Van Vleck High School WIT

On February 8, students at Van Vleck High School played host to a group of 27 graduate students from the United Kingdom. The graduate students are part of the nucleargraduates programme, which is designed to develop a skilled workforce for the UK’s re-emerging nuclear industry.

The nucleargraduates led members of Workforce Industry Training (WIT) and POWERSET organizations through several activities designed to spark student interest in careers in the nuclear industry. During one activity, VVHS students were divided into communities and asked to research and debate whether power for their community should be provided by wind or nuclear. “Even though we have STP nearby, I really didn’t know that much about nuclear energy. I learned a lot from the debate,” said POWERSET secretary Megan Stell.

Of course, the day provided ample opportunities for cultural exchanges as well. WIT member Brandon Rohan was intrigued to find out that the spelling of “tyre” on his mother’s British-made Land Rover was in fact how they spell it. And the graduates were clearly disappointed when they were unable to take the students up on the invitation to go hog hunting. However, the graduates were treated to a tour of the Ag shop and meat processing rooms at the VVHS Ag Department.

Jenny Li, Deputy Graduate Programme Manager of nucleargraduates said, “The students from Van Vleck really inspired us. They are such wonderful, confident, pleasant people and we’ve no doubt they will all be successful in their future careers.”

WIT and POWERSET are outreach initiatives of the Nuclear Power Institute (NPI) meant to encourage students to pursue education and careers in science, technology, engineering, and math. NPI is a unique statewide partnership led by the Texas Engineering Experiment Station and headquartered at Texas A&M University.