September 5, 2025
St. Mary’s Engineering project to help inspire students to pursue science careers
St. Mary’s University, in partnership with the SAISD Foundation and San Antonio ISD, is rolling out a mobile STEM lab to inspire a new generation of students to pursue an education and career in science, technology, engineering or math.
Call it the magic school bus of science.
The Voyager STEM bus— a repurposed Thomas Saf-T-Liner school bus — was created and designed by six St. Mary’s students as part of their Engineering Senior Design Project for the School of Science, Engineering and Technology during the 2024-2025 academic year.
“The main idea is inspiring new students to pursue careers in engineering and other areas that are in high demand, like advanced manufacturing, aerospace and artificial intelligence,” said Juan Ocampo, Ph.D., St. Mary’s Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering and adviser for the project.
The senior design project is a two-semester effort supervised by St. Mary’s faculty and engineers from the sponsoring organization. The SAISD Foundation is raising $75,000 in funding for the project and San Antonio ISD allowed for the retrofit of the bus.
The STEM Voyager bus will visit schools within the San Antonio Independent School District to introduce students to STEM fields while also giving them opportunities to access the type of equipment used by St. Mary’s students in their college-level labs.
The bus is equipped with a 3D printer, a robotic arm, virtual reality goggles, a flight simulator and robots programmed with coding to use for racing.
Teaming up with Executive Director of the SAISD Foundation Judy Geelhoed (M.A. ’22), the STEM Voyager bus continues the nonprofit’s mission of advancing opportunities for students to realize their full potential. In 15 years, the foundation has awarded more than $33 million to ensure students and teachers in SAISD thrive.
As a St. Mary’s alumna, Geelhoed said the partnership between the University and the SAISD Foundation made sense.
“Having been a part of launching the service learning and Marianist Leadership programs at St. Mary’s, this project was a full circle moment where the tremendous talent and heart of St. Mary’s students poured into our neighborhood schools,” Geelhoed said.
The six students worked together on every aspect of the bust, including design, initial concepts, budget, construction and development of informational media for SAISD to educate its teachers and students.
Jaya McGill (B.S. ’25), who worked on the project, graduated from St. Mary’s with an undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering. Her drive to make the bus available to students will hopefully awaken a passion for STEM fields.
“As a kid, I never got to interact with any of these technologies, and maybe if I did, I would have known that I wanted to be an engineer sooner,” McGill said. “That’s what I like about the bus; we’re giving students access to technologies that they may not have.”