Education

K-12 Education

• NEXTRANS Sponsors First High School Writing Contest

  The NEXTRANS Center is pleased to announce the winners of its 2009 Indiana High School Essay Competition: Chelsey DeLarm (Crawfordsville High School) and Mikayla Janney (Tri-County High School, Straughn).

  NEXTRANS received more than 80 submissions by high school students from across Indiana, which were judged blindly by a panel of transportation scholars, Purdue Discovery Park officials, and the NEXTRANS Center staff. The goal of this competition was to encourage 9-12 grade students to consider how integral transportation is to the future of Indiana and our nation, and interest them in pursuing transportation-related careers and/or higher education in the field.

  To read more about this year's contest topic and guidelines, click here.

• High School Internship Program

  NEXTRANS is currently seeking qualified applicants for the NEXTRANS High School Internship in Transportation. This program provides qualified students the opportunity to complete a 4-6 week program of research and activities at Purdue University, where participants will be exposed to the field of transportation through hands-on research activities under the guidance of a NEXTRANS Research Assistant. By fostering a challenging environment in which students learn through discovery, the Center hopes to attract a new generation of leaders to transportation-related careers.

  Applications are accepted on a rolling basis, and each 4-6 week program is scheduled to suit the individual student’s needs. Students will work approximately 20 hours per week at the NEXTRANS Center, and will be compensated for their time ($8-10 per hour). Applicants should live in close proximity to the West Lafayette/Purdue University area.

  To apply, or for additional information, please contact Jessica Mehr via email (jmehr@purdue.edu), or phone (765-496-9734).

• Problem Based Learning (PBL) Project Links Students to Transit Challenge

  A few years ago in 2005, it came to the attention of Crawfordsville High School (CHS) students and Helen Hudson, their English teacher, that the local train station, which few seemed to know about, was abysmally run-down even though an Amtrak train passed through each morning (to Chicago) and each evening (en route to NYC). The students, whose laptop computer grant mandated them to take on a problem-based learning project, saw their opportunity. During the first Spring, the students cleared off scores of bags of trash and planted a garden where the junky trash, weeds and scrub trees had been. They made plans to repaint the station and brought the opportunity to use public transportation to the community’s notice. Subsequent classes have pitched in by putting up a welcome sign, cultivating a garden on the site, and replacing the station’s floor.

  The students and their teacher, Hudson, received several local and regional awards for their work. In 2006, a group of students traveled to Washington D.C. to present their projects for the national association of rail passengers. While there, they received NARP’s Youth Leadership Award, an award only given twice in 40 years, and also spent time lobbying for legislation that would provide much-needed funding to Amtrak. During the Fall of 2006, they were honored with Amtrak’s Champion of the Rails award. The students have written editorials, organized Crawfordsville Rides the Train public awareness trips, and continued to care for the little Crawfordsville Amtrak station and the adjacent garden that they have landscaped and planted. The classes have also made efforts to promote rail travel closer to home. Their most recent effort, “C’ville Rides the Train,” is a weekend trip to Chicago to encourage Crawfordsville residents to take the train more often. Since the beginning of the project, the number of people riding the train from Crawfordsville has gone up by as much as 33 percent in some quarters.

  At the NEXTRANS Inaugural Summit, students from Hudson’s class participated by presenting a poster about the history of the project, setting up a display booth featuring their awards and honors, and attending the day’s sessions on transportation challenges and solutions. Their booth and presentations drew keen interest and broad attention from the Summit participants. Chelsea DeLarm, a member of the group, was singled out to receive special recognition from RITA Administrator Paul Brubaker for her work going above and beyond the call of duty.

• National Merit Scholar Begins Internship at the NEXTRANS Center

  NEXTRANS was pleased to host its first high school intern, Jim Caraher. Jim graduated from Crawfordsville High School, where he was Salutatorian of his class. At Crawfordsville, he was involved in the National Honor Society, Math and Science Teams, Tech Club, Libro Club, French Club, and Chess Club. He played soccer and track, and advanced to the state finals this year in the 800m run. Jim is a National Merit scholar and has also been awarded an Elks State Scholarship, the David Wells Science Award, and Purdue’s prestigious Stephen C. Beering Scholarship.

  The Beering Scholarship is named after Purdue University's president from 1983 through August 2000. A distinguishing feature of this invitation-only scholarship is the fact that in addition to paying for undergraduate studies, it also pays all expenses if a student decides to stay at Purdue to pursue a master's degree or a doctoral degree.

  Jim began his undergraduate studies at Purdue in Fall 2007 majoring in engineering. He assisted NEXTRANS student Sal Hernández, a Ph.D. Candidate in Purdue’s Civil Engineering Program, in conducting research to identify innovative new approaches to help the freight carrier industry utilize trucks to their fullest capacity. Rising fuel prices are making less-than-truckload (LTL) shipping a major economic burden. Their research involves disseminating surveys that will be used to develop new operational models that can help LTL carriers enhance capacity utilization in order to increase revenue.