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This summer, Kinston's Ryan Grant will join many other middle school students from across the nation to take part in a unique academic and career-oriented development experience, the National Youth Leadership Forum Explore STEM Program at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem.

A rising seventh-grader at Contentnea-Savannah K-8 School, Grant, is one of the top students in his class and competed in the Battle of the Books last year. This is his second time being chosen to participate in NYLF Explore STEM.

"This program will help me gain experience in engineering fields to help me decide what I would like to study when I go to college,” Grant said.

Grant said he is looking forward to enhancing his problem-solving skills.

“I am also looking forward to collaborating on teams with other students from all over the country,” Grant said. “Having been to this camp two years ago. I know it will be a positive experience."

NYLF Explore STEM is one of the Envision programs that enable students to explore their interests and experience learning beyond the classroom. The NYLF Explore STEM will be held Saturday through Thursday on the Wake-Forest campus.

“NYLF Explore STEM is a great opportunity for high-achieving scholars to get outside the classroom and see, through hands-on interactive learning, how to innovate and think creatively,” said Andrew Potter, the Chief Academic Officer for Envision. “These students, who have already proven themselves academically, will be challenged to work on real-world, student-created projects to bring their studies and career interests to life.”

The four laboratory experiences the students will be involved in will focus on four areas of the STEM fields; Medicine, Forensics Sciences, Civil Engineering Design, and Robotics Design and Programming. While every student will spend time exploring each of the four subject areas, they will spend a majority of the program diving deeper into the Galaxy Lab for one of their top choices.

Grant is the son of the Rev. Karl Grant, pastor of Queen Street UMC, and Christine Grant, a librarian in the Neuse Regional Library System.