San Francisco Students Participate in STEM Career Awareness Day

A consortium of businesses, schools and governments in the San Francisco Bay Area held the second annual STEM Career Awareness Day March 15. The goal was to encourage high school students to pursue college degrees and, eventually, careers in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).

More than 100 students from three San Francisco Unified School District high schools participated in the event that started out the day at the Rutter Center on the Mission Bay campus of the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF). They then visited a number of businesses in the San Francisco area where they received tours and had discussions with scientists and engineers.

Among the companies that participated were:

  • Bayer;
  • FibroGen;
  • OtherLab;
  • Splunk;
  • Discovery Digital;
  • The EcoCenter at Heron's Head Park;
  • PG&E;
  • TechShop;
  • Adobe;
  • Illumina; and
  • PUC Southeast Wastewater Treatment Plant.

Bayer, which is the Bay Area's third largest biotech employer, was the primary sponsor of the event that was organized as part of UCSF's Science and Health Education Partnership with the school district.

The program is in response to a 2014 report from the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics that found, while STEM unemployment is low — 3.1 percent compared to an overall national unemployment rate of 7.4 percent — more than 9 million more STEM jobs will be created by 2022.

"We know that the best investment we can make for our city's future is an investment in our young people," said San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, "and that's why we are laser-focused on making sure our public schools are the best in the nation. This helps to inspire our students to pursue the science and technology careers of the 21st century economy."

About the Author

Michael Hart is a Los Angeles-based freelance writer and the former executive editor of THE Journal.

Featured

  • The First Steps of Establishing Your Cloud Security Strategy

    In this guide, we'll identify some first steps you can take to establish your cloud security strategy. We'll do so by discussing the cloud security impact of individual, concrete actions featured within the CIS Critical Security Controls® (CIS Controls®) and the CIS Benchmarks™.

  • Human Error Remains the Leading Cause of Cloud Data Breaches

    Human error is still one of the biggest threats to cloud security, despite all the technology bells and whistles and alerts and services out there, from multi-factor authentication, to social engineering training, to enterprise-wide integrated cybersecurity platforms, and more.

  • Abstract illustration of a human news reporter interviewing an AI with a microphone

    AI on AI in Education: A Dialogue

    Scholars are doing lots of asking and predicting about the risks and rewards of generative artificial intelligence in school, but has anyone asked the all-knowing chatbots?

  • Pattern of desks with interconnected circles, triangles, and lines

    Classroom Furniture Giveaway Seeks Dream Learning Space Design

    Educators have a chance to design their ideal K-12 learning space in a contest recently announced by classroom furniture manufacturer KI.