About Us

History

The Student Association for STEM Advocacy was founded in 2020 by Steve Hyer and Frank Ferrari as a way to further expand STEM Advocacy efforts nationwide. After 8 years of leading the FIRST Robotics National Advocacy Conference, Steve and Frank saw the need to coordinate and grow student advocacy efforts in Washington D.C. and in State and Local government. Due to the COVID-19 global pandemic, SASA has hosted the past two versions of the National Advocacy Conference training over 1,000 advocates in just the past two years alone while laying the groundwork for future virtual advocacy opportunities. After NAC 2020 we needed more help in organizing and expanding our growth as an organization leading to Jonah Sementkowski joining our ranks to help in our advocacy efforts.

Directors

Stephen J. Hyer

Steve Hyer has a great passion for helping others and making the community and the world a better place to live and raise a family. Steve is originally from New Jersey and came to Michigan in 1992. He graduated from Clarkston High School and then went on to graduate from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

Steve founded IGD Solutions in 1999 as an educational content company and that quickly transitioned in 2000 to a company that did website work for other companies just as the Internet and World Wide Web were becoming popular in the mainstream. Steve chose Clarkston, Michigan as the place to locate IGD Solutions because of the close knit, but yet still welcoming community.

Steve was elected to the Clarkston Community Schools Board of Education in 2001 and has served in every capacity including as President for 8 years. Steve has also served as the chairman for the Oakland County School Boards Association Legislative Committee and he has served on the Oakland County School Boards Association Board of Directors for a three year term. Steve received the prestigious Michigan Association of School Administrators Champion for Children Award in 2008. In 2009, an Honorary Life Membership in the Michigan Parent Teacher Association was bestowed upon Steve for his service on the Michigan PTA Board of Directors as their webmaster, Vice President of Children’s Advocacy, and ultimately Treasurer. In 2010, Steve received the Champion for Prevention Award from the Oakland County Alliance of Coalitions for Health Communities. Steve was also featured in the cover story of the American School Boards Journal for his advocacy work in 2011. In 2015, Steve received the President’s Award from the Michigan Association of School Boards for his ongoing learning, certification, and professional development as a school board member. Also in 2015, Steve was elected to the Michigan Association of School Boards Board of Directors where he serves all Michigan Public Schools as the association’s Vice President.

Being involved in the community is something that is automatic for Steve. He has served 9 years on the Clarkston Area Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors. He is a charter member of the Clarkston Area Lions Club and he has served as President numerous times since 2000 in the Clarkston Local Business Network.

FIRST Robotics is another passion of Steve’s as he has been a volunteer mentor since 2007. Steve engineered the entrepreneurial component of the Team RUSH Regatta that has consistently raised more than $30K annually to help fund Team RUSH’s operations. Steve also worked with the students to develop and execute the Chairman’s Presentation ultimately winning the World Chairman’s Award and landing Team RUSH and Clarkston Community Schools in the FIRST Robotics Hall of Fame. Steve developed and runs the FIRST National Advocacy Conference annually in June to train hundreds of robotics students from around the country in Washington, DC to send them to Capitol Hill to advocate on behalf of STEM Education and FIRST Robotics. Because of these efforts, state advocacy efforts have sprung up to provide state funds to underprivileged schools so they can experience what FIRST Robotics and STEM education has to offer.

Under Steve’s leadership, the Student Association for STEM Advocacy was formed to increase the effectiveness of STEM Advocacy nationwide. Steve provides the visionary leadership and big picture direction for SASA. Steve’s management philosophy is to bring on good people and let them do their jobs. Steve is excited to see SASA grow year after year! Steve is very passionate about Advocacy and has led over 40 advocacy trips to Washington, DC for school board members, parents, administrators, and students over the last 15 years. Steve has spoken at more than 15 advocacy events nationwide training students on effective advocacy techniques.

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Frank V. Ferrari

Frank Ferrari graduated from Armada High School and then went on to graduate from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor with a Bachelor of Science in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology with a Minor in Business.

During his time at Armada High School, Frank had a strong presence in the community serving as the Vice President of the National Honor Society, a tennis instructor for the Armada Community Enrichment Program, and a robotics mentor in both the elementary and middle schools.

In his extracurricular activities, he was a member of the Armada Chapter of Business Professionals of America for two years, a member of the Armada Varsity Tennis team for four years, and served as captain of the team in his final two. Frank also functioned as an important member of Armada High School robotics team, FRC Team 1718, The Fighting Pi. During his time on the team, he functioned for three years as one of the team’s presenters who are responsible for team public speaking obligations and any awards presentations at team competitions. Prior to his junior season, he was elected a team captain by his peers and would later go on to be picked by his mentors to serve as a team President in his final season. While on the team, his responsibilities included organizing the sponsorship, community outreach, and media sections of the team. During his final season, Frank would go on to found the Michigan Advocacy Conference, a conference designed to educate students on important STEM-related initiatives taking place in the Michigan Legislature and teach them how to voice their thoughts to their elected officials. Frank also attended the National Advocacy Conference during his final two years on the team. Frank was inducted into The Fighting Pi alumni Hall of Fame in 2022.

