STEM career expo at Fermilab attracts hundreds of students
![](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/web/20121010065324im_/http://www.fnal.gov/pub/today/images10/10-0129-09DSTEMCareerfair-s.jpg) |
Local high school students speak to a career professional at the April 8 STEM Career Expo, held at Fermilab. |
Hundreds of students from Kane and DuPage counties flocked to Fermilab on April 8 for the third annual Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Career Expo.
Organized by the Fermilab Education Office and career specialists from Kane and DuPage county schools, the event offered students a chance to learn about potential directions for their future. The third annual event attracted between 600 and 700 high school students, up from 500 last year.
"We find it encouraging that we see more students wanting to come to this opportunity," said Fermilab Education Office's Susan Dahl, who helped to organize the event. "Some came with ideas of a few different careers. This helped them take some of those ideas off and put many more on."
The event helped broaden the possible career options for Tim Nickels, a senior at St. Charles North High School.
Bartlett High School academy sophomores Purva Khare, Charisma Dalvi and Marianne Palczewski, attended the expo to explore future career options. The school has a job-shadowing requirement for the students their junior year and the girls were considering shadowing scientists. The girls spoke with a handful of scientists and professionals, including Fermilab physicist Doug Glenzinski.
They were among a few dozen students Glenzinski spoke with that night. He volunteered to help with the event this year as a way to reach out to the next generation of scientists.
Susan Gloss, a career specialist for the St. Charles High School District, helped to organize the event. "It was successful right from the start," she said. Gloss said that financial constraints almost prevented the event from taking place this year, but she is really glad it did.
"It is fabulous that Fermilab is able to host an event like this in a collaborative environment. In these economic times, schools aren't always able to support exploration like this," Dahl said.
-- Rhianna Wisniewski
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