RS celebrates Engineering Week 2026 with local STEM students

RS welcomed eighth-grade members of the local Young Women's Leadership Academy's Girls Excelling in Math and Science student teams to tour its high-tech facilities, learn from various team members across the organization, participate in an engineering activity, and enjoy lunch.

FORT WORTH, Texas, March 30, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- RS, a high-service global product and service solutions provider for industrial customers, celebrated Engineering Week 2026 by hosting an on-site interactive event for the local Young Women's Leadership Academy (YWLA).

Founded in 2010 as Fort Worth Independent School District's first single-gender school, the YWLA meets the needs of young women by providing an outstanding college preparatory curriculum that emphasizes math, science, and technology. YWLA offers girls a dynamic learning experience that encourages critical thinking, inspires confidence, and nurtures the intellectual and social development necessary for college, career, and life success. Its challenging coursework, field-based exploration, and personalized counseling help students transition from middle school to high school, higher education, and beyond.

Members of the Bloomers and Elevate RS employee resource groups (ERGs), which respectively support young professionals, career growth at any age, women, and gender equity, welcomed 11 eighth-grade members of the YWLA's Girls Excelling in Math and Science (GEMS) student teams focused on robotics, engineering, and drones to the RS Americas corporate headquarters in Fort Worth on Friday, February 27.

The event began with a welcome from D'Mar Phillips, Vice President of People & Culture at RS Americas, Daniel Booker, Delivery Planner and Bloomers ERG co-chair, and Jennifer Albright, Talent & Development Content Specialist and Elevate ERG co-chair, who presented the students with personalized access badges and split them into two groups to tour the warehouse and RS Technical Solutions Center.

Billy Newby, the Director of Warehouse Operations at RS, guided both groups through a comprehensive educational tour of the company's high-tech, 520,000-square-foot warehouse, introducing the YWLA students to advanced technologies including:

• Automated guided vehicles (AGVs), such as forklifts
• The KNAPP OSR Shuttle Evo flexible, high-performance automated order and retrieval system, which quickly, accurately, efficiently, and reliably manages storage, retrieval, buffering, sequencing, replenishment, and picking processes
• The RFID pocket sortation overhead conveying and storage system, which maximizes available space and enables zero-touch handling and 100% tracking accuracy
• Goods-to-person systems that quickly and precisely pick products from 118,000 different locations and automatically deliver them to one of 35 picking stations
• Box erector machines and robotic packing stations that right-size packaging, accelerate the shipping process, and reduce packaging waste
• An automated distribution center that facilitates will-call pickups for local customers

Mark Russell, the Technical Application Support Manager at RS, led both groups through a sweeping academic tour of the RS Technical Solutions Center (TSC), which provides industrial customers with an opportunity to see how integrating advanced automation components will impact their production systems, as well personalized insights into how to connect, configure, and program new devices, and saves them substantial amounts of engineering time and financial risk. Mark also introduced the YWLA student to Senior Application Engineer, Project Manager, and electromechanical expert Samatha Massingill, who guided the girls through a hands-on activity based on a breadboard — a reusable, solderless engineering device used for rapid prototyping, testing, and verifying electronic circuits. 

After the tours, the two groups of YWLA GEMS reconvened for a panel discussion featuring RS Americas leaders with a variety of roles and backgrounds, including:

• Marie Dawson, Senior Director of Product & Supplier Management and Executive Sponsor of the Elevate ERG
• Scott Jayes, Vice President of Value-Added Solutions and Executive Sponsor of the Bloomers ERG
• Ashley Pickett, Sales Talent Development Manager and co-chair of the EmbRACE ERG, which support employees of various ethnicities, races, and cultures
• Debbie Lemons, Manager of Brand & Proposition Marketing
• Rachel Sherman, Inside Sales Manager
• Clara Chapman, Product Portfolio Manager

The 2026 Engineering Week event concluded with a catered lunch, which gave the GEMS an opportunity to chat with all the RS participants and ask them questions, followed by a little fun in the sun on the on-site basketball court, and the gift of RS swag bags to remind them of their experience.

"RS champions education, innovation, and community and is committed to making amazing happen for a better world. So, we're proud to welcome local youth to explore our business and discover the exciting STEM opportunities we offer," said D'Mar Phillips, Vice President of People and Culture at RS Americas. "This was also a great opportunity for two of our impactful ERGs to collaborate together and learn from both the experience and the students."

"Welcoming the remarkable eighth–grade YWLA GEMS to our Fort Worth headquarters for Engineering Week 2026 was an energizing reminder of why we champion youth, community, and STEM education," said Marie Dawson, Senior Director of Product & Supplier Management and Executive Sponsor of the Elevate ERG at RS Americas. "Inviting these young women to explore engineering, robotics, and technology with our various teams reflects our commitment to diversity, inclusion, and belonging in action. Women have made tremendous strides toward participation in all levels of science, technology, engineering, and math, and we are both thrilled and proud to play a small role in shaping these young women's journeys in this field. When we open our doors to the next generation, we're not just showcasing careers — we're helping them see themselves as future innovators with the power to join us in making amazing happen for a better world."

RS is also sponsoring the Foundation for the Young Women's Leadership Academy's Diamond Luncheon on April 2, 2026, which celebrates all the YWLA seniors who have turned ambition into action and earned admission to four-year colleges and universities across the country and helps fund critical resources that fuel academic excellence, leadership development, and college readiness at YWLA.

If you would like to join RS in helping to turn today's promising STEM students into tomorrow's impactful leaders and innovators, you can click here to donate to the Foundation for the Young Women's Leadership Academy.

PR Image Download: 
RS Engineering Week PR – Warehouse Tour.jpg
RS Engineering Week PR – TSC Activity 1.jpg
RS Engineering Week PR – TSC Activity 2.jpg

About RS 
RS is a high-service global product and service solutions provider for industrial customers, enabling them to operate efficiently and sustainably. We operate in 36 markets, stock over 830,000 industrial and specialist products, and list an additional five million relevant for our industrial customers, sourced from over 2,500 suppliers. This extensive range supports our customers across the industrial lifecycle of designing, building, and maintaining equipment and operations. We enhance their experience through a tailored service model, leveraging our efficient physical, digital, and process infrastructure sustainably. We combine a technically led and digitally enabled approach with an exceptional team of experts; ultimately, it's our people that make the difference. Our purpose, making amazing happen for a better world, reflects our focus on delivering results for people, planet, and profit. 

RS Group plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange with stock ticker RS1, and in the year ended March 31, 2025, reported revenue of $3,381.64 million. For more information, please visit https://www.rsgroup.com/ or connect with us on LinkedIn or X (Twitter).

About RS in the Americas 
In the Americas region, RS stocks more than 250,000 industrial and electronic products from more than 700 trusted suppliers. These solutions cover categories extending from automation and control equipment to interconnect, passive, active, and electromechanical components and include more than 90,000 high-quality, competitively priced RS PRO products. For more information, please visit https://us.rs-online.com or connect with us via social media on LinkedIn, Facebook, and YouTube.

Editorial Contact & Media Inquiries:
Erica Goode, RS Director of Marketing – U.S. and Canada
[email protected]

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/rs-celebrates-engineering-week-2026-with-local-stem-students-302727052.html

SOURCE RS