Every year, the Ohio STEM Learning Network (OSLN) gives an Excellence in STEM Partnership Award to a collaboration between a school and an industry partner, higher education partner, community partner, or partner within the arts. These partnerships must “demonstrate a passion for the advancement of STEM education in Ohio that leads to positive student learning outcomes to impact Ohio’s economic future.”
In 2024, the award went to Marysville Early College/STEM High School (MECHS) and DriveOhio. MEHS offers its students specific career pathways in STEM fields, along with the opportunity to take courses for college credit. DriveOhio is an initiative by the Ohio Department of Transportation that fosters cooperation and collaboration, offers resources, and improves efficiency for people and organizations in the “smart mobility” industry. According to DriveOhio, smart mobility involves “the design, development, testing, use, and regulation of automated, connected, electric, and advanced air mobility technologies.”
Over the past several years, MECHS and DriveOhio have partnered to offer students design challenges and opportunities to learn about and build connections within the smart mobility industry. To find out more about this partnership and how it’s supporting Ohio’s economic future through STEM education, we spoke with Tammy Cooper, the internship coordinator at MECHS, and Rich Granger, the managing director of Workforce and Economic Development at Drive Ohio.
Q: For readers who aren’t familiar with Marysville Early College High School (MECHS), can you describe what it is, the students it serves, and the community in which it’s located?
Cooper: Marysville Early College High School is located in Marysville, Ohio. We are one of 14 satellite schools representing Ohio Hi Point Career Center in Bellefontaine, Ohio. Career pathways include: health science, information technology, engineering and manufacturing, and auto transportation. Students attend our school if they are especially interested in one of the pathway areas listed. Many of our courses are college credit plus.
Q: Can you tell us a bit about DriveOhio and its collaborations with educational institutions across the state?
Granger: DriveOhio is an initiative of the Ohio Department of Transportation focused on new and emerging transportation technologies, including drones, electric air vehicles, delivery robots, and more. Through our workforce programs, we help to prepare Ohio’s talent for future jobs including design, testing, manufacturing, and operating and repairing these exciting new technologies. We offer free resources through the DriveOhio Educator Toolkit to support K-12 STEM programs in classrooms, after school programs, and during the summer.
Q: How specifically did the partnership between DriveOhio and MECHS come to be?
Cooper: Rich and I met through our Central Ohio Career Readiness Council. We started our STEM Solutions program, which invites community partners to bring in a challenge that could help our students use the Habits of Mind we cultivate to come up with solutions. Rich has participated all three years we have held this program.
Granger: DriveOhio and Marysville Early College High School first started to collaborate several years ago, through our ongoing community engagement work along the 33 Smart Mobility Corridor, a technology initiative that includes the City of Marysville. This work has continued to expand with the creation of the Beta District, a regional initiative focused on testing and deploying next-generation technologies in Central Ohio. Developing our emerging workforce is a key focus for this ongoing collaboration, which has included a variety of student projects linked to real-world technology deployments across the region, in coordination with area employers and educators.
Q: In her nomination letter for this award, former MECHS Principal Jennifer Henderer said, “One notable aspect of Rich’s collaboration with our school is his instrumental role in introducing our students to the smart corridor concept through our STEM Solution school-wide design project.” Can you tell us more about this?
Granger: For the past several years, DriveOhio has joined with other area employers to participate in the “STEM Solutions” program, where we present real-world challenges to students who team up to develop and present their own solutions. We’ve presented several different smart mobility topics over the years, ranging from the design of vertiports (a.k.a. drone airports) to the development of apps to improve roadway safety for students and other residents. Along the way, we’ve enlisted a variety of other community partners from different sectors, including wireless communications, automotive, and city government. This introduces a variety of employer perspectives to the students while also helping them to understand different career pathways they could explore related to these emerging technologies and their applications in the local community.
Early bird tickets open Ohio STEM Innovation Summit
The Ohio STEM Learning Network will host the third annual Ohio STEM Innovation Summit on June 3, 2025 at the Greater Columbus Convention Center in Columbus, Ohio.
The event will ignite curiosity throughout Ohio’s thriving STEM education community. New session formats will build engagement and collaborative problem-solving. An expanded line-up of programming will help teachers, school leaders, and supporters of STEM.
Q: Ms. Cooper, as internship coordinator for MECHS, you know just how important it is for students to be able to apply classroom learning in real-world settings. In what ways is the partnership with DriveOhio preparing MECHS students for internships and future jobs in STEM fields?
Cooper: Through networking with Rich and his colleagues, we have been able to form partnerships with companies that weren’t partners before. He has been an instrumental leader with our students in the areas of Drive/Fly Ohio.
Q: Mr. Granger, can you tell us about a memorable moment in your work with MECHS students?
Granger: During our vertiport challenge, one of the students went above and beyond by creating his own design for a drone, including computer-aided design models. I was able to share this impressive work with several colleagues at DriveOhio and a few higher education contacts, which led to several follow-up conversations and tours. Every time we engage with students and present them with real-world challenges, we’re excited to watch how a spark is ignited, especially for students who might not have previously realized how interested they were in a particular topic area or career field.
Q: MECHS is currently working to add an aviation pathway to its list of career pathways. How is DriveOhio helping to make this a reality?
Cooper: We have one online course currently in aviation, but we’re working on adding more.
Granger: Through our work with education partners, DriveOhio provides context (through real-world challenge topics) and connections (through introductions to other employers and industry stakeholders). We’re always working to ensure that employer needs and career opportunities are clearly understood and communicated to educators, students, and parents. This can include jobs ranging from drone pilots, to engineers, to manufacturing operators and technicians, to maintenance and repair.
Q: How has the DriveOhio initiative—or any of its programs—benefited from its collaboration with MECHS?
Granger: There are several benefits we’ve seen through DriveOhio collaborations with K-12 schools, including MECHS. Most importantly, we’re helping students to envision their future career opportunities through hands-on experience with real-world challenges. In addition, our partners are able to get a fresh perspective on familiar problems, with students providing creative ideas and solutions that we hadn’t previously considered. We’re also able to exchange ideas with K-12 educators about curriculum, career pathways, and ways we can continue to share emerging technologies and jobs with their students.
Q: Is there anything else you’d like readers to know about the collaboration between MECHS and DriveOhio?
Cooper: I think the partnership has helped to build awareness with the 33 corridor and the implications all of this brings to Central Ohio and our surrounding region.
Granger: We’re always exploring new ideas and additional partners we can add to this collaboration. We included the Beta District in our most recent STEM Solutions challenge, and we’re actively exploring more ways to continue connecting students with regional stakeholders and employers to share their ideas and discover career opportunities.
Q: Do you have any words of wisdom for other Ohio STEM schools that have interest in establishing a partnership with DriveOhio?
Cooper: DriveOhio and Rich especially are a wealth of information. They have so many activities and other instrumental information and tools for our students to use. If you have the opportunity to partner with them, I would do it!
Granger: Collaborations like this can start very simply, so don’t feel overwhelmed. Whether it begins with a virtual classroom visit, a hands-on STEM activity, or a discussion with students about career opportunities, there are lots of ways to get started quickly. Over time, these collaborations can grow into larger opportunities with more partners. To learn more about DriveOhio resources, check out the DriveOhio Educator Toolkit or email us directly at [email protected].
About this piece: This interview was edited by Lucy Bryan for the Ohio STEM Learning Network. Read more about the author and her work at: https://www.lucybryan.com/
