Dedication to kids earns Raines outreach award

The building of spaghetti bridges, marshmallow structures, and paper boats were all activities Sean Raines spent an hour directing and overseeing on Tuesday afternoons during the 2012-13 academic year. Raines, who graduated in May 2013, was joined by a group of 30 Booker T. Washington (BTW) STEM Academy students to discuss science, technology, engineering, and math topics ranging from erosion to conductivity.

“After an hour of that, the kids start losing focus,” Raines said. “But it’s plenty of time to do an interesting activity.”

In Spring 2013, Raines was awarded the Student Outreach Award for his dedication to the STEM program and Technology Club at BTW, a magnet primary school in Champaign Unit 4.

The Technology Club, which meets every week shortly after classes end at 3:15 p.m., is often run by members of Pi Tau Sigma from the University of Illinois, most of them from MechSE. Members of the mechanical engineering honorary fraternity lecture on the day’s topic and then work on a model or demonstrative activity with the students.

“Booker T. is a prime example of what we are trying to promote—sticking to mechanical engineering, any type of engineering at our school, or any scientific background, as far as careers go,” Raines said.

Those are the same principles that Raines said he hopes to incorporate in his career.

“I’d like to see my future company get involved with STEM projects like this,” Raines said. “Not just my company specifically either, I feel it is important that businesses and companies everywhere try to help promote the STEM fields and initiatives. They are a critical aspect of fostering further innovation and progress.”

In Fall 2012, Raines said that he was at BTW for nearly every week’s meeting. 

“We promote STEM because engineers and people with science backgrounds are so important right now,” Raines said. “The economy might have been hurt, but there are still companies out there looking for engineers and looking for people to do research. It is a crucial part of the economy right now. We can’t outsource all of our engineering. It’s very important for progress and it’s important to keep America developing.”

According to Raines, the club started not long before Pi Tau Sigma began helping to lead the afterschool program. Robert Coverdill, MechSE’s Director of Advancement and Outreach, helped spur the initial organization effort with the BTW club. He then invited Pi Tau Sigma to get involved with the program.

“It kind of snowballed,” Raines said. “We were extra hands at first, but now we are taking much more of an administrative role in coming up with the program.”

Although classes, Pi Tau Sigma duties, and work with the Technology Club absorbed the majority of his time in his final semester, Raines also was involved in the Baja Society of Automotive Engineers (Baja SAE). Every year, Baja SAE builds and races and a new off-road car.

“I am more or less an assistant to the members who take it as a senior design course,” Raines said. “I help a lot with fabrication.”

This year, Raines and his team attended Winter Baja in February at Michigan Tech, followed by competitions in April at Tennessee Tech University and May at Western Washington University.

After graduation, Raines began a job at Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Company in Oak Brook. He interned at the company for two summers previously. However, he said he would like to return to campus to share his experiences.

“I definitely plan on staying involved at least with Pi Tau Sigma and Illini organizations so I can come back and give talks to students,” Raines said.