Virginia State University’s National STEM Day 2025 delivered its most successful event to date, including youth engagement, collegiate development, and industry partnership.
Nicolas Pollard, president emeritus for the VSU NSBE chapter and the current VSU National STEM Day student coordinator, reflected on the day. The day began behind Foster Hall with the Fitness Challenge.
“There were a lot of physical workshops, as well as competitions that you students got a chance to engage in, not only as bragging rights, but also to really just work on, you know, their fitness as this is a White House initiative focus that we wanted to incorporate during the event,” Pollard said.
Students then transitioned to Jones Dining Hall for a Lunch and Learn.
“We were able to have a Lunch and Learn in the back of Jones Dining Hall, where Milk and Honey served food. Being able just to have the kids experience what lunch is like on a college campus, being able to eat lunch with college students as well as partners for the event. It was an opportunity for youth participants to get a real sense of campus life,” Pollard said. “We kicked off the event (Youth Expo) with a special performance by Justin Collins, who helped us set the energy and tone for the event.”
Over the next couple of hours, students participated in many different STEM-themed activities. These included gaming, hands-on engineering, and robotics.
“There were events in gaming with Immerse Con, along with events with the FIRST LEGO League,” Pollard said.
One of the most popular activities was robotics. “We had a Boston Dynamics robot that was doing tours of the Engineering and Technology Building for the youth. That was a really big attention grabber there.”
A youth panel offered participants the chance to connect with college students.
“Students got a chance to speak with collegiate students who, since they’re closer to their age, may find a closer connection to what it means for them to aspire to not only see what their futures look like, but how they can aspire for innovation in STEM moving forward,” Pollard said.
The Youth Expo concluded with a major scholarship ceremony.
“We also had an opportunity to close out the Youth Expo with the award scholarship. We were able to award over $43,000 in scholarships, and the youth scholars got quite a lot, as far as medallions and scholarships, through that event. STEM innovation impacts young men in STEM, young women in STEM, and we even had a presentation for them in celebration of their achievements during National STEM Day,” Pollard said.
The Collegiate Expo continued the momentum with workshops, organizational engagement, and professional development.
“We had a similar rundown for what events are happening, working with NSBE, SME, ASME, SWE and a few other organizations and clubs to be able to enrich the academic experience.”
“Additional support came from major partners including Virginia Tech, the Virginia State Undergraduate Research Center and E-Dynamic doing more simulations and licensing for collegiate students.”
Corporate-led sessions offered students the chance to develop professionally and explore career pathways. Pollard explained that “our professional development session featured companies like IBM, Northrop Grumman and more, being able to engage with students in professional development workshops. We also had CCAM here as well, talking about internships and what those opportunities would look like.” In addition, “we also had on-the-spot interviews from Millennium Valley for interns for the fall of 2026.”
A professional panel also ran at the same time. Featuring leaders from IBM, Northrop Grumman, Verizon, West Point Society of Richmond, NSBE and Boeing, Pollard noted that “it’s important to be able to talk about what those future careers and innovation look like, whether that’s in academia, industry, military or in entrepreneurship.”
The day incorporated technical and entrepreneurial training as well. According to Pollard, sessions covered “business licenses, intellectual property protection, working with NSBE professionals and Six Sigma for continuous improvement, as well as developing more entrepreneurs within the STEM and Engineering society.”
The Collegiate Award Ceremony was the final event of the evening, with more scholarships being given out. A list of the awards given as well as recipients are below:
2025 VSU National STEM Day Collegiate Expo Scholarship Recipients
$150 Community Impact Scholarship Award
Sponsored by STEM Plug & ARC
Recipient: Makayla Robinson
$200 Leadership with Purpose Scholarship
Sponsored by STEM Plug & ARC
Recipient: John Griffin the Third
$250 STEM Innovation Scholarship
Sponsored by: VSU NSBE Alumni Association (VSUAA)
Recipient: Isaac Ndubuisi
$3000 Collegiate Research Presentation Competition
Sponsored by Melanin Valley
Recipient: Isaac Ndubuisi
“We closed out with the Collegiate award ceremony that featured Isaac Ndubuisi winning $3,250 for the scholarships to travel to Cambodia University for research opportunities and innovation scholarship from the VSU NSBE Alumni Association.”
With the details of the event coming to a close, Pollard spoke about the significance of the day: “Ideally and ultimately, the event went very well. We had quite a lot of engagements, and we broke a lot of our records from last year. Our impact report has seen over a 2100% increase in engagement, attendance, our activities, as well as our sponsorship and partners as well. We’re definitely excited for National STEM Day 2026.”
