BERLIN – Students with a penchant for the sciences now have the opportunity to apply for Worcester County’s annual STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) Summer Enrichment Programs.
Merry Mears, director of Worcester County Economic Development (WCED), said the yearly programs highlight the many career opportunities awaiting STEM students upon graduating college.
“It is our goal to inform students of opportunities in Worcester County and link them to employers,” she said.
Officials at NASA Wallops Flight Facility originally offered two programs – Reach for the Stars STEM Camp and STEP UP Internship Program – to students in Worcester, Wicomico and Somerset Counties. But when NASA lost educational outreach funding in 2013, county commissioners decided to use their half of matching funds to continue the program for Worcester County students.
“They decided to leave it to Economic Development and utilize connections at the community level,” Mears said. “We’ve had this structure since 2013, and the program has been very successful with local businesses.”
Since 2013, WCED has partnered with Red Doors Community Center in Ocean City, which hosts the Reach for the Stars STEM Camp and professional development sessions for leadership cohorts and interns in high school, college and graduate school.
Fawn Mete, a contractual WCED STEM coordinator and director at Red Doors, said the program has grown since 2013 and now partners with businesses around the county.
“The program expanded from engineering internships at Wallops to include internships with Worcester-based STEM businesses in engineering, medicine, technology, and environmental science and to complement the STEM programs offered at Worcester Technical High School,” she said.
The summer program is divided into three academic groups – grades 6-8, grades 9-11, and students in 12th-grade, college and graduate school – and gives them the opportunity to learn academic and professional development skills in the STEM field.
The Reach for the Stars STEM Camp will give students in grades 6-8 the opportunity to learn about computer programming, robotics and aerospace engineering through hands-on activities and field trips to NASA Wallops and other locations.
The Worcester STEM Leadership Cohort, the newest program offering, will teach students in grades 9-11 lessons in professional development. Mentors from Hardwire LLC and NASA Wallops will help them craft their resume, interview and workforce communication skills and will offer engineering challenges.
The STEP UP STEM Internship Program offers high school seniors and those pursuing a STEM degree with hands-on local work experience. Interns are employed for 100 hours and will learn from businesses in a range of fields.
“The programs provide a pipeline from middle schoolers first showing an interested in science and engineering to high schoolers who have chosen in-depth STEM study to college students who are pursuing a STEM career,” Mete said. “We can reach students at three points in their academic development to provide an enriching summer experience that goes hand-in-hand with what they are studying in school.”
Mete added that she anticipates the program will accept 20 campers, 25 high school leaders and 12 interns this summer.
“The focus of the program is on quality of experience as opposed to quantity of students,” she said.
Mete said applications for the three programs and information regarding dates and requirements will be available online at chooseworcester.org/STEM through March 31.
