Students learn about STEM careers at Trine’s ‘Impact Your Future’

Eighty students and seven teachers representing six high schools visited Trine University on Feb. 20 for the “Impact Your Future: Careers in Engineering and Science” event.

The annual event allows high school students to learn about STEM careers and take part in hands-on activities related to science and engineering.

Students were able to pick from multiple activities, including construction of a 3D-printed kinetic prosthetic finger, virtual reality for biomedical engineering, Anatomage virtual dissection, invertebrate analysis, forensic science, food engineering, chemical engineering separations and filtrations and senior design projects.

The event ended with lunch and a tour of Trine’s Angola campus.

Hands-on activities

Autumn, a student from Archbold (Ohio) High School, said she enjoyed the opportunity to gain a different perspective on college and future careers. She plans to attend college and major in neurology or forensic science.

“Today really opened my eyes to a college situation,” she said. “It was really nice to go in and see a college classroom and talk to college professors.”

Sam, a student at Lenawee Christian High School in Michigan, enjoyed being able to make a prosthetic finger.

“It was interesting how many different ways you can go with a single degree,” she said. “In the biomedical engineering piece there were tons of different areas of expertise that you could go into. Today helped me see how many different possibilities there are and how many facilities there are at your disposal, so you’re not tied down to just one thing.”

Several students from Quincy High School enjoyed the experience.

“Today helped me catch a glimpse of what I’m going to do in my college classes,” said Abigail, who wants to go into forensic science. “My favorite part of today was the forensic science part of my first session, getting to take fingerprints and learn more about that.”

Classmate Caleb said his favorite part was learning about chemical engineering.

“They showed us real-world applications that they do with chemical engineering, and we got hands-on experience with a chemical reaction making some ice cream that we got to eat afterward,” he said. “That was pretty sweet.”

“Today gave me an idea of the things I’ll be doing for the next four years of my life and how I’ll be able to implement them into my job afterward. It was a really cool experience.”

Haley, also from Quincy High School, said she enjoyed being able to experience the labs at Trine.

“I liked seeing that we get to do labs and hands-on stuff because I’m a very lab-oriented person,” she said. “I liked the experience of being on campus because I’m excited to go do that myself.”

Experiencing their future

Amanda Malefyt, Ph.D., professor in Trine’s McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering and organizer of the event, said “Impact Your Future” gives high school students who enjoy science and engineering the opportunity to see where those interests could lead.

“In addition to sparking excitement, this event is about showing students how their passions can evolve into college paths that translate to future careers,” she said. “Degrees in engineering and science aren’t one-size-fits-all. That’s what makes them so powerful.”

“Impact Your Future: Careers in Engineering and Science” received funding from a Lilly Endowment grant.