By Camas Frank ~

The Cal Poly EPIC summer campers — middle school into high school — were back at Cal Poly this year. Among the activities on July 15 were an “Eco-Surfboard class,” cardboard “Helicopter” drop and a lot of activity labs.

Seventh and eighth graders also learned the real nuts and bolts mathematics of electrical engineering in unorthodox ways. LED light programing and electronic textile sewing with conductive thread were on the agenda.

Rick Sturckow, Cal Poly alum and former NASA astronaut — one of four “Cal Poly Astronauts — and who now works for Virgin Galactic, gave the closing address for the middle schoolers.

An annual summer program designed to give children a boost in the sciences starting early, the Engineering Possibilities in College or EPIC, immerses campers from grades 7-12 in a variety of labs, competitions and classroom learning, to expose them to the wider world of engineering and technology than typical public schools provide.

Since the program started a decade ago they’ve been reaching out to underserved student populations. For the second year they’ve brought in kids recommended with scholarships from the regional offices of the Migrant Education Program.

For the 79 students, who are sons or daughters of migrant farmworkers working in California’s agricultural, dairy, lumber or fishing industries, the idea is to empower them to be the masterminds behind the next generation of technology.

Sturckow, who grew up on a farm, offered elements of his life story as a loose guide to show that anything is possible with effort exerted in the right places.
He related his journey as a “series of strange happenings,” from guidance counselors that helped him to graduate high school a year and a half early, to the mechanic on his father’s farm that taught him tinkering on diesel engine conversion and the leadership skills he learned racking stock cars while at Cal Poly.
While at the University a mentor thought the young racer might like to up his standards to piloting fighter jets, of course that led to a stint in the Marines where he became Col. Sturckow.

After four Space Shuttle missions, a part of his inspirational story glossed over in his speech, he retired from the Marine Corps while aboard the International Space Station.

He now works in the private sector with Virgin Galactic in the company’s efforts to launch commercial, manned space flight.

Sturckow’s avenues of advancement, discussed in his talk, while perhaps more orthodox for a man of his upbringing, graduating Cal Poly in 1984, were by no means preordained or typical. He urged the EPIC campers to seek their own paths.

According to the College of Engineering, 46 percent of the 2016 EPIC campers are identified as underserved minorities.

Close to 40 percent of those enrolled are female, a more representative sample of the population than the College’s current enrollment for undergraduates.