A Toast to STEAM (Warwick Beacon)

Stefan Pryor, director of the Rhode Island Commerce Corporation, raises his glass of Apponaug Brewery stout Tuesday night at the recently opened brew pub at the Pontiac Mills to toast STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics) Week. It couldn’t have been more fitting, as his audience was all Wavemaker Fellows. Under the program run by Commerce, the Wavemaker Fellowship provides a financial incentive for graduates pursuing a career or starting a business in Rhode Island in technology, engineering, design and other key sectors, by defraying student loan payments for up to four years. Since its inception, there have been 667 Wavemaker Fellows at 240 companies and $1.2 million paid in student loan payments, said Fellowship Director Jillian Butler. Pryor and Fellows at Tuesday’s brew pub party got a tour of the operation and, naturally, sampled the brew, which is now the latest product to come from the Fruit of the Loom Pontiac Mills that has been transformed into a hotel and now apartments as well as other businesses. (Warwick Beacon photo)