Two teams of students from St. John the Baptist Middle School in Costa Mesa took top honors in this year’s Garrett A. Morgan program national competition. The teams were awarded 2nd and 3rd place, respectively, for their presentations of sustainable transportation projects.
The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Garrett A. Morgan Technology and Transportation Futures Program, administered by the Mineta Transportation Institute (MTI), is designed to increase middle school students’ awareness of transportation issues, stimulate their interest in transportation careers, and motivate them to take the high school math and science classes they will need to prepare for management and engineering majors in college.
Each year, Caltrans and other agencies throughout the nation sponsor middle school classes that take part in this program. Participating classes create sustainable transportation projects, and compete for awards via a national videoconference.
OCTA is proud to have assisted the St. John the Baptist Middle School teams in preparing for this year’s competition. The two teams made practice presentations to Beth McCormick, OCTA’s General Manager of Transit; Bill Mao, OCTA’s Chief Information Officer; and Stella Lin, OCTA’s Manager of Marketing and Customer Engagement, after which OCTA staff provided feedback to the students. According to an MTI spokesperson, this is the first time that one school has received two awards in the same year. The two teams were each presented with $500 which will be used for classroom activities.
