From August to December, Saturday Academy piloted STEAM Career Tracks, a new program to bridge our classes and internship (ASE) program. The pilot was a success! The core goal of the program was to connect high school students to professional development resources and career exploration workshops. STEAM Career Tracks provided workshops in architecture, computer science and programming, environmental science, engineering, medicine and biochemistry and bioengineering to twenty-six high school-age participants.
What is STEAM Career Tracks?
STEAM Career Tracks is a series of workshops that connect participants to STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) professionals through hands-on activities, professional development, and networking opportunities. STEAM Career Tracks is built in two phases: virtual midweek professional skill development classes, and remote weekend career exploration workshops.
Professional development classes build core communication, collaboration, and critical-thinking skills in addition to focused work on developing resumes/cover letters, interviewing skills, and confidence. Career Workshops were developed based on participant interest and will allowed students to connect directly with STEAM professionals in the field. Upon completion of the program and submission of deliverables, participants will received a $500 stipend.
This class was funded by a $36,000 grant from Oregon Community Foundation. In addition to class and instructor costs, this grant also funded a set of laptops, workshop presenter stipend, and curriculum professional development sessions. The curriculum was taken from Possible Futures, Oregon ASK.
Interview with STEAM Career Tracks participant
We spoke to a participant of the STEAM Career Tracks program to learn about the experience for the students themselves. Evelyn was kind enough to participate in an interview to talk about the program.
1. How has the program impacted you?
Evelyn: The program made me feel more prepared to apply for internships and jobs. I found many resources to help me with application processes, resumes, cover letters, and professional profiles. The feedback I received from course instructors was very beneficial to improving my professional documents.
2. Do you feel that meeting STEAM professionals in the program were beneficial?
Evelyn: Yes, they were very beneficial! Through the workshops with STEAM professionals, I learned about the job scope of various occupations and the paths different people took to reach their careers.
3. Do you have any feedback on improvements for the program? Is there anything that you think could have been better?
Evelyn: I would have loved more interactive career exploration workshops with activities that engaged the audience. While their knowledge was informative and valuable, listening to the speakers talk for long periods occasionally felt tedious and dull.
It would have also been helpful for information from each class to be more organized in the Google Drive folder so I could easily find resources.
4. What's the single most important takeaway from the program?
Evelyn: I found the most help in the feedback I received on my resume and cover letter. During the course, I created both documents for the first time, and I received valuable commentary on how to improve them and make them more professional.
5. Is there anything else you'd like to touch on about the program?
Evelyn: I appreciate all of the work that course instructors and organizers put into the program. Everything presented during the course was easy to follow and beneficial for my professional growth and development.
The importance of the program
Other participants of the program provided feedback to Saturday Academy in the way of a survey provided at the end of the program. Below are some testimonials provided by those participants:
“By meeting live STEM professionals (especially females) from different fields, I found the idea of a STEM career more achievable. And I believe that even if I do not go through with a STEM career, I would feel comfortable incorporating personal or community projects of such category into my life.”
“I feel more confident in jobs. Before I honestly wasn't sure about the pathways taken and how to interview, but now I feel a lot more prepared!”
“I'm more interested in a position as a researcher or professor in science after attending the Biochemistry workshop because I thought it sounded really interesting and the workshop made me feel like a career in that could actually be accessible and something that I could possibly achieve.”
We look forward to being able to host more sessions of the STEAM Career Tracks program in the future! Thank you to all the participants, instructors, workshop presenters, and donors who helped to make this program a reality!