Session 6

10:30 to 11:30 AM
Education 2

Houston - we have a funding problem!

Presenter: Melinda Viteri

During this session we will explore how and where to source funding possibilities to fun your next classroom, personal or school project. Learn first hand from Melinda how she networks and connects with companies and builds an accurate project story to tell in writing an 'asking for money' letter. Money is out there to be had - the first step is to craft your ask!

Mrs. Viteri serves as Co-Founder and Corporate/Private Partnership Advisor for AYMP, Inc. Mrs. Viteri is a British qualified elementary and high school teacher and has twenty years experience teaching at public and private schools in the United Kingdom and USA. She currently works as a second grade teacher at Milton Jewish Day School in Washington DC.

Mrs. Viteri's incredible career has span from one continent to another , Mrs. Viteri has for the past five years worked at the British International School of Washington DC teaching Kindergarten and then as a Learning Specialist Lead and MIT Coordinator for STEM Build a Plane. She established her own aviation non profit in 2015 in the USA and loves to rebuild airplanes with middle and high school students. She is the Education Chair for the Royal Aeronautical Society and site on several aerospace boards. On a weekend Melinda enjoys family time at the airport, flying and hosting flight simulator sessions for local students. In 2018 she qualified as a NASA certified educator and believes AYMP has a vision to create the innovation needed to teach aerospace curriculum properly in schools.

Mrs. Viteri graduated from the University of Huddersfield, England where she gained qualified teacher status and believes that that teaching is a vocation. At the age of twenty five, Mrs. Viteri pursued her Masters Degree in Deaf Education, Speech Therapy and Audiology. She worked as Advisory Specialist to the government for Deaf and Blind children in the United Kingdom and was the Chair of Deaf Children’s Society UK.

Mrs. Viteri has recently secured a NASA SPARX grant for $50,000 and another Jet Blue Foundation grant to help continue grow the nonprofit Aviation Youth Mentoring Program. She is a Professor at Kibbutzim College, Tel Aviv (virtual) teaching Aerospace Problem Based Learning to M.Ed and MSc students She is also a regular writer for WAI Women in Aviation International magazine and the Royal Aeronautical Journal. She dedicates her life work to empowering youth and educators to have equal access to learn about Aviation and Space. She arranged a Teacher Fly Day where 30 educators were given the opportunity to fly a Stearman open cockpit airplane.