While attending the University of Michigan, Frank participated in Student Government in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts. He served as an elected representative during the 2018-2019 school year, the Vice-Chair and Chair of the subcommittee on technology, advising, and academic resources during the Winter 2019 and Fall 2019 semesters respectively.

Frank was also an active member of the Michigan Synthetic Biology Team for 2019-2020 serving as one of the science directors.

Frank was a lab technician in the Joglekar Lab in the Cell and Developmental Biology Department at the University of Michigan Medical School from 2018 until graduating in 2021.

Frank now works at the University of Michigan Health System as a Clinical Research Coordinator in the Department of Neurology. His research studies focus primarily on movement disorders such as Parkinson's Disease, Spinocerebellar Ataxia, and Huntington's Disease.

For the past five years, Frank has been a pivotal member serving as one of the lead organizers for the National Advocacy Conference.

In 2020 Frank helped found the Student Association for STEM Advocacy and has served as President of the SASA Board for the past 3 years.

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Jonah P. Sementkowski

Jonah Sementkowski graduated from Clarkston High School and went on to graduate from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where he studied Cell and Molecular Biology. Jonah also earned a master’s degree from the University of Michigan School of Public Health, where he focused his studies on Hospital and Molecular Epidemiology.

During his time at Clarkston High School, Jonah attended the Clarkston Science, Mathematics, and Technology Academy, which combined rigorous education with technology integration in the classroom. He joined the high school robotics team, Team RUSH, his sophomore year of high school. During his time on the team, he served as one of the presenters, responsible for speaking publicly about the team and presenting at robotics competitions. He gained experience through his various technical roles, ranging from above chassis to advanced electronics, but ultimately found his place on the Community Impact Group, responsible for organizing and conducting the team’s community outreach and compiling its efforts for awards submissions. Jonah acted as a liaison to other robotics teams in the community during his senior year on Team RUSH. He accompanied Steve Hyer and 6 other teammates to Washington, DC in 2009 to advocate for STEM education and FIRST Robotics.

As an undergraduate student at the University of Michigan, Jonah was an active member of the Michigan Synthetic Biology Team. He was elected to be the team’s Chief Financial Officer for the 2014 season. Some of the research conducted by Jonah and his teammates was referenced by a team of synthetic biology researchers at MIT, who finished the work his team had set out to do. During Jonah’s time at UofM’s School of Public Health, he worked in the Koropatkin Lab in the Microbiology and Immunology Department of the University of Michigan Medical School as a laboratory and research assistant. Jonah was also a Graduate Student Instructor for two undergraduate courses, a role in which he was able to foster his passion for teaching and imparting knowledge on future generations.

Jonah currently works at Beaumont Health, a large healthcare organization in southeast Michigan, as a Clinical Infection Preventionist, where his duties include conducting surveillance to identify healthcare associated infections, leading epidemiological investigations of outbreaks, developing education programs for staff members, patients, and their families, consulting in treatment and follow-up of persons exposed to communicable diseases, and ensuring compliance with infection prevention and control aspects of requirements from outside regulatory agencies.

Jonah was able to reignite his love for robotics and growing future leaders by becoming a volunteer for FIRST after he graduated in 2017. He has served as a judge at the district, state, and international levels for 4 years. Jonah is now a part of the Student Association for STEM Advocacy and has helped organize the National Advocacy Conference.

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Volunteer Staff

Nate Bandt

Nate Bandt graduated from Edina High School and went on to attend Colorado School of Mines where he studies Mechanical Engineering with an expected graduation in May 2023.

While a student at Edina High School, Nate got involved with advocacy through FIRST Team 1816, The Green Machine. During his time on the team he worked as the Outreach lead and was heavily involved in student advocacy at the local, state, and national level. He also attended the National Advocacy Conference twice as a student and has been involved with SASA since fall of 2021. Nate works primarily on NAC conference planning and coordination.

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Ethan Vanlerberghe

Ethan Vanlerberghe is SASA’s Program Coordinator, leading the team to expand and improve SASA's state-level initiatives. Ethan was introduced to advocacy by Co-founding the Michigan Advocacy Conference (MAC) while on FIRST Robotics Competition Team 1718, The Fighting Pi. He is driven to promote STEM advocacy in as many states as possible.

