<p>Joey Thurman:<br />Welcome back to Talking Cities, Aurora, I'm Joey Thurman.<br /><br />Nicole Astra:<br />I'm Nicole Astra. Joey has been jet setting all over the country. Tell us what you did.<br /><br />Joey Thurman:<br />I went on Tamron Hall to talk about my 20 plus year working relationship, if you will, with depression, anxiety, and hardest thing I've ever done on TV, but it was needed and I got a lot of really good responses. I think that a lot of people got some much needed insight and help from it.<br /><br />Nicole Astra:<br />Seeing other people talk about it encourages them to talk about it.<br /><br />Joey Thurman:<br />Yes, exactly. Hopefully, some of my pain can help people heal, so that's why I wanted to go on.<br /><br />Nicole Astra:<br />Something a little more lighthearted?<br /><br />Joey Thurman:<br />I had WG on this weekend, and this past week was my son's birthday, so we had a really good time and that was really nice.<br /><br />Nicole Astra:<br />Yeah, and you encouraged people to talk backward, even our camera crew was talking about that today.<br /><br />Joey Thurman:<br />Walking backwards.<br /><br />Nicole Astra:<br />Walking backwards, not talk backwards.<br /><br />Joey Thurman:<br />You can talk backwards too, it's fine. If you want to talk backwards, you can.<br /><br />Nicole Astra:<br />Not going to do much for your body, however.<br /><br />Joey Thurman:<br />Walking effort can help your knee health, your VMO, all sorts of things.<br /><br />Nicole Astra:<br />Don't get him started, people. We better get back to it.<br /><br />Joey Thurman:<br />It's fine. We can move on with the show.<br /><br />Nicole Astra:<br />King County parents and teachers are getting a little homework of their own this month. The King County Regional Office of Education is seeking nominations for educator of the year. Educators from any school, public or private, who work with grades pre-K through seniors and high school are eligible. If you know someone who is inspiring a love of learning in students, and is a leader in their schools and their communities, just fill out the nomination form at [CANE 00:01:30]ROE.org, and turn it in by March 18th.<br /><br />Joey Thurman:<br />If your relationship with beverage runs hot and cold, you're in for a treat this weekend. Starting at noon on Saturday, you can taste test specialty coffees and craft beers from more than a dozen different brands while enjoying live music at the center park in Fox Valley Mall. For $25, the Coffee &amp; Brew Expo offers a commemorative glass, lanyard, seven beer tickets, and unlimited coffee samples. Plus, your heart will be warm, as contributions go to Alive Center, Aurora, which is collecting 25% of proceeds for its teen programs.<br /><br />Nicole Astra:<br />We have covered a lot at Fox Valley Mall, but it is still happening. <br /><br />Joey Thurman:<br />It's happening.<br /><br />Nicole Astra:<br />All these years later, there's so much going down at Fox Valley Mall.<br /><br />Joey Thurman:<br />It's an experience. You can get drinks, walk around, go on a merry go round. Maybe that was just me.<br /><br />Nicole Astra:<br />It probably was. But, you can get a cocktail now and do your shopping, or sit and wait as your kids do their shopping. <br /><br />Joey Thurman:<br />Very true.<br /><br />Nicole Astra:<br />I still prefer the bubble tea. You'll find me at Ma's Tea House if you're ever at the Fox Valley Mall. Aurora officials celebrated six new black-owned businesses that have opened recently at the mall. Over the weekend, Aurora mayor Richard Irvin led a ribbon cutting ceremony for Thingamajiggz Virtual Reality Showroom. Signature Cuts hair salon, Laptops Sales and Repair Shop, and clothing stores, 916 Boutique, New Drip Boutique and Family Means Forever.<br /><br />Nicole Astra:<br />Owner, Pairs [Burns 00:02:43] developed his Family Means Forever apparel brand as a tribute to his fallen brother, as he explains in this story from reporter Diane Moca, you can watch it now on TalkingCitiesAurora.com. <br /><br />Nicole Astra:<br />Joining us in the studio is Heather Pierce, executive director of APS Training Academy, Empowering Communities Through Free STEAM Education. Heather, welcome.<br /><br />Heather Pierce:<br />Good morning. Thank you for having me. <br /><br />Nicole Astra:<br />Absolutely.<br /><br />Joey Thurman:<br />Thanks for coming.