March 18, 2025
Middle Schoolers Dive into MIS at COB STEM Events
On February 13 and February 28, Brenda Killingsworth and April Reed, professors in the COB’s Department of Management Information Systems, hosted their annual MIS STEM events for the 2024-2025 school year, providing middle school students with a hands-on introduction to Management Information Systems (MIS) and technology.
The first event took place at the Lucille Gorham Boys & Girls Club, where 24 middle school students participated in building and coding Lego Spike Robot kits. The second event at Wellcome Middle School welcomed 22 students to explore MIS concepts.
These events aim to introduce students to the rapidly growing field of MIS and encourage them to consider it a potential career path. Many college students are not introduced to MIS until they enter university, and these events aim to inspire interest and raise awareness at an earlier age. Since 2017, the College of Business has hosted these STEM events, reaching young minds before they begin thinking about their college education.
In addition, these events serve as both an educational experience and a recruitment opportunity. Students leave with COB/MIS swag to help them remember ECU when it’s time to consider higher education.
A special thank you goes to MIS alumni Kathy Kiraly and Brittany Coleman Jones from SAS, who introduced students to data analytics using the Datafly product. Graduate students Craig Geter and Fiona Freyholtz also helped explain MIS concepts to the middle schoolers. Additional support came from ECU MIS students Lee Williams and Christian Joyner, ECU Computer Science student Kallie Grubbs, and undergraduate students Nora Tucker and Clara Blanchard. Together, the team guided the students through the exciting process of building and coding their robots.
“We are always amazed at how quickly the students pick up the concepts of building and coding,” said April Reed, COB faculty member and event organizer. “There was a lot of laughter and a little competition as robots raced each other.”
The College of Business looks forward to continuing these events and inspiring the next generation of MIS professionals.
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