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Kris has been a math instructor at Salem Academy for over 20 years. From the time she was a little girl, Kris has always loved math, science, and technology. As a faculty member at the longest continuously running school dedicated to education women, Kris strongly believes more females need to be encouraged to explore the STEM fields. She firmly believes that FTC is a wonderful vehicle to promote STEM. Her favorite part of this process has been watching the students grow in their knowledge by letting their curiosity be their guide. She also enjoys the fact that the FTC program allows for students of all interests to participate. This program is about more than the robot; this program is about encouraging all students to bring their talents together for common purpose. Kris is extremely proud of all the hard work the “Sisters” have done this year.
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Kris Porazzi-Sorrells
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Anna is in her tenth year teaching math, and her fourth year at Salem Academy. She loves that FIRST is about so much more than just robots and teaches students other important skills. Since she has used Twitter as an educator for years, she understands the value of social media in the current education landscape for networking and sharing ideas. She oversees the social media and engineering notebook groups to help get the word out about the amazing things the girls accomplish with their robots. Anna is passionate about more women pursuing STEM interests and developing the problem-solving and collaboration skills necessary in the STEM fields. FTC gives the girls the opportunities to hone these skills and develop perseverance to help them flourish in their pursuits. She is very glad to be supporting the team and proud of how much the team has grown over the year.
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Anna Vance
Allan Miller
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Mr. (Allan) Miller “heard the calling” to be a teacher in 2018. After twenty years as owner and chief engineer of Binary Engineering Inc., Mr. Miller closed his business to pursue his passion to teach 21st century skills. He is able to bring his professional experience of information technology and engineering to the classroom. Plus, he incorporates a strong focus on both soft life skills (i.e. teamwork, citizenship, etc.) as well as STEM skills into every lesson in a positive, uplifting and encouraging style.
Mr. Miller enjoys focusing his free-time on green technologies in order to reduce ecological impacts. Before Tesla existed, Mr. Miller built his own electric car by converting a 1989 Volkswagen Cabriolet into an all electric vehicle. Additionally, he was permit #1 in the City of Miami for a grid-tie photovoltaic solar array. Fun facts about Mr. Miller. He was born and raised in Winston-Salem. He moved away 38 years ago before Krispy Kreme became well known around the country. He is happily married for 30 years to a coral reef ecologist. He enjoys eating and drinking different cuisines from all over the world. |
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Jeanette joined Salem Academy in September 2022. She brings diverse education experience from children's ministry to teaching in Tanzania to NC public schools. Having been the only female in the room often during her bachelor's in physics, Jeanette is excited to encourage more females in STEM and to support each other in their pursuit of STEM careers. FTC challenges students in STEM as well as inter-personal and collaboration skills. Jeanette looks forward to learning with the teams and seeing students develop skills and interests through FTC.
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