The Penn State Behrend Math Options Career Day aims to inspire young people to pursue careers in STEM. Students had the opportunity to do hands-on activities hosted by local companies.
Melanie Ford, Director of Youth Education Outreach at Penn State Behrend, said, “We know how important it is for them to have a good background in STEM so that they can have more options available to them after they graduate.”
The program was actually created to encourage young women to pursue careers in STEM fields. Ford explained, “We know young women in particular don’t take as many math and science courses when they get to high school, so it was really designed in the beginning to encourage them.”
Hannah Kemmet, who spoke at the event, went through the program nine years ago and recently graduated with a degree in industrial engineering. She said, “A lot of the classes that they’re running now, I actually went through when I was in middle school.”
Youth science programs like this one are essential for students to understand that there is more to STEM than what they see in the classroom. Kemmet emphasized, “There’s so much more to science, technology, engineering.”