The St. Bernadette School community celebrates the achievements of its military families.
On Friday, April 22, a group of second- and seventh-grade students gathered in the gym at St. Bernadette School in Springfield to hear from guest speakers Christopher Bonneau and Chris Pares, who are explosive ordinance disposal technicians at Joint Base Andrews.
Often tasked with one of the most dangerous jobs in the U.S. Air Force, Bonneau and Pares took a break from an often physically demanding task to speak with students of the Catholic school. “Our official title is we are the bomb squad guys. We are part of the first responder units,” Bonneau told the students. “Anything made with explosives, we take down and one of the tools we use is robots.”
In an effort to relate students to his job, Bonneau asked the crowd “Who has played Xbox or Call of Duty,” to which some seventh-grade boys raised their hands. “We have Xbox controllers, so half of our job is playing and the other half is kind of working; so whenever your parents say don’t play video games, it pays off sometimes,” Bonneau said.
However, he stressed the importance of education, stressing that they “do a lot of math, a lot of science and physics” and that his job requires rigorous academic and physical training, in which trainees “work 16 hour days, [beginning with] waking up to go to school, eating for 15 minutes, shower, and go to sleep,” all for a year and a half.
Furthermore, Pares discussed his particular role in the OED. “Our particular mission at this base is we do presidential support missions,” Pares said. “We go ahead of the President, Vice President, or Secretary of State, and we search every room he’s going through or search his motorcade and anything he’s going to touch.”
DURING THE PRESENTATION, seventh grade student Lucas Patoir demonstrated the process of putting on a flat jacket and helmet in front of his peers. “It was really heavy and it got hot in there,” Patoir said. “If you’re getting chased, you can’t run.”
When asked if this presentation has led him to consider a future in the armed forces, Patoir responded “I like how they get to play video games, but I’m not that great at math and science, and I don’t understand a lot of the formulas.” However, when asked if he might enjoy his STEM courses if he were taught math in ways that forced him to apply such concepts, he responded “probably.”
His school counselor Eve Montavan, who is also the counselor to every other student at St. Bernadette School, was responsible for organizing this event among other monthly initiatives. “As a school counselor, one of my roles is to be aware of the special challenges and needs of all the students and one group of students I focus on are military kids, 130 among 450 students,” Montavan said. “We have a virtue every month that kids are working on; this month, it’s forgiveness so probably not the best thing for bombs.”
In order to accommodate the needs of the students, Montavan began initiatives and events that catered towards and welcomed military kids. “Last Friday we had a special event for military kids, an ice cream social, where each student got a certificate,” Montavan said. “Many of the students have to move very often and face the challenge of making new friends, so we wanted to focus on what they bring to their community.”
ACCORDING TO MONTAVAN, students have responded to presentations and events with excitement, as they are able to celebrate the good qualities and life experiences of one another, while engaging themselves in STEM related subjects. “They’re touching the robots, they’re holding these technical pieces that they can connect with STEM subjects and can see how this can be a positive thing,” Montava said.