Ceremony to launch FISTA’s scholarship program

FISTA Innovation Park and two of its partners are ensuring that money isn’t a deterrent for city youth who want to participate in STEM activities.

The FISTA Foundation will hold a grant ceremony at 4 p.m. Jan. 31 to launch a scholarship program. The ceremony, to be held at the FISTA Innovation Park in Central Plaza at Southwest C Avenue and 4th Street, will feature Aeon and Firehawk Aerospace.

FISTA CEO Krista Ratliff said Aeon and Firehawk Aerospace are donating $25,000 each to establish that scholarship fund. The companies’ CEOs are expected to attend the ceremony.

“It will set up an endowment,” Ratliff said, explaining that fund will allow the FISTA Foundation to award scholarships to students who want to participate in STEM-related activities that FISTA and its partners will be offering in coming months.

STEM — Science, Technology, Engineering and Math — courses are designed to promote student interest in those areas via education and hands-on activities, with the hope of encouraging career choices. Multiple entities have begun creating programs with that goal in mind, and FISTA now has a STEM coordinator to lead its efforts, Ratliff said.

FISTA’s construction manager also has begun construction on the STEM Lab, a facility that will provide secondary and college students with hands-on STEM experiences. The City of Lawton also is making plans for its Discovery Lab, a STEM facility that will be focused on younger children. Both facilities are to be located in the FISTA Innovation Park in Central Plaza, under the direction of the FISTA Innovation Park.