Often overlooked, middle schoolers get their own STEAM job fair to jumpstart their careers

Employers want a future workforce that has STEAM skills.

Yet, Randolph Guschl, executive director of the Delaware Foundation for Science Mathematics and Education (DFSME) and a former DuPonter, sees a lack of STEAM advocacy — that’s science, technology, engineering, art and math — for youth coming from business leaders. At the Breaking into STEAM Fair for middle school students at the Delaware Museum of Nature and Science on Wednesday, Guschl, employers and other advocates from all over the state came together to get kids interested in STEAM careers early.

“Sponsoring an event with your logo up there is okay,” Guschl said, “but is it really impacting anything?” 

While it may be too soon for sixth and seventh graders to fully make a decision about their future careers, finding areas of interest in science and technology can help with selecting high school pathways. That can potentially lead them to becoming the future workforce with STEAM skills employers want.

Tables like Guschl’s, laden with information, demos and the ever-important pile of free stickers, were set up all over the museum, from the PaleoZone to the Bald Cypress Swamp. Companies participating in the hands-on event included DuPont, Agilent, CSC and ChristianaCare.

State parks, local museums, universities and government agencies like DelDOT attended the event, too. Middletown High School presented its pathways of animal science, plant science and natural resource management, complete with live animals that drew a small crowd.

Job opportunities on display included engineering, healthcare, robotics and AI. Software development jobs, which are abundant in the state’s large financial sector, were noticeably absent. Instead, a lot of the careers reflected the area’s lush outdoor spaces — arboriculture at Winterthur, horticulture at Longwood Gardens, naturalist at White Clay Creek State Park and, for students interested in the ocean, NOAA marine debris monitoring scientist.

Exposing kids to STEAM earlier opens up more opportunities 

Middle schoolers are an often-overlooked demographic, but a consensus emerged from the adult participants: Kids need to know what STEAM career opportunities Delaware offers, and they need to know earlier. 

One attendee, recent college graduate Ellen Oordt, got a job in land stewardship at Longwood Gardens after a year-long internship. Oordt came to the fair to share her experience with the kids. She says she knew she wanted to do something related to nature since she was little, though she thought she would work more with animals than plants.

“The first time I was exposed to a title like ecologist, which is kind of what I fall into, was my junior year of high school,” Oordt said. 

Check out photos from the event below: