Leaders of tomorrow STEM from the seeds our leaders plant today. Reaching out to the younger generation can inspire them to learn about STEM fields. As the founding MAES chapter at Cal State Fullerton, we have worked on reaching out to the local community to continue the mission of MAES.
Our strategies for inspiring the future leaders were to target the local high school students to participate in the Science Extravaganza and mentor a MAES junior chapter.
Science Extravaganza is an all day event where we expose students to science and engineering fields as well as encouraging them to pursue higher education. We invite several motivational speakers in professional fields to inspire students to set goals and achieve their dreams. We also recruited on campus clubs to host hands on workshops for students to practically apply what is learned in the classroom. For example, a popular workshop was hosted by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), completed a circuit to demonstrate how a burglar alarm is triggered. Campus tours were provided to allow students to be familiar with a college campus and learn about the different resources that are offered and available to them. We hope to make students excited about college and the STEM fields.
FIRST Robotics (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) is a competition that pairs high school students with working professionals and college students to design, assemble and test a robot’s capabilities of performing a specified task. By providing guidance high school students are able to then have their robot compete against other high schools in a nation wide robotics competition.
We were honored to receive the Outreach Award and our MAES familia will continue to reach out to our community. Our goal is to impact the local youth and raise dedicated leaders that will carry on the MAES tradition. How are you helping spread knowledge of STEM fields to your local community?