Ethan graduated from Armada High School in 2019 before attending Oakland University. There, he graduated with a Bachelor’s in Management in Information Systems with dual minors in business analytics and cybersecurity in 2023. He now attends Northwestern University, pursuing a Masters in Data Science while working as a Project Manager for MacAllister Machinery Company.

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Cayden Pocrass

Cayden graduated from Valencia High School in Santa Clarita, California, and is currently studying Public Affairs at the University of California, Los Angeles.

In high school, Cayden was deeply involved with robotics, starting FTC Team 12675, the Hermit Social Club in their garage in 2017. They were captain of the team through their last three years in high school, and mentored newer teammates on programming and strategy. Cayden was also the President of Valencia High School's Speech and Debate team for two years, and Vice-President of its FRC Team, Team 8060, Command B, for one year. In their last year of high school, Cayden joined SASA as an intern helping to produce our monthly newsletters.

Now Cayden is a second-year undergraduate at the University of California, Los Angeles, where they are a member of the Debate Union at UCLA's travel team, on which they won the novice division of the 2023 United States Universities Debating Championship, the largest British Parliamentary debating tournament in the United States. They are also one of the two directors for the California Association of STEM Advocacy Clubs, which hosted its first statewide advocacy conference in January, 2023.

Cayden has worked as SASA's Newsletter Editor since August 2022, and is always looking for ways to make the newsletter more informative and engaging. If you have any feedback on how we can improve your newsletter experience, please feel free to reach out to us at [email protected]

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Megan Volkening

Megan Volkening graduated from Greendale High School where she founded FRC 8701 GRAFFITI. She advocated to the school administration to start the program and receive ESSER funds, while also recruiting mentors and students, marketing, training new members, and finding sponsors. The team went on to win the Engineering Inspiration award and the Rookie All-Star award at the Championship in Houston during their rookie season. Now, she is a member of the FIRST Wisconsin Board of Directors.

She first attended the National Advocacy Conference in 2019, where she found a passion for advocacy. After the conference, she helped found the Wisconsin FIRST Advocacy Committee. Megan is a committee lead, which hosted the inaugural Wisconsin FIRST Advocacy Conference with almost 150 attendees in 2023 and increased K-12 robotics funding by $250,000 in Wisconsin. This is her third year working for SASA. She is working with Florida and New Jersey teams to start state conferences there. If you were at NAC 2022 or 2023, you likely saw Megan presenting Advocacy 101 or information about state advocacy. She is now studying mechanical engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a certificate in Engineering for Energy Sustainability.

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Ian Hughes

Ian Hughes graduated from Greendale High School and currently attends the University of Wisconsin Madison as a mechanical engineer. He also plans to earn a certificate in sustainability with his M E degree.

During his time at Greendale High School, Ian took on many leadership roles serving as captain of his high school's robotics team, section leader of the marching band, and assistant senior patrol leader of his boy scout troop. While Ian was on FRC team 8701, GRAFFITI, he advocated to his school board, helped set up and run the first Wisconsin Advocacy Day, and has attended the National Advocacy Conference 3 times.

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Kiran Sabharwal

Kiran Sabharwal graduated from Freeman High School and is a current student at Johns Hopkins University, studying political science and art history. She is also involved in the Blue Key Society, an advisor for the University Debate Initiative, and a writer for the Johns Hopkins undergraduate law review.

In her time at Freeman High School, she attended the Center for Leadership, Government, and Global Economics, which inspired her interest in advocacy. She also engaged with her community by playing soccer, working at the Richmond Forum, volunteering with animal shelters, and making pottery at a local art studio.

During her sophomore year of high school, Kiran joined Team 1086 Blue Cheese as a member of the outreach team. She was also one of her team's presenters, showcasing the efforts that her team made year round to affect their community. Kiran found that she had a passion for advocacy work on her team, and led the team's local, state, and federal efforts for two years. She has a deep interest in expanding STEM opportunities, especially working to make robotics accessible to all students. While on Blue Cheese, she worked to gain support from her local school board for robotics teams across the county, wrote a bill that her team worked to advocate for in the Virginia legislature, and attended NAC twice. Kiran has been a member of the SASA team for two years, and now serves as a state advocacy coordinator and helps to organize the National Advocacy Conference.

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Ty Vanlerberghe

Ty Vanlerberghe is a State Advocacy Conference Coordinator, collaborating with robotics teams to expand and improve SASA's state-level initiatives. Ty started his advocacy journey as a student and team supervisor on FIRST Robotics Competition Team 1718, The Fighting Pi, and has continued his efforts ever since.

Ty leads the Michigan Advocacy Conference and is a passionate advocate for STEM education programs—especially in rural areas. Ty graduated from Armada High School in 2023 and is now a student at Grand Valley State University, studying advertising and public relations.

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