High school students meet with STEM professionals at Fermilab’s annual STEM Career Expo. Photo: Reidar Hahn
How does one go about becoming a scientist? What courses in college will help you become a mechanical engineer? What opportunities are available for math majors? What is the daily life of a computer technician really like?
On Wednesday, April 17, from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m., the U.S. Department of Energy’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory will offer high school students a valuable opportunity to ask those questions in person. The annual Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Career Expo, held in the atrium of Wilson Hall, will put those students face to face with people actually doing the jobs they will be applying for in the coming years.
In addition to Fermilab scientists and engineers, the STEM Career Expo will feature more than 100 professionals from more than 30 local companies and research organizations who will be on hand to explain what they do. But this is not a college or job fair, and is not about recruiting, according to organizer Susan Dahl of the Fermilab Office of Education and Public Outreach.
Rather, she said, this is a chance for students to talk one-on-one with professionals working in their fields of interest. The expo will also include five panel discussions on STEM-related topics, with an opportunity for students to ask questions.
“We hope students come away with a new view of the possibilities of finding careers in these fascinating fields and a more realistic idea of the individuals working in these very relevant and fascinating jobs,” Dahl said.
The STEM Career Expo is free and open to all high school students. The expo is a collaborative event organized by the Fermilab Office of Education and Public Outreach and educators and career specialists from area schools. Sponsors include Fermilab Friends for Science Education, Batavia High School, Geneva Community High School, York High School and Yorkville High School.
For more information, please visit the expo website.
Fermilab is America’s premier national laboratory for particle physics and accelerator research. A U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science laboratory, Fermilab is located near Chicago, Illinois, and operated under contract by the Fermi Research Alliance LLC, a joint partnership between the University of Chicago and the Universities Research Association, Inc. Visit Fermilab’s website at www.fnal.gov and follow us on Twitter at @Fermilab.
The DOE Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit science.energy.gov.