Sailors and employees at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Maintenance Center (MARMC) displayed their wide-ranging maintenance capabilities May 28 when they hosted Shadow Day for students from the Heritage High School Governor’s STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) Academy in Newport News, Virginia.

“Shadow Day is an annual event where we invite students from Heritage High School here, and we let them tour our facilities,” said MARMC Human Capital Strategist Rhonda McGee. “The purpose is to give upper classmen a chance to get real world applications that are available within the STEM field in the Navy.”

Twenty-three students toured MARMC’s production hub, Building CEP-200, for firsthand demonstrations from the maintenance center’s Hull Division, Gas Turbine Shop, the 2M (micro and micro-miniature) Lab and Dive Locker.

This is the third year MARMC has opened its doors for Heritage High School giving the students a chance to engage with mentors in the STEM community.

“We are always looking for different internships and mentorship opportunities for our students,” said Quintasia Hurt, a cybersecurity and networking instructor at the school. “One of the primary goals in getting them out here is to allow them to meet people in the field and reinforce their aspirations to make STEM a career.”

MARMC’s production department consists of hundreds of military members and civilians. That make-up gives the students a unique chance to see the impact STEM has on both sides of government.

“You can apply these STEM applications in the public sector or in the military fields,” said McGee. “We have military and civilians working side-by-side every day here at MARMC, and we want them to see how we bridge that gap between the two.”

There is also a benefit for MARMC as well as in building these relationships with the next wave of talent in the STEM arena.

“Many of our SMEs (Subject Matter Experts) in STEM fields are retiring, so our initiative is to go out encourage and motivate students when they are younger to get them to pursue these STEM career fields with the hopes of that one day they will pursue a career after their education,” said McGee.

“It’s good for the command to welcome these young students in government facilities so they can get a chance to see what people are doing for the country,” added John Abernathy, Dive Locker Helmet and Dress Division. “Hopefully after they see that, it gives them a little more pride and perspective as well.”

MARMC plans are to continue this annual event and even broaden the experience for the students next year.

“We are looking at ways to include a ship’s tour in the future,” she said. “So they can get a more in depth view of MARMC’s impact to the fleet.”

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