SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), which is preparing for operations in the Syracuse area, plans to donate $1.75 million for robotics and computer-science technology improvements at the upcoming Syracuse STEAM school. STEAM is short for science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics. The STEAM school will be housed at the downtown building that was previously home […]
SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), which is preparing for operations in the Syracuse area, plans to donate $1.75 million for robotics and computer-science technology improvements at the upcoming Syracuse STEAM school.
STEAM is short for science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics. The STEAM school will be housed at the downtown building that was previously home to Central High School. Known as the Greystone building, it was last used as a school in 1976.
Amazon — the Seattle, Washington–based e-commerce giant — is building a fulfillment center in the town of Clay and a second smaller facility in the town of DeWitt.
“At Amazon, technology and innovation fuel our business. Our employees work alongside innovative, advanced technologies, and we recognize the jobs of tomorrow require a stronger aptitude for STEM skills,” Ryan Smith, director of North America fulfillment operations at Amazon, said in a company news release about the donation. “We want to inspire the next generation of innovators to explore opportunities in science, technology, engineering, and math, so we’re proud to partner with Onondaga County — which we will soon call home — to increase access to STEM education for thousands of local students for years to come. We hope they’ll join our team at Amazon one day and teach us a thing or two as they build their careers here.”
STEM is short for the terms represented by the acronym STEAM, minus the A for arts.
Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon announced the funding on April 13 at the Oncenter.
McMahon noted that Amazon is developing more than 4 million square feet of workspace in Onondaga County combined, between the Clay location and the smaller facility upcoming in DeWitt.
“When we were courting Amazon to come here and [saying] why they should be here … we talked about the relationships in this community … and we talked about the STEAM school and we talked about how unique of a project this was, a project that you would have a county-wide reach to all of our kids focused on the curriculum of tomorrow,” McMahon said in his remarks. “That was a big selling point for them.”
The STEAM school is part of the Syracuse SURGE, a strategy developed by the administration of Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh for “inclusive growth in the new economy.”
“We have jobs being created by companies like Amazon that increasingly require a different skill set than we’re used to teaching in schools or in the trades,” Walsh said in his remarks. “We have to modify our approach to make sure that we’re preparing people in our community, particularly young people, for the jobs of the new economy and that’s what the STEAM school is all about.”
