Q. Who helped you fall in love with math and science as a child?
A. My science teacher many, many years ago. But then my time in the military solidified it.
e Army was my launch pad for all of my training in robotics, computer programming and
cybersecurity. In the Army, I learned much of what I'm doing there.
Q. What do you hope to instill in the young people you teach?
A. I want them to understand science and math for everyday
life. How to correlate those disciplines with things they
enjoy every day. Robotics helps to do that because they have
to know some math, physics and computer programming to
build and program the robots.
Q. How many years have you been doing this
extracurricular training?
A. I've been volunteering at the Harvest Youth Center for 20
years. Back then it was the Harvest Boys and Girls Club.
It's just a passion and commitment that I have. When
we first started out, we taught all ages. We even had a
70-year-old in our computer and robotics class.
Q. What would others be surprised to learn about the children
you work with?
A. e kids want to learn. You can see it in their facial
expressions. ey want to touch the robot and Raspberry
Pi computer and ask questions. You just have to make the
learning interesting.
Q. What would people be surprised to learn about you?
A. I don't love math! But I never let that stop me from learning it.
If you would like to appear in the Member's Moment
column, just send your name and an interesting tidbit
about yourself to aspire@redfcu.org.
r e d f c u.o r g
|
15
Bernard Nealy Sr. is busy. He is CEO of his company,
VisionTechAlliance, LLC, a full-time federal employee, and he
teaches young people how to build and program robots.
For 20 years, Nealy has shared his passion for robotics and
coding with students at the Harvest Boys and Girls Club,
which today is the Harvest Youth Center. He loves seeing
kids' faces light up when they catch the connection between
what they are working on and real life.
And, he does it all during a few hours after school and on
Saturdays.
Member's Moment:
M E M B E R S H I P
BUSINESS DE VELOPMENT
OFFICERS:
Murfreesboro, TN
Brad Mankin
bmankin@redfcu.org
Lori Cutler
lcutler@redfcu.org
North AL and Fayetteville, TN
T. LeJuan George
lgeorge@redfcu.org
Kasie Tanley
ktanley@redfcu.org
