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Junior Achievement High school students learn first-hand about real problems engineers tasked to solve
He says the biggest reward is seeing the students enjoy solving problems and finding out what they think about a future career in engineering. “I had one student tell me that she’d learned a lot during the event about the different types of engineering fields out there and how she sees herself capable of pursuing a career of her own in engineering. That’s great to hear and to know that I’ve helped contribute to that enthusiasm in some way,” says Slack. Patricia Woolridge is the executive director of Junior Achievement of Southeast Texas and says their mission is to inspire young people to succeed in a global economy. “We appreciate ExxonMobil for its strong volunteer pool. You can always identify an ExxonMobil employee simply by looking at how they engage with the students and share their passion for what they do. They are involved in almost every event we do, and you can tell that they genuinely want to be there. The students truly appreciate that,” says Wooldridge.
It wasn’t a typical day at school for the nearly 200 high school students who attended the Junior Achievement event at the Beaumont Event Center in February. Students were selected by their teachers from ten different schools in the Golden Triangle area to attend and learn more about the engineering field from real engineers. About 70 engineers from 19 different companies worked with small groups of students to complete science demonstrations and share their experiences working day-to-day in the engineering field. “This was my first time volunteering for this particular event but I’ve volunteered at other Junior Achievement and United Way events,” says Cullen Duke. Duke works as a facilities planning engineer at the Beaumont chemical plant. He finds it rewarding to share with students his passion for chemistry and insights on how to use science and math to solve problems. “Today, my colleagues and I performed a series of chemistry experiments showcasing the principles that we as chemical engineers deal with on a daily basis. After the experiments, we discussed how we use theoretical knowledge about these scientific principles to solve problems in our day-to-day jobs,” says Duke. Steve Slack is an engineer at the Beaumont chemical plant and has volunteered at the event several times.
Steven Slack helps students build a tower using STEM principles.
“It’s great to know you’ve helped a student get excited about engineering, “ says Slack.
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