There’s a famous last line :”Well, I… I think that it… that it wasn’t enough to just want to see Uncle Henry and Auntie Em… and it’s that if I ever go looking for my heart’s desire again, I won’t look any further than my own backyard; because if it isn’t there, I never really lost it to begin with.” I too have been on a journey to find something…something related to STEM that kids in a small, rural community can relate to.  I too will share this message with them that there are opportunities in our own backyard… and that if we are to keep the manufacturing businesses in our backyards, we must invest in STEM education for kids… with real world connections. We must also change the mindset that “KANSAS” is boring and that “somewhere over the rainbow is much better, brighter, etc.”  After all, I don’t want a “twister” to come and take it all away for us to realize the powerful opportunities we have to keep manufacturing in NC both alive and competitive!  

photo credit: <a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/scottchene/6900898226/”>TRF_Mr_Hyde</a> via <a href=”http://photopin.com”>photopin</a> <a href=”http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/”>cc</a>