<br /><br />Nicole Astra:<br />We did just mention, actually, several times on the program, but last week, about kids, but give us an overview of APS.<br /><br />Heather Pierce:<br />Sure. We started during the pandemic, the APS Training Academy. We had great success with children thus far, teaching them robotics and coding, but we have expanded programs to adults.<br /><br />Heather Pierce:<br />Just last night, it was so great, we started out our week with children's classes and it was standing room only. <br /><br />Joey Thurman:<br />Wow. <br /><br />Heather Pierce:<br />To the back of the room, we have a little waiting area for parents and I saw all these moms and dads out there. I went back and I whispered, kind of quietly, "Hey, what if we do some classes at night for adults?" And they're like, "We'd love it." I'm like-<br /><br />Nicole Astra:<br />Simultaneously.<br /><br />Heather Pierce:<br />Right. Kids are occupied and taken care of. We know that childcare is a challenge. I said, "What would you like to learn?" And one of the moms yells, "[CAD 00:03:57]". <br /><br />Nicole Astra:<br />Nice.<br /><br />Heather Pierce:<br />I'm like, "Okay, I didn't expect that at all." But she's like, "I see you have a poster over there for CAD classes." I'm like, "Okay, let's go in my office." So I had this whole group of parents back in my office and we were discussing how we move forward with this idea. It's really been something that we've tried to do, but the children's courses have been in such demand, we're we staying at the seams right now with our capacity. <br /><br />Heather Pierce:<br />Typically, we have about three eligible applicants for every one seat in our facility, so the demand is absolutely there and it's beyond free. People are just really interested in the topic, interested in what we're doing, excited about the classes. The kids are so excited, sometimes we have a hard time getting them calm.<br /><br />Heather Pierce:<br />We're doing robotics, primarily, right now with the children. We do offer some coding classes. So, we're just going to expand that to adults. How do we get adults into coding? How do we teach technology to adults that want to maybe change careers or go into a different area.<br /><br />Joey Thurman:<br />Adults like learning too. Kids like learning. I'd like to make a robot, maybe take over the world someday. What other classes do you offer?<br /><br />Heather Pierce:<br />We have offered a lot with the Google Workspace. Our approach is, what do we use that's free and accessible? A lot of people do know Microsoft Office. Google is the equivalent, but it's also free to use. We draw the parallels between both because a lot of the workplaces use Microsoft, but we teach Google. So, that's a big class that we've had. Financial literacy, as well, which is quite popular. Those have been the two big courses for adults thus far. But we are going to move into doing boot camps for coding and programming, machine learning, data analytics. It's all in the works.<br /><br />Nicole Astra:<br />I was going to say, it covers so much. We always ask about funding. We're a big city, but a small town here in Aurora. So tell me, how have you secured funding in the last few years, and then how can people get involved?<br /><br />Heather Pierce:<br />Sure. It started with private funding. Our founder was very passionate about the topic. He did this in honor of his mother, so it started from his pocketbook, to be honest. But, as the community has seen the relevance, we've had about 400 private donors. We also have a nice grant from the City of Aurora. We are the provider for their Aurora STEAM Academy, which most people recognize, so there's some grant funding there.<br /><br />Heather Pierce:<br />As we expand programming, that's expensive, we need some more equipment. We are looking for more funders and we are looking for corporations that are interested in partnering with us. That's what we're working on right now. <br /><br />Joey Thurman:<br />Where can they go to if they want to give money? How do they do that?<br /><br />Heather Pierce:<br />Our website. We have a donate button on our website, which is The APS Training Academy.<br /><br />Nicole Astra:<br />Great. Thanks, Heather.<br /><br />Heather Pierce:<br />Thank you. <br /><br />Joey Thurman:<br />Thank you.<br /><br />Nicole Astra:<br />That's it for now. We'll see you next time. I'm Nicole Astra<br /><br />Joey Thurman:<br />I'm Joey Thurman. Thanks for being here.</p>