When it comes to doing good things in the community, you could say Laurie Filardo has her head in the right place: in addition to her role as business analyst with Tampa Electric’s Energy Supply team, she helps sculpt young minds as the regional director of Odyssey of the Mind.
Odyssey of the Mind, a nationwide program, helps students in kindergarten through college develop reasoning and critical thinking skills individually and on teams of five to seven of their peers. Participants receive problems to solve based on a wide range of subjects – from mechanics (they might have to build a vehicle or load-bearing structure using household items) to writing (crafting a new chapter for a classic novel) to musical engineering (building a new type of musical instrument from scratch) and more. Some problems take minutes to solve; others require months. Volunteer judges evaluate the projects using a variety of criteria depending on the nature of the problem.
Filardo – who oversaw the regional Odyssey of the Mind tournament in February at Hillsborough County’s Strawberry Crest High School – thanked judges from TECO who donated their time.
“We’re TECO customers and members of this community and we have the same interest as all of the customers we serve in helping children reach their full potential as smart, talented citizens,” Filardo said. “Odyssey of the Mind has been a gift to me for 28 years now, and it continues to be a gift to students around the world.”
She added, “I’m grateful to the volunteers from TECO who again and again give the gift of their time to see young minds blossom.”
The contributions to the community by Filardo and other TECO team members in 2015 totaled more than 20,500 hours – an all-time record at the company. And her company’s participation in programs and events like the University of South Florida Engineering Expo, Filardo said her company time and again demonstrates its commitment to education.
“The future of safely serving the community with reliable power, generated with environmental responsibility, is going to continue to take great minds,” she said. “I’m grateful to have the opportunity to take part in helping these amazing students develop into the adults that we’re all counting on them to be.”
The Odyssey of the Mind state tournament is scheduled for April 9 at the University of Central Florida.
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