Project Lead the Way

Twenty-one students enrolled in a pre-engineering program at Stratford High School toured the Foster Wheeler offices in the booming Energy Corridor in west Houston.

They also spoke with the firm’s top financial officer in his penthouse office as part of their visit.

The Engineering Week visit to Foster Wheeler, a global engineering/construction company and power equipment supplier with 1,100 Houston-based employees, marked the second year of an ongoing, new partnership between Stratford High instructors Rory Frazee and William Hall and this industry leader. The students are learning engineering principles through a Project Lead the Way(PLTW) program class.

During the Feb. 19 Foster Wheeler visit, students met members of the corporate management team, who discussed their roles in the company and presented an overview of the engineering field. Chief Financial Officer Anthony Scerbo also met with the students.

He discussed the role of business and finance in the engineering process. In addition, students were given a tour of the 585 N. Dairy Ashford offices and a question-and-answer session was conducted on a major refinery project. Foster Wheeler employs 26,000 people worldwide.

Project Lead the Way (PLTW) is a nationally certified program with more than 3,000 schools across America in its network. In Spring Branch ISD, the program is found at four high schools and several middle schools.

In addition to engineering instructors Frazee and Hall at Stratford High, PLTW is taught in Academy of Engineering Program classes by Shelly Montgomery at Memorial High. Marc Pollicove leads PLTW at Spring Woods High. John Hanson, Ed.D., former state director for the Texas Project Lead the Way, has joined Northbrook High to teach the engineering-focused program there, too.

Stratford High Principles of Engineering students who visited Foster Wheeler included:

Seniors (12th Grade)
John Kim
Yi Lee
Elaine Lui
Jesus Ramos
Pribadi Sulistyadi
Pribadi Sulistyawan
Jung Yang

Juniors (11th Grade)
Mohamad Almassi
Chris Brooks
Charles Edwards
Joe Kwak
Brian Linderman
Steve Ortega
Stockton Schipul
Matt Taber
Jeremy Tushnet
Christian Young

Sophomores (10th Grade)
Ryan Dodds
Ryan Mikula
Adrian Sanchez
HyunJung Shin