With virtual reality headsets, whirring robots, and an entire semi-truck powered by electricity, the courtyard at View Ridge Middle School was filled with excitement everywhere you turned. Students’ eyes widened as they saw all the possibilities in front of them—every single display attached to a potential career in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics).
\r\nThe STEM Career Fair at View Ridge hosted more than 20 companies, agencies, and groups ready to share information about what they do and how students can prepare for careers in their fields. “We asked a lot of companies to participate, thinking some wouldn’t be able to come,” STEM teacher Tylor Hankins said, “but every single one of them said yes. It’s a great chance for students to see new opportunities that they might not have considered before.”\r\n
\r\nWalking along the courtyard, students were in action at every station: testing water with a turbidimeter at Maul Foster Alongi, trying on virtual reality (immersing yourself in the virtual world) and augmented reality (bringing digital objects into the real world) headsets with former Microsoft project manager Jesse McCulloch, and welding metal studs with Alpha Iron and AIG. Kids marked a passport as they visited each station, excited at the chance to try all the hands-on displays.\r\n
\r\nClark Public Utilities brought a Van de Graaff generator to create static electricity, where students took photos of each other’s hair standing on end. There was also a model of how the fuel we use in Clark County is generated, with solar, wind, hydroelectric, and natural gas and steam power plants. A hand crank on the side of the model let students turn the crank to create power in each section—but the more fuel sources you added, the harder it got to turn as each series added more load. \r\n
\r\nThere was big equipment on display too: a van emblazoned with graphics for Northwest Laborers Training, a Clark-Cowlitz Fire Rescue hook and ladder truck, and Daimler’s impressive electrical Freightliner semi. Northwest Laborers Training offers union apprenticeships in construction trades that let apprentices earn as they learn. Daimler Truck North America offers paid internships in nearly every department at their cutting-edge facilities in Portland. And Clark-Cowlitz Fire Rescue has an award-winning cadet program that lets high school juniors and seniors train in conjunction with their high school courses. Firefighter/EMT Dan Howell said, “I went through the cadet program myself, so I want to point kids in our direