On Friday, April 8, Smith STEM Academy hosted a Mentor Exhibition for its kindergarten through second-grade students in preparation for their Living Career Showcase.
More than 20 booths of local community members were featured, speaking with students about their STEM careers and their experiences being in the STEM field. Students from the Career and Technology Institute (CTI) also shared their experiences learning in their various STEM career paths.
Employers such as Civil Corp, The City of Victoria, the University of Houston-Victoria (UHV), Victoria Dentistry, Cantu Custom Homes, Edward Jones and Invista Wetlands came out to educate students.
“Our STEM Mentor Exhibition is about giving students the exposure they need in order to set a path for a STEM pathway,” said Tiffany Absher, Principal at Smith STEM Academy. “We want to help our students set goals for their future and show them that their dreams are possible and attainable. It’s been great to see our community rally together to support our future STEM leaders.”
Students were able to learn about the everyday work in Engineering, Land Surveying, Waste Management, Welding, Oil and Gas industry, Finance, Plumbing, Cosmetology and Emergency Services.
“It is super rewarding to be able to share some of what we do around the city to take care of our environment with these students,” said Christy Youker, City of Victoria Environmental Services. “We are happy to be a part of this event to get students even more excited about going into these fields.”
VISD’s own Career and Technology Institute (CTI) had students from the Law Enforcement, Health Science, Welding, and Cosmetology career paths present to the younger generation of students.
Fresh off their wins at SkillsUSA, CTI cosmetology students Jordan Delagarza, junior at Victoria West High School and Mallory Ozuna, junior at Victoria East High School, shared their thoughts on being at the Mentor Exhibition. “I wish we’d had this experience that we’re able to give these kids when we were younger,” said Delagarza. Ozuna stated, “For these kids to be able to learn so young that it is possible to chase your dreams, it is possible to do anything you want in high school as long as you keep working hard and never give up, it’s truly amazing.”
The Mentor Exhibition was the first step in Smith STEM Academy’s project, the Living Career Showcase. Now that students have had the opportunity to be exposed to various STEM careers, they get to choose one and will research everything within that career, becoming the “expert” in that field. Students will present their projects in a showcase at Smith STEM Academy on April 29, 2022.