STEM Career Conference at Local School

citizen |

by Thelma Sardin

On May 11, Project SYNCERE, a local non-profit organization is hosting a STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) career fair at Dunne Technology Academy, 10845 S. Union Avenue.

Project SYNCERE (Supporting Youth's Needs with Core Engineering Research Experiments) was founded in 2008 by three African American male STEM professionals.

According to Project SYNCEREs website, its mission is to increase the number of minority, female, and underserved students pursuing careers in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). The organization currently serves over 800 students.

Jason Coleman, co-founder and Project SYNCERE Executive Director says it is important for children to understand the benefit of STEM fields because it opens their minds to new possibilities.

So many of our youth dont know about the various opportunities that exist within the STEM fields if students are able to understand how the math and science that they are learning in class, is useful later on in life, the learning process becomes more relevant for them, he said.

With the conference, Project SYNCERE hopes to educate students about STEM fields by having direct contact with professionals.

Our goal with the STEM conference is to provide students with an opportunity to learn from and network with individuals who are making a difference in their respective STEM fields, Coleman said.

According to Coleman, Dunne was selected as a conference site because the organization has a partnership with the school. For the past two years, we have hosted our Empowerment Thru Engineering In-School program at Dunne, where we work with students in grades 6-8 twice a week to expose them to various engineering fields through hands-on workshops, he said.

As a community, Coleman says children should be engaged in the STEM fields as early as possible. I think that we must urge our schools to do more to promote STEM and also it is important for professionals who are from the community to come back to educate and share their time with the youth, he said.

Coleman says as many as 15 STEM professionals will be at Dunne for the conference including doctors, dentists, engineers, accountants and finance managers. He said a small group of professionals will rotate between various classes and speak with students.

The professionals will have an interactive conversation with the students, give a presentation, or have a hands-on demonstration. We have urged each of our volunteers to make their time with the students as personable and engaging as possible, he said.

The Project SYNCERE STEM Career Conference will be held at Dunne Technology Academy on May 11 between 9:00am - 12:30pm. For more info about Project SYNCERE log on to www. projectsyncere.org.

STEM professionals who are interested in volunteer opportunities with the organization should send an e-mail to volunteer@projectsyncere.org.

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