Last night I went to Raytheon in Andover for the capstone ceremony for the Stand and Deliver mentoring program.
18 months ago, they created a new addition to the Stand and Deliver Program in my mom's name called the "Kristine Matson College Bound Program." Unlike the traditional Stand and Deliver program,which had paired Raytheon employees with the younger students to prepare them for the MCAS exam, this program matches Raytheon employees with the Advanced Placement Calculus students to help them become even better prepared for college.
Last night, a past student named Rueben spoke about how he'd come from the Dominican Republic to Massachusetts only 5 years ago, speaking no English, and last year he scored a 5 out of a possible 5 on the AP Calculus exam. This allowed him to place out of two semesters of college math, and as he so wisely said "he didn't have to pay for those two classes, either." He's a student at WPI now and will be doing an internship at Raytheon in the robotics division this summer.
With the incredible devotion of my mom's friend and Lawrence High calculus teacher Anne Chay, as well as Raytheon co-ordinator Terri Munson, this program has grown to include 100 students this year.
Last night, I presented an award in my mom's memory, the "Kristine Matson Unsung Hero Award" to Arlyn Javier, who, like my mom is always helping others and holds her own in male-dominated math classes.
It was awe-inspiring to see such good work being done at Raytheon, where my mom worked for 16 years, and to see the wonderful collaboration between the Lawrence High students and the Raytheon engineers.
My mom would have been so proud to have her name be a part of something so inspiring.
(the blurry picture posted here is my mom and her Stand and Deliver mentee Elizabeth)
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