5-14-2024
The University of Texas Permian Basin (UTPB), the Young Women’s Leadership Academy (YWLA) of Midland, and the Boys & Girls Club of the Permian Basin have partnered with the WEX Foundation on an $800,000 NASA grant to launch a space education initiative called “New Worlds Await You – Second Generation” (NWAY II). Under the program, UTPB students training to become STEM teachers will deliver a NASA-commissioned curriculum to middle school students at YWLA and the Boys & Girls Club, with a focus on reaching rural and underserved communities across West Texas. The project aims to strengthen the pipeline of STEM-trained middle school teachers while exposing young learners—particularly young women, who are vastly underrepresented in STEM fields—to hands-on space science and aerospace career pathways.
The NWAY II curriculum covers topics such as robotics, remote sensing, orbital mechanics, astronomy, space medicine, and space architecture. According to Sam Ximenes, founder and Board chair of the WEX Foundation, the initiative aligns with YWLA’s focus on college preparation and aims to place more young people on the path to aerospace STEM education. School principal Laura Doughty noted that the project will inspire young women to become “the next generation of our nation’s aerospace innovators, leaders and entrepreneurs.” The WEX Foundation, a NASA education partner based in San Antonio, developed NWAY II as the latest in its series of space-STEM learning programs designed to diversify the future aerospace workforce.