Roosevelt STEM makes it to PRIME time

Alec Scully

On Wednesday, April 9^th, Roosevelt held a STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) awareness night for middle and high school students who are interested in the program. The presentation on the STEM, PLW and SME programs were conducted by Roosevelt students and teachers, as well as guest speakers for the programs. The main target audience for the event were the students from Eckstein and Hamilton Middle Schools, two schools that account for most of the Roosevelt’s population. All the speakers believed that the mastery of STEM concepts will be more essential to today’s generation of students than ever before, given that the use of technology to perform everyday tasks is increasing every year.

Senior Clara Sutton, a member of the STEM program since her sophomore year, was one of the student speakers at STEM night. Sutton believes that STEM should hold an important place in public education; “STEM should always be important to future generations of students. Just look at the world around us; technology is so fundamentally crucial to society now. You can’t go a day here without being affected by something that was made by a person in a STEM career,” Sutton said. “Students with a good STEM education will always be able to find a high-paying job, which is a huge deal these days. Plus, being an engineer means developing the technology that is used by people all over the world, every day. How cool is that?” Other STEM representatives at the event included Senior Ben Swanson, the president of Roosevelt’s robotic club, and Zach New, a Roosevelt grad from 2012. Karl Ruff, the technology teacher at Roosevelt, took time to look back at all of the STEM programs accomplishments at RHS.

The STEM program will have a place at Roosevelt for many years to come, as the SME (Society of Manufacturing Engineers) assigned the school as a PRIME location for providing advanced manufacturing and STEM education. Over the summer, Roosevelt will also hold a PLW Gateway academy for interested middle school students. The program has proven its worth as a potential career builder. “The STEM program here at Roosevelt has changed my plans for college so much, in a completely positive way. Once I took one class, I knew I wanted to go into a technology major, and that opened a doorway to tons of new opportunities for me,” Sutton said. “Not only did I figure out what major I want to pursue in college -aerospace engineering- but I also have a full year of preparatory classes for my intended major under my belt already. It’s nice to know that I got a head start for college.”