A new fund established by the Gallogly College of Engineering at the University of Oklahoma will expand opportunities for K-12 students across Oklahoma to discover engineering, technology and STEM careers.
The Engineering Discovery Fund will provide financial support for outreach programs that introduce students to engineering through hands-on activities, school visits, campus experiences and partnerships with K-12 educators. Priority will be given to outreach efforts serving rural, underserved and Title I schools, where geography, resources and transportation can create barriers to accessing STEM enrichment opportunities.
The fund was established by engineering alums: Darrell Bull, John Poarch, and Steve Spaulding. All three feel an intense desire to get more kids exposed to engineering at an early age. As an endowed fund, it will provide support annually and replenish in perpetuity providing support for outreach activities year over year.
For the Gallogly College of Engineering, the investment reflects a broader commitment to expanding access to engineering education across Oklahoma and helping students understand what it means to see themselves as engineers.
“Engineering outreach is about much more than introducing students to a profession,” said Randa Shehab, Ph.D., senior associate dean of the Gallogly College of Engineering. “It is about giving students the opportunity to see themselves as problem-solvers, creators and engineers, sometimes for the first time. When we bring engineering experiences into Oklahoma communities and welcome students to our campus, we are helping them understand that engineering is something they can pursue and that they have a place in this field.”
The need for that access extends across the state. Many Oklahoma students have limited opportunities to participate in STEM enrichment because of geography, available resources and transportation. The Engineering Discovery Fund will help the College address those barriers by supporting materials and supplies, travel to schools, student transportation, event fees, educational resources and future staffing needed to expand its outreach efforts.
For Dalton Brasington, executive director of outreach and recruitment for the Gallogly College of Engineering, that work begins well before a student starts considering where to attend college.
“Students begin forming ideas about who belongs in engineering long before they ever submit a college application,” Brasington said. “Our responsibility is to make sure students across Oklahoma have meaningful opportunities to experience engineering, ask questions, build something with their own hands and begin to understand themselves as someone who can become an engineer. The Engineering Discovery Fund gives us another way to reach students where they are and expand the number of students who have access to those experiences.”
“Since my retirement, I’ve become aware of some significant challenges in Oklahoma’s K-12 public education system, particularly in a lot of smaller communities,” explained Darrell Bull, one of the founding donors. “I thought this fund could help some students by exposing them to engineering and to give them confidence by stepping onto a major college campus.”
“The world needs more engineers, and the University of Oklahoma Gallogly College of Engineering has outstanding engineering programs,” explained John Poarch. “By bringing students from across Oklahoma to campus, we widen the funnel of exposure. Every young person who walks away thinking ‘I could be an engineer’ is an opportunity to create more engineers for the state that we didn’t have before.”
“My Chemical Engineering degree opened doors I never imagined, allowing me to begin my career with a major oil company and ultimately become CEO of a publicly traded midstream company,” shared Steve Spaulding. “The Discovery Fund is important to me because it introduces young Oklahomans to engineering and the opportunities it can provide. I hope it helps students discover a path that opens doors for them, just as engineering did for me.”
The fund also strengthens the College’s ability to respond to the needs of Oklahoma communities. By supporting school visits, hands-on STEM activities and transportation to engineering experiences, philanthropic support can help remove practical barriers that prevent students from participating.
That work is particularly important in communities where students may have limited exposure to engineering as a career or may not have access to engineering-related activities through their schools.
The College’s outreach efforts are designed to broaden that understanding by connecting students with engineering in ways that are tangible and relevant to their lives. Students can encounter engineering through hands-on design challenges, interactions with current engineering students, visits to campus and experiences that demonstrate how engineers use mathematics, science, creativity and collaboration to address real problems.
Those experiences can influence how students understand both engineering and themselves.
"When a student says, ‘I didn't know engineers did that,’ that is an important moment,” Brasington said. “It means we have opened a door that may not have been visible to that student before. Our goal is to keep opening those doors, in communities across Oklahoma, and to make sure students can walk through them.”
The Engineering Discovery Fund will provide a sustained source of support for that work, helping the Gallogly College of Engineering expand its reach and connect more Oklahoma students with engineering before they reach college.
Ultimately, the fund represents an investment in expanding who has the opportunity to discover engineering and in helping more Oklahoma students see engineering as a field in which they can belong, contribute and build a future.
