A National Science Foundation award of $889,753 is supporting a three-year project to develop the Detroit Mayor’s Youth Technology Corps (MYTC). Collaborating with Eastern Michigan University in this broad-based, wide-ranging effort are the Detroit Public Schools, the City of Detroit Homeland Security and Emergency Management, and the Environmental System Research Institute, Inc.

“MYTC-Detroit will provide two cohorts of 100 high school students from Detroit with training and hands-on practice in a variety of Information Technology management tools,” says Project Director Yichun Xie of Geography and Geology and the EMU Institute for Geospatial Research and Education (IGRE). Other EMU people involved include Gerald “Skip” Lawver, Director of the EMU Center for Information Assurance, and Xiaolin Luo of IGRE, who is a doctoral student in the EMU College of Technology.

“The program will leverage online learning environments, online mentoring and support activities, as well as direct face-to-face training to engage the students in STEM learning in an urban community-based problem-solving environment,” says Xie.

“This sort of far-reaching effort is especially needed for students in economically disadvantaged urban areas since they generally have few experiences with information technologies in real-world situations, especially for emergency and crisis management.

“With advanced skills in IT applications, these urban youth will also have unlimited career opportunities. Furthermore, this MYTC program can serve as a model for empowering youth from any community to determine their own fortunes.”

The MYTC project is aimed at high school students in Detroit. The recruited students will receive about 250 hours of training and hands-on experience in IT and geographic information systems and technology (GIS/T) during a two-year period. They will also be trained in Information Assurance and Computer Emergency Response Team Operations, and serve a summer internship with a Detroit city department or contractor.

“This project will have a profound impact on these high school students by creating cutting-edge career pathways for them, providing STEM learning opportunities, and opening linkages to college experiences,” Xie says, summing up the project’s significance. “The long-range effect will be very substantial.”