Print
Email
Print Edition Stories
MHT's Galen Moore: Cambridge Innovation Center celebrates 10th anniversary
MHT's Rodney Brown: Honoring tech citizenship among companies
MHT's Galen Moore: Honoring innovation in New England
Scroll down to see a list of upcoming STEM-related programs
Just a few short months following the creation of an advisory council to promote science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education in Massachusetts, and growing momentum around the topic at the federal level, several programs are slated to connect students and teachers with technology companies in the next few weeks.
Such programs vary in their style — some are launched by businesses looking to connect directly with a specific school in their community, others are organized by education-based nonprofits, while still others are run by industry trade groups or by state-funded agencies. But all have in common the same goal: Boost student interest in, and help prepare them for, a career in science, technology, engineering or math.
The Boston Private Industry Council has a number of initiatives related to STEM education. Its Tech Apprentice program, for example, run in coordination with BATEC (Boston-area Advanced Technological Education Connections, a collection of local colleges) recruits the top technology students from Boston-area public high schools and places them in a seven-week, paid IT internship at local companies. An employer breakfast is scheduled in early February to recruit additional local companies. And BPIC’s Groundhog Job Shadow Day is a half-day event on Feb. 2 designed to expose high school students to the business world, in general, though many employers are tech companies.
A new initiative to be held at Mitre Corp. in Bedford has attracted state policymakers alongside local high school math teachers: The Leadership Initiatives for Teaching and Technology, or LIFT2, externship program has matched more than 100 teachers from 22 school districts with over 40 science and tech companies statewide. The program, run through the Metro South/West Regional Employment Board Inc. in Marlborough, puts teachers into companies and exposes them (and through them, their students) to real-life experiences in labs and offices where their students might someday have a career.
Two teachers, one from Westwood and one from Framingham, worked as externs last year for Steve Boczenowski, the section lead for Information Security Engineering at Mitre. The teachers then brought their students to Mitre in November, where those students were able to ask questions based on what the teachers had brought back to the class after their experiences there.
“What I really liked about having the externs here was that they were able to come in with a different set of eyes than we have,” said Boczenowski. “It worked out really well.”
A program targeted more specifically at Latino and black high schoolers is the Youth Empowerment Summit (YES) on Technology, organized by Generation Excel and C. Thomas & Associates. The summit is a conference built to create relationships between school-age and college-age students from Boston-area universities and generate interest in technology among at-risk youth, and it is scheduled to be held Tuesday, Feb. 16 in Jamaica Plain.
And on Jan. 23, at the Lynch School of Education at Boston College, the Urban Ecology Institute and the campus-based college prep program College Bound have organized a program to connect parents and students to local environmental scientists. The program, funded with private and federal funds, is designed to help Boston Public Schools students get more exposure to the social justice issues around education and to experience specific types of science and technology practices, according to organizers.
Connection makers:
Youth Empowerment Summit on Technology
Bethel AME Parkside Campus
215 Forest Hills St., Jamaica Plain
Feb. 16, 8am to 4pm
College Bound/Urban Ecology Institute Expo
Bston College Lynch School of Education
Higgins Hall, Chestnut Hill
Jan. 23, 9 a.m. - 3 p.m.
Parents, students interact with scientists and discuss environmental science and social justice education issues.
BPIC Groundhog Job Shadow Day
Companies host a local student for a day
Feb. 2
For more info:
http://bostonpic.org/programs/job-shadow-day
BPIC Tech Apprentice Program Leadership breakfast
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, Landmark Center, Boston
Feb. 8, 8-9:30 a.m.
Lift2 Corporate Partnership Event
Jan. 22, 8-9:30 a.m.
Mitre Corp., Bedford
RSS Feeds
Comments
Please Login/Register to post comments.
No comments have been added or approved.