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Over 200 4th grade students from both Decatur and surrounding counties crowded the Kirbo Center Monday morning, attending a STEM career event and presentation hosted by Georgia Youth Science & Technology Centers (GYSTC). Multiple local STEM industries were present at the event, including Danimer and Memorial Hospital and Manor, with Grady EMC using a functional scale model of power lines to demonstrate the dangers of electricity to the students. Following the initial career fair portion, students were taken to one of the Kirbo Center auditoriums for a presentation on the importance of bees, titled “Our World Without Honeybees”. Tammy Powell, Regional Coordinator for the Southwest GYSTC, spoke with the Post-Searchlight about the program and its goal to reach students with STEM. “What we do is we catch students at a younger age, instead of waiting for them to get to high school, and trying to decide ’Okay, what do I want to do?’ They can start thinking about this now,” she said. Several state representatives and elected officials visited the event, including State reps Joe Campbell and Mandisha Thomas, as well as Superintendent Dr. Boyd English.