St. John the Evangelist Catholic School students learn in STEM lab

UNIONTOWN – With the help of EANS (Emergency Assistance to Non-Public Schools) grant funding, St. John the Evangelist Regional Catholic School has converted its computer lab into a STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) lab. All students are given personal devices, so the need for a computer lab was eliminated. Students in kindergarten through third grade receive iPads, and students in grades 4-8 receive Dell laptops.

Students in kindergarten to eighth grade visit the STEM lab up to three times a week to learn basic computer and iPad skills, but also explore engineering and coding activities. They learn the basics of coding with robotic mice, Bee Bots, Dash robots, Vex 123 and Vex Go Kits. Middle school students build and program with Hummingbird kits and Lego Mindstorm. Electricity and circuitry are explored through SNAP circuit kits for basic circuitry and green energy. The Teacher Geek Cart provides learning opportunities for engineering projects as well. A certified STEM teacher works in the lab.

Additional grant money will help purchase 3D printers, a Glow Forge laser printer, a sublimation printer and a heat press. Students can not only design, but make as well. Table monitors will be added so students can share and present work from their devices. As student needs in STEM change, the school will continue to add to the lab.

From birth, Johnathan Garlow was surrounded by people who were driven for success. The entrepreneurial blood of his grandfather and father ran deep in his veins, and the company his father founded in 1991, Ford Business Machines, intrigued him even then.

While his father was busy leading by example, Garlow was entrenched in a very influential education that was able to stimulate his analytical mind. From his elementary years at St. John the Evangelist Regional Catholic School through his college years at Penn State, he learned a reverence for authority and a thriving sense of wonder.

During those first years at St. John, he also discovered an ability to foster lasting relationships that would ultimately be the key to setting him on the same entrepreneurial path as the generations before him.

“Those first formative years of my education at St. John’s were instrumental in molding my ability to communicate with my teachers and my peers,” Garlow said. “They instilled family values and taught us respect and tolerance for others that became ingrained in our heads. All the success I have had can be attributed to the education and values instilled by St. John’s and the role models I was surrounded by.”

In 2018, Garlow took the reins of Ford Business Machines, NOW FORD OFFICE TECHNOLOGIES?, and hasn’t looked back. He has turned a local copier and printer company into a dominant force in the office technology space in western Pennsylvania and beyond. In the past five years, he has grown the company from one location to five, with additional expansions on the horizon.

His mission isn’t just to dominate the industry. It’s to have the opportunity to provide everyone cutting-edge office technology, solutions and unparalleled customer experiences, and, in the process, to forge relationships with companies that are impactful, lasting and profitable.
Garlow is also passionate about supporting his community and believes that its success, both economically and socially, is driven by the philanthropic involvement of community business leaders. As an Eagle Scout, Rotary Club member and member of the boards of the Westmoreland Fayette Council of the Boy Scouts of America, YMCA, Challenge Program and Redevelopment Authority of Fayette County, he is active in supporting the area’s youth, as well as business development, in the hopes of providing future employment opportunities for the local workforce for generations to come.

In 2015, Garlow received the Fayette Chamber of Commerce’s Herman Buck Award for volunteerism and services rendered outside of the profession. He was a Smart Business Magazine Smart 50 Honoree from 2020-2022 and has received the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Top Workplaces Award for four years. His company has been named one of Pittsburgh Business Times’ Best Places to Work.

St. John the Evangelist Catholic School students learn in STEM lab

UNIONTOWN – With the help of EANS (Emergency Assistance to Non-Public Schools) grant funding, St. John the Evangelist Regional Catholic School has converted its computer lab into a STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) lab. All students are given personal devices, so the need for a computer lab was eliminated. Students in kindergarten through third grade receive iPads, and students in grades 4-8 receive Dell laptops.

Students in kindergarten to eighth grade visit the STEM lab up to three times a week to learn basic computer and iPad skills, but also explore engineering and coding activities. They learn the basics of coding with robotic mice, Bee Bots, Dash robots, Vex 123 and Vex Go Kits. Middle school students build and program with Hummingbird kits and Lego Mindstorm. Electricity and circuitry are explored through SNAP circuit kits for basic circuitry and green energy. The Teacher Geek Cart provides learning opportunities for engineering projects as well. A certified STEM teacher works in the lab.

Additional grant money will help purchase 3D printers, a Glow Forge laser printer, a sublimation printer and a heat press. Students can not only design, but make as well. Table monitors will be added so students can share and present work from their devices. As student needs in STEM change, the school will continue to add to the lab.