Greetings and welcome to STEM Integrations! My name is Krista Stith and I am the co-founder of STEM Integrations LLC based out of Indianapolis. This is such an exciting journey into the unknown with my colleague and fellow co-founder, Rachel Geesa. Rachel and I met in 2017 while working at Ball State University with the intention of submitting a grant that we were hoping would lead to a STEM education course at the university. We felt that a course like this would help prepare future educators for the scientific and technological world we live in.
What started off as a small grant proposal turned into a multi-year nationwide study on STEM leadership, international presentations, a plethora of publications, and a book deal! We are so thankful for our fellow authors, researchers, and supporters of the past three years- especially our fellow in arms, Dr. Annette Rose, who has been a mentor to us.
Within this blog we’ll share a lot of information from our research that we feel will be helpful for education leaders to build and sustain Integrative STEM programs. We will also invite guest speakers, talk about STEM programs and curricula, and a wonderful assortment of resources to that will help you on your own STEM journey.
With that being said, here are a few things about me!
I am a military brat, but I usually say that I am from Virginia. I met my husband at our alma mater- Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, VA. I have a Bachelors in Animal & Poultry Sciences, a Masters in Agricultural Extension & Education, and a Doctorate in Curriculum & Instruction with a focus on Integrative STEM Education. While in graduate school, I was a community college adjunct and a high school science teacher at a gifted magnet school. While my pedagogical approach was pretty traditional at the community college, I was given a lot of flexibility to pursue a more project-based learning approach with my junior and senior high school students. I’ll save this experience for another post.
I have been married for 10 years and we have 3 kiddos- Connor, Cailin, and Hannah. It has been a unique balance of my maintaining my job as a director at Ball State University, a parent, a wife, a small business owner, a children’s book author, all while trying to keep my family safe during the pandemic. The empty campus has been our own playground.
Thank you for visiting our new blog and we look forward to this exciting journey to support schools and districts with their 21st century programming!