The Virgin Islands Research and Technology Park board of directors held a hybrid meeting Tuesday to highlight major expansions in science, technology, engineering and mathematics education and partnerships across the territory.
The RTPark’s after-school STEM enrichment program now serves more than 350 students across nearly all K-8 public schools in the territory. “We’re in every K-through-8 public school in the Virgin Islands except John H. Woodson,” said Executive Director Eric Sonnier, noting that St. Croix’s John H. Woodson Junior High School is expected to join in the spring.
Sonnier said the after-school STEM initiatives have been well-received. “We’re getting lots of positive feedback from parents, students, and teachers.”
He noted that interest from private school families suggests continued growth ahead. “We’re definitely getting a lot of interest from parents who have children in private schools, so we’ll have to figure out how to address that, not this semester but soon,”
Partnerships with the V.i. Education Department are expanding, with new STEM innovation centers planned for Julius E Sprauve School on St. John and Eulalie Rivera School on St. Croix. A ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Sprauve center is being organized, although an exact date has not yet been set.
Upcoming STEM events will engage students as part of the Education Department’s STEM Week. “There’ll be about 900 students from the district participating in STEM activities,” Sonnier said, referring to the projected outcome for the St. Thomas-St. John district. The events are scheduled for Nov. 4 at the University of the Virgin Islands Elridge Blake Sports and Fitness Center on St. Thomas, with a follow-up session at St. Croix Central High School on Nov. 6.
The board also marked a major milestone in its sustainability efforts with the completion of RT Park’s 423-kilowatt solar farm at the University of the Virgin Islands campus on St. Croix.
“Construction is 100 percent complete, and we’re fully commissioned for our 423-kilowatt solar farm here,” Sonnier said.
He noted the project is nearly closed out financially, with only $123,000 in reimbursements remaining on the $1.1 million project. A formal ribbon-cutting ceremony is set for Nov. 13, with board members and the public invited to attend. A client-led Critical Resilience Forum on energy, connectivity, and security is also scheduled for that day.
Staff from RTPark and the Caribbean Green Technology Center will receive hands-on operations and maintenance training for the solar farm from Volt, the company that built the system. “The Volt team will be providing RTPark and Caribbean Green Technology Center staff with a walk-through of the operations and maintenance for the solar farm on November 11,” Sonnier said.
Final steps include awaiting approval from the Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority. “We have to wait for WAPA to come out and do their final inspection and approve us,” Sonnier said.
Entrepreneurial activity is surging at RTPark, with a record 62 applicants competing in this year’s Idea Incubator, a 15-week program aimed at helping Virgin Islanders launch new mobile and web applications. Interviews and final selections are now underway, with Sonnier attributing the rise to the team’s public engagement efforts and “work … to build a brand, to be out in the public, to connect with the community,” adding, “I think we’re seeing the fruits of that labor.”
The RTPark and UVI will launch the Epic Sargassum Solutions Innovation Studio with a planning meeting on Oct. 22, focusing efforts on the pressing regional threat of sargassum. A larger, community-driven Innovation Studio kickoff is scheduled for Nov. 21, targeting “problem discovery, partnership creation and systems level change at UVI … our focus is going to be on sargassum,” Sonnier said.
To inform future agricultural innovation, RTPark board members and staff toured agribusiness incubators during the Innovation in Agriculture and Energy Opportunity Zone Summit in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Sonnier said, “We wanted to actually see and feel and touch examples from other people who have built agribusinesses or incubators … and see firsthand what that looks like to be able to bring knowledge back to our team.”
With guidance from VI Good Food, RTPark plans to conduct listening sessions and direct outreach with the farming community, “so that as we build on our land … it’s guided by what farmers and the agriculture community actually want to see,” Sonnier explained.
Community engagement continues to grow, with October’s Tech Tuesday drawing roughly 50 attendees, including representatives from 13 RTPark clients, “a record for us,” Sonnier reported.
Outreach will continue through a Chamber of Commerce after-hours event on Oct. 23, offering small businesses the chance to network and tour the park’s conference space, and the Tech Together Workshop on Oct. 28, where attorney Chris Halliday will present an “intellectual property 101 session.”
RTPark is also preparing to welcome a new chief operating officer at its next board meeting in November and recently launched a jobs page to connect local talent with career and internship opportunities.
The board unanimously elected William DeLon as vice chair during open session after returning from executive session.
“I look forward to working … to move the park forward. We’ve seen great progress this year and I look forward to seeing a continuation of that progress,” DeLon said.
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