Retiring New Kensington-Arnold principal to head science foundation's effort in city

New Kensington native Nicole Roberts is ready to retire from her more than three-decade career in public education — but not from being an educator.

Roberts, 54, is retiring effective Sept. 11 as principal of H.D. Berkey Elementary School in Arnold. She will continue working as program director of the New Kensington Science Project, which is sponsored by the R&D Impact Foundation, based in San Francisco and headed by her brother, Thomas Roberts Jr. and his wife, Susan DaSilva.

Roberts began her career as a substitute teacher in 1991. She started an early intervention program for pre-kindergarten students and taught kindergarten for seven years and second grade for eight years. She was an instructional coach for other teachers for six years before becoming a principal at Berkey, an assistant for one year and principal for six years.

“I’ve done everything I can for the New Kensington-Arnold School District. It’s time for me to move on to something else,” said Roberts, who lives in Pine. “I have a lot of experience and a lot of knowledge. I can’t imagine not doing something.”

Thomas Roberts Jr. and his wife started R&D Impact in 2021. Seeking to help children from under-resourced communities explore science, technology, engineering and math, its efforts started in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district before expanding into New Kensington.

An oncologist by training, Thomas Roberts Jr., 51, is now a professional investor.

“We were interested in being more intentional in our philanthropy,” he said. “We saw challenges in certain neighborhoods. We were looking for a way to make a difference in communities that had challenges, and science for both of us was a big part of our lives. It was a big source of our own achievement and empowerment. We sought ways to combine something that we knew something about and cared about but that also could make a difference.”

They started in the Tenderloin district, he said, because the area seemed to have the most unmet need.

“Parents were asking for it, the school wanted to do more of it, and it was an area that we knew about and believed in,” Thomas Roberts Jr. said.

Starting in January, the majority of the content involved a garden at the Tenderloin Community School, said Irma Nugroho, 29, a second grade teacher there. Lessons in science and technology were weaved into it.

“The garden was driven from the fact that our school already had an existing garden that was not being utilized,” Nugroho said. “The kids have planted and they’ve harvested and problem-solved different issues that happened in the garden.”

Nugroho said she appreciates the foundation’s efforts at her school.

“STEM instruction is not something that our students were receiving. When teachers such as myself were doing STEM instruction, it was more of that cute little project you do on the side, not one that had a lot of rigor or relevance to it,” she said. “R&D is providing a teacher very knowledgeable in the STEM subjects. It’s been amazing for our school. I believe all kids have the right to get a STEM education and often underserved communities don’t get that. We’re really grateful for it. It wouldn’t have been possible had they hadn’t come.”

R&D Impact is launching a project in New Kensington not only because it’s Thomas Roberts Jr.’s hometown.

“We also felt like there was a need, and that it was a different set of challenges compared to what we are seeing in the Tenderloin,” he said. “We felt it would actually be interesting, that if we wanted to scale to many more neighborhoods, to have two that were both displaying a need but also had distinct challenges.”

The foundation’s first program in New Kensington was an eight-week STEM Explorers Club this spring at the Digital Foundry, during which 21 fourth and fifth grade students turned cardboard boxes into robotic animals with lights, sensors and motors.

“What we would like to do is create a long-term relationship with New Kensington and with partners in the city. It could lead to vocational opportunities, internships, partnering with higher education and entrepreneurship,” Thomas Roberts Jr. said. “We really want to see this as an opportunity to interact with all the different possibilities within New Kensington and surrounding educational institutions. We’re humble in that there will be limits to how much we can do alone. If we work in coordination and collaboration with parents and other partners, we’ll be able to have a bigger impact and a more sustaining impact.”

The foundation will provide additional learning opportunities over the summer for the children who participated in the STEM Explorers Club, said Jennifer Kiss, the foundation’s executive director. An open house event is being planned for toward the end of summer, and they expect to offer after-school programming in the fall.

Kiss said they want to learn from students what they’d like to do in STEM, and design their program offerings accordingly.

“We’re on a learning journey, and we’ve just begun in New Kensington,” Kiss said. “We really want to understand the community’s needs and design our programming to meet those needs.”

Nicole Roberts said she wants to bring high-quality STEM opportunities to children in the New Kensington-Arnold district and reduce the inequality gap that exists for children based on where they live.

“Our children in 15068 deserve the exact same opportunities as children who live in Upper St. Clair or Fox Chapel,” she said. “Through this funding and through this opportunity, I’m much more hopeful that I’ll be able to change that gap.”

Growing up in New Kensington, Thomas Roberts Jr. said he benefited from people believing in him and the programs and resources that were available, including Junior Achievement sponsored by Alcoa, extra science in elementary school and all the museums in the Pittsburgh area.

“I really feel, if given an opportunity, people from New Kensington and young kids in particular can go on and make great contributions to science and technology. Even if they don’t head in that direction, I’m hopeful that the tools and the investment in their future will be valuable to them no matter what they choose in life,” he said.

“There’s no better feeling than hopefully giving back and to give some young person the same kind of opportunity and support that I had,” he said. “New Kensington has invested in me. This is just an amazing opportunity to try to give back.”