What are you doing to help someone find their way?
Last night, I had the opportunity to attend our local school board meeting and to be part of a presentation for a program titled: Tech Journey. This presentation was to inform our local board of actions that the district had taken over the summer to provide students with the opportunity to explore, in a hands on environment, careers related to technology. This effort was focused on letting 8th grade students have experiences that could impact their education choices and potentially open up opportunities for them to explore career choices. Better yet, the program was focused on providing these opportunities to students who typically don't have a lot of resources available to them on regular basis.
I commend the district administrative staff, the instructors and their technology team for leaning in on this effort and making it happen. Tech Journey was originally envisioned by a team of people in the Des Moines School District, and the Johnston School District was able to work with the original Tech Journey team to construct a similar opportunity for kids within our local district. A win for everyone involved!
So how do I fit into the picture and why was I at the board meeting? Well, for years, I have been working with several of the local high schools. I go in and talk to the students about what it's like to work in technology fields, I work to find volunteers to help the students in programming/security competitions and I work with the administration in helping to define programs that give students an opportunity to explore technology opportunities. I also do this with some of the local colleges and across both high school and college students, I provide internship opportunities when their is a good match between a students experience and opportunities that I have in my teams. Yes, most of these internships go to 2 or 4 year college students, but when the right high school student comes along, we work to see if there is a 'right' fit. My job last night was to support the district staff in the presentation and show the commitment to this particular private/public partnership to help students.
Early this spring, I was contacted by the administration team planning the Tech Journey event and asked to review the curriculum and then to see if I could find the necessary volunteers to work with the students. Working with the team, we refined the standard Tech Journey schedule and curriculum. I was then able to find volunteers within my team to work with the students and explore the following:
- 3D Modeling using SketchUp
- Programming using Scratch
Next year, the district hopes to expand the program to include basic HTML and CSS concepts.
For the 3D modeling, the students all got to use a tool called SketchUp to create Lego like blocks. This took the better part of the morning as they took measurements and then learned how to use SketchUp to create the actual 3D model. The technology team from the district, had setup 3D printers and over the lunch hour then printed each students block. The final test, would the blocks fit together? Why, yes, they did!
The afternoon, was split into 2 different sessions. First the students got to experience Scratch - programming for beginners. They had a lot of fun working to create a game, guided by some of the volunteers, Students were able to work in a casual manner with 1-on-1 interaction with the volunteers. The 2nd part of the afternoon was a Virtual Reality experience.
I can only hope that these young minds walked away from the day with the knowledge that they have the capability to do this type of work. That it is not intimidating.
I know that my team had a lot of fun working with the students that day. Between the different sessions we had Sphero competitions between the students and the volunteers and at the end of the day, everyone was able to partake in a Virtual Reality experience. I gotta say, the technology available to students these days is impressive! My team is now asking to get VR equipment - not sure how I justify that!
So, why am I writing about this? A couple of reasons come to mind.
First, all of us have a responsibility to find a way to help the next generation take their first steps. I'm truly passionate about working with students across middle school, high school and college to show them what opportunities exist and why they should be interested in pursuing careers in technology. I want to share my experiences, as a way to show to others that there is not a large investment of time, and that the rewards far outweigh the time spent volunteering.
Second, I want to encourage my peers to find a way to help students explore these careers. We all know there is a shortage of talented team members in the technology field - I don't care which field, there is a shortage and it is going to get worse before it gets better. We need to find ways to let young women and young men know that they can succeed in this field. If only one of you reads this article and then finds a way to volunteer to help a group of students or an individual student explore technology as a career choice, then I'll call it a success.
Maybe it's your own student, maybe you find a day to volunteer at your local school, maybe you help a group of students compete in a technology challenge. Only you know what you're capable of and what time you have available to help these students. Find a way! Be a part of something bigger than the day to day grind!
If you'd like more information on my background: LinkedIn Profile
There is a lot of talk across the nation in promoting STEM careers with our younger students. This continues to be an issue that we need to address. More jobs continue to open up within these fields and that trend will only accelerate as the Baby Boomers retire.
Take a quick look at the number of job openings that are expected thru 2022: BLS: Occupational Outlook Quarterly. Let's review the top jobs identified in this report (as of Spring 2014):
- Software Developers - 218,500 openings thru 2022, average wage $92,660
- Computer Systems Analysts - 209,600 openings thru 2022, average wage $81,190
Computer User Support Specialist - 196,900 openings thru 2022, average wage $46,620- Software Developers, System Software - 134,700 openings thru 2022, average wage $101,410
- Civil Engineers - 120,100 openings thru 2022, average wage $80,770
You know what, those are pretty good wages! I recognize that these are not the starting wages, that said, you can see that overall, these are jobs that will be in demand. Students entering into these jobs should see wage increases that will allow them to earn a decent living.
My focus in this post will be careers in Computer Science. While other STEM careers are critical - I'll focus on those that I'm most familiar with, those that have powered my careeer.
Unfortunately, here in the States, we are doing a very poor job of educating our students about what opportunities are available and are not focusing our curriculum to encourage young students to explore the career choices.
Only 1 in 10 of our high schools offer computer science programs for their students (as identified by TEALS). That is a scary statistic - if 9 out of 10 schools can not provide early experiences to students that might be interested in Computer Science, how are we expecting these students to make the choice to pursue degrees in Computer Science. More importantly, if it is this bad at the high school level - what do you think it looks like at the middle school level.
I firmly believe that if we don't find a way that allows middle school students a way to explore these careers early and then do not reinforce that through high school experiences, that we are failing the next generation. More importantly, we are putting the future of our companies at risk.
So, here are my ideas of what needs to be done:
- Our local school boards need to find a way to introduce computer science curriculum into all middle schools. These courses need to count as math or science credits.
- We need to specifically find ways to encourage both young men and women to take these courses.
- Our local school boards need to find a way to introduce computer science curriculum into all high schools. These courses need to count as math or science credits.
- Alternately, some states are declaring that computer language courses would count as foreign language credits.
- Our states need to fund the expansion of STEM exploratory courses at both the middle and high school levels.
- Businesses need to step up and provide volunteers to go into the schools and assist students as they explore STEM careers. Some of this is being done through initiatives like Lego League, but we need to find these types of programs and make them available to every school, every year.
- Businesses need to open up and hire more entry level technology students. I have seen the tide shift to where many companies now only want to hire people with several years of experience. They no longer want to hire newly graduated students and mentor them into the next generation of experts within their company. Or they only want to contract and rotate people in and out every 18 months. That may work for their bottom line today, but it destroys the expertise that they will need when current subject matter experts retire.
And, yes, before you ask, I'm holding myself accountable. For years, I have taken time to regularly talk to high school and college students about career opportunities and what life is like working within the Computer Science field - specifically software engineering. I have volunteered to assist as schools present various tech initiatives for their students.
If those of us in this field don't take the time to encourage the next generation to step up and become the future technology experts, who will? If we don't take the time to encourage our schools to address the educational needs that will drive job opportunities, who will? If we don't take the time to personally lobby/communicate with our state leaders on the need to drive change in this area, who will?
If you'd like more information on my background: LinkedIn Profile
I spend quite a bit of time visiting with college age students in the Des Moines Metro area and I get quite a few questions from them asking why they should stay in the area after they graduate. My reply - there has never been a better time to be young and working in the Des Moines Metro area. Let's look at some of the recognition received by the metro area in just the last couple of years.
Some of the awards received in 2013:
Some of the awards received in 2012:
That's a lot of awards, and there are more that I didn't include in the list. This speaks to a strong, vibrant economy that provides great opportunities to young individuals looking to enter the professional work force. You can find start-ups, thriving small business as well as some of the larger financial services and insurance companies in the United States. There are successful small business incubators helping to build businesses around ideas.
On top of the professional opportunities, the communities provide abundant recreational opportunities for people of all ages. Sports and concerts at the Wells Fargo Center; Hockey; trail systems that connect all of the communities in the metro area; mountain bike trails; the Iowa Speedway located less than an hour from the metro-area; the Des Moines Theatre; the Des Moines Performing Arts.
I challenge each of these students to find something that they love and turn it in to a career!
Tags:Community; Location; Des Moines; Students;
For more information on David L. Collison: LinkedIn Profile
