Students at Lansdale Catholic High School learned Oct. 9 at the school’s first Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Career Fair that the possibilities are endless when it comes to their future careers.
The fair gave students the opportunity to sit in on panel discussions, as well as network with STEM professionals from across the region. Everyone from software programmers, to neonatologists to pharmaceutical directors and clinical researchers shared their expertise and a few words of advice to eager students.
Click here to see a photo gallery from the event
“The whole point of the fair was to make it not intimidating, but engaging,” said the school’s Educational Practices Advisor Mary Antoni, who was one of the coordinators of the event. “This is about possibilities. These are the many possibilities that come from a wide variety of professionals who were once students. You don’t have to be the top student in the class to have an interest in STEM, what you have to have is a passion.”
Lansdale Catholic parent volunteer Donna Cusimano, a molecular biologist, suggested the event. She wanted to inform students about the job opportunities in science.
“Students need focus and I don’t think they know what’s available,” she said. “When they sit in the classroom I don’t think they know how to translate that into a career.”
Students got a chance to hear about a scope of careers, beginning with keynote speaker and former U.S. Astronaut Chris Ferguson who served as a technician, aircraft communicator and pilot at NASA’s Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston, TX from 1998 to 2011 and logged more than 40 days in space during his career.
He encouraged students to consider a STEM profession by sharing some interesting statistics.
It is projected that STEM fields are responsible for 50 percent of U.S. economic growth in recent years and nine of the 10 best paying jobs in the country are in the STEM field and are related to engineering and computer science, he said. Although, he said that salary shouldn’t drive your interest Ferguson pointed out that entry level engineers can make between $80,000 to $100,000 a year.
“I want to encourage you to stay engaged,” he said. “A lot of us don’t stay engaged, but the (job applicants) that really stand out are the ones that ask questions, are curious and are thirsty for knowledge.”
As students rotated to different classroom panel discussions in 30 minute intervals, they had a chance to hear from people like Donna’s husband John, who is the director of industrial cybersecurity for aeSolutions.
John and his team conduct what are called cyber vulnerability and risk assessments for various companies like Exxon Mobil and General Mills to ensure that the company’s complex, computer systems are secure, he said.
Large industrial facilities like chemical plants, power plants, waste water and pharmaceutical facilities are connected to large control systems, which are connected to the Internet, he said. If hatched, pipelines could shut down, power could turn off or valves could open or close that could potentially hurt or kill people, he said.
He advised students to pick a major in college they enjoy, but that they can apply to many different fields. He also encouraged them to learn how to be strong communicators, writers, but most of all, to be open to try new things.
Then there were those in the medical-science field such as Ann Swift, a clinical scientist with Merck & Co. Inc. Swift is currently working on a clinical trial for a new medicine to treat head and neck cancer, she said. She, along with a team, work to set up trails to test new medicines, write detailed reports and then eventually submit them to organizations like the Food and Drug Administration for review where it might be approved.
Swift said she enjoys her job, because each day is different and filled with lots of new challenges.
Students seemed to learn a lot from the fair like 15-year-old Megan Adams who said that after listening to Neonatologist Gerard Clearly it deepened her desire to one day be a pediatrician.
For sophomore Andy Kim, who was interested in being a diplomat but now is contemplating a job as an engineer, said he thought advice given by Joel Hanson, the senior director of strategy and service for Johnson & Johnson, was very helpful.
“He encouraged us to pick a path and start working toward it,” Kim said. “There will be obstacles, but he told us to get over it and keep going.”
Follow Jarreau Freeman on Twitter @JarreauFreeman.
