In the first blog of our series on industry and school partnerships, we spoke with Adam Davidson, a former teacher who developed numerous partnerships, events and activities involving industry partners. From classroom visits to field trips, he developed a model for initiating contact, developing relationships and eventually holding collaborative events with partners.

For this post, we look at partnerships through the lens of the industry partner. Joseph “Joe” Waters, the senior manager of laboratory safety and sustainability at UL Solutions (previously known as Underwriters Laboratories) and a graduate of NC State, began his educational outreach in the late 1990s as an adviser for Project Lead the Way. In the early 2000’s, this led to Joe’s first interaction with Riverside High School, where he collaboratively developed activities for local students.

Since then, UL Solutions has evolved their partnership with Riverside High School (RHS), and more recently East Chapel Hill High School (ECHHS), to host engaging activities for students at their RTP site. These activities include student-led presentations, on-site engineers, table discussions and tours of the UL Solutions campus. The activities have proven so successful in growing interest that several students who participated continued on to graduate college and begin their careers at what is now UL Solutions.

In this blog, we will hear about Joe’s experience working with students, how his involvement in outreach programs evolved and why his work proved to be such a rewarding experience.

Experience Working with Schools

In the late 1990s, Project Lead the Way (PLTW), a high school CTE curriculum provider, reached out to UL Solutions’s RTP campus, seeking input on the essential STEM skills high school students would need for success in their organization and the workplace. 

“Over a year and a half, I had the honor of working with engineers from other companies in RTP as well as…the superintendent of NC Public Schools, to share our view of how high school can better prepare students who are interested in STEM careers,” said Joe. This work put him in contact with instructors at Riverside High School.

We discussed how UL Solutions could help RHS, agreeing that PLTW students would benefit from understanding UL Solutions’s roles in safety, security and anticounterfeiting operations. This resulted in UL Solution employees visiting the RHS engineering program to lead in-classroom activities.  

After a few visits to RHS, the plan shifted and students began visiting UL Solutions’ RTP campus touring some of the testing labs. With the assistance of learning development colleagues from UL Standards and Engagement (ULSE), the UL Solutions team created a truly enhanced educational experience.

“In 2012, Adam Davidson, formerly one of the main PLTW teachers at RHS, challenged us to make the trip more of a teaching experience,” said Joe. “This resulted in taking the entire relationship to a new level by engaging with our [ULSE] team. [We] realized the students don’t always want to see a bunch of ‘old guys’ leading the visits, so we partnered with the RTP Young Professionals Resource Group to help lead the tour portion of the visit and have our newer engineers explain the products to them.” 

In 2023, Joe and his team expanded the experience to include ECHHS, another PLTW school in the triangle area.

“With the ECHHS students, we guide (them) through equipment design and automation activities since (they) have already completed many of the design-oriented PLTW courses,” said Joe.

How to Build Engaging Activities for Students

While Joe is not a teacher himself, he understands the importance of building engaging activities for students. Over several years of building partnerships with schools, he noted that several lessons were learned, and that he, educators like Adam and UL Solutions’ internal curriculum developers evolved the program by:

• Having the students learn about UL Solutions and the products they certify prior to inviting students to their campus
• Incorporating student-employee interactions
• Making activities interactive by letting students and teachers see and touch the equipment

Joe was kind enough to provide us with a table that breaks down how he and his colleagues planned and organized the events with the two triangle area schools, RHS and ECHHS, showing us how UL Solutions engaged the students. 

You can find that table at this link: https://duke.is/UL-HS-Visits

Benefits to UL Solutions

Joe also mentioned that the partnership with schools led to mutual benefits. 

“One benefit that is easy to measure is that we have had at least 10 graduates from these programs who got their engineering degrees and came to work at UL Solutions,“ he said. 

Joe also mentioned that, while it is difficult to measure quantitatively, working with students helps advance UL Solutions’ mission of “working with a safer world” by raising awareness of their work among the public and driving the need for product certification among products that impact students and that families purchase.

Although it is expensive to host students at UL Solutions, taking about 25 UL Solutions employees to put on these visits, the employees report it as being worth the cost.

 “As a matter of fact, our employees say that they enjoy seeing the student presentations, talking about what they do and interacting with students who are interested in what we at UL Solutions do,” said Joe.

Conclusions

The work of Joe Waters and UL Solutions shows that while educational partnerships may be initially difficult to find, they can be valuable and fruitful experiences for both the industry partner and K-12 students. Some students exposed to UL Solutions ended up working there, the employees at UL Solutions found fulfillment and enjoyment working with the students, and the work led to additional partnerships. UL Solutions now partners with Duke University’s First Year Design program  to expose college students to the work that they do.

To highlight some key points:

• Partnerships take time to build: UL Solutions started their educational outreach to PLTW in 1998. It wasn’t until 2005 that they connected with Riverside High School, and it took many more years before they were able to build up the activities and program they have now created.
• Collaboration with the educators is key: The teachers know their students best and know what they will find engaging. Having an engaged educator who is willing to work with the industry partner is vital to the success of the program.
• Educational partnerships can be mutually beneficial: Employees can find great enjoyment in working with students, and the exposure can lead students to come back and work with the industry partner. These benefits can outweigh the cost of lost labor hours.

UL Solutions provided the perfect example of how important industry and educational partnerships can be. They have proved to be dedicated to supporting educators and students through their continued work with schools and iterative approach to activity building. This cultivated fruitful partnerships and engaging experiences for students and employees alike. 

About Joe Waters

In 1991, Joe started his UL Solutions career with the Market Surveillance Department. Over the course of his career, he worked as a technical resource for UL Solutions’ field engineers providing guidance while they inspected numerous products bearing the UL Solutions Mark. He then transitioned, becoming the global leader for personal protective equipment (PPE) and personal flotation devices (PFDs). After working with PPE and PFDs, he moved to UL Solutions’ Global Laboratory Operations department. He is currently responsible for safety and sustainability programs to assist 4,000 employees working in testing laboratories.

In his free time, Joe also volunteers by leading construction teams both in North Carolina and abroad through relationships his church has established. He finds joy in teaching others problem-solving skills and paying forward the time that the many people in his life invested in him.

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