Our Workforce Involvement Program volunteer team had a blast mentoring students at the Torrance Unified School District Girls Cardboard Regatta. The company was the presenting sponsor of the annual event that helps girls from all Torrance middle schools and three high schools develop teamwork, adaptability, and perseverance as they collaborate to apply engineering principles to build a vessel and race across an Olympic-sized pool without sinking.
Casimir Middle School Teacher Kim Jones described the event as an opportunity to help students build confidence. “Participating in this competition is a positive experience whether the boat sinks or not, because participants learn teamwork, engineering, how to adapt quickly, and they see the results in the pool. It’s the most fun thing I do all year,” said Jones.
Keynote speaker Heather Shohet, Clean Products Coordinator at Torrance Refinery, inspired students by sharing her career journey as an engineer and answered questions from curious students. Accounting and Finance Analysts Zhanna Ho shared why she returned to volunteer this year, “It’s fun to see how all the students have their own design and they have to think in advance what could go wrong and adapt in real time, I like to see their minds working to solve challenges.”
Torrance Refinery volunteer business partner Moog Inc. also joined to help time the races. Check out the Cardboard Regatta recap video here.