Brooklyn Learns BROOKLYN-USA.ORG
Offi cials are opening a school dedicated to science, tech, engineering, the arts, and math at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Perkins Eastman
STEAM school in Navy Yard will serve brightest
A new learning hub set to open
soon in the Brooklyn Navy Yard
will churn out the borough’s next
generation of scientists, techies, engineers,
artists, mathematicians — and
chefs, according to its principal.
The top educator at the Brooklyn
STEAM Center said the forthcoming
facility will boast a state-of-the-art culinary
space, run by former “Master
Chef” contestant Shelly Flash, that
will school youngsters in cuisines
from around the world.
“Any given month could be a Thai
restaurant, Egyptian restaurant, Mexican
restaurant, you name it — we
will be able to convert this space as
needed,” said Kayon Pryce, who with
his colleagues conceived of the school
with the help of Navy Yard employees.
Pryce joined Borough President
Adams and other local leaders to reveal
plans for the center that they say
will be the fi rst of its kind in the city.
The vision for the center started
years ago when Adams, then a member
of New York’s Finest, realized the
only way to keep young people out of
jail was to make sure they stayed in
school, he said.
“I got tired of putting handcuffs on
11-year-olds — the common denominator
that started to reveal itself to me,
the only thing all these children had
in common, was they did not receive a
quality education,” said Borough President
Adams, who allocated $5 million
to build the $17-million facility as part
of a larger $25-millon pot he set aside
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The forthcoming Brooklyn STEAM Center will also include culinary education in its curriculum, according
to its faculty. Perkins Eastman
this year to fund similar STEAM education
programs around the County of
Kings.
The cutting-edge institution will
not only nurture students during their
years at the school, but will also provide
them with the skills and relationships
they will need to fl ourish once
their time in the classroom comes to
an end, according to Schools Chancellor
Richard Carranza.
“When our students graduate,
they will not only have the technical
skills, but a portfolio of work, professional
contacts, and valuable skill
sets,” said Carranza. “They will graduate
with so much more than just
a diploma, they truly will graduate
with a key to the future.”
The classrooms are coming to the
third fl oor of Flushing Avenue’s Building
77 as part of the 300-acre Fort
Greene campus’s ongoing transformation
from an industrial shipyard into
an inviting, modern-day commercial
hub.
The space will provide a new home
base for current Brooklyn STEAM Center
staff and their pupils, juniors and
seniors at eight Brooklyn high schools,
who currently teach and learn at two
spaces inside high schools in Bedford–
Stuyvesant and East Flatbush.
The new facility will offer kids
hands-on experience through technical
education programs that will prepare
them to work in such industries
as computer science, construction,
fi lm, and media, in addition to culinary
arts, according to Pryce.
“What we are trying to do is expose
our scholars to as many different areas
of the building trades as possible,
so they can declare a speciality once
they leave us and decide to go onto either
college or one of our unionized
partners,” he said.
The Navy Yard’s new Brooklyn
STEAM Center classrooms are slated
to open as early as next year, according
to offi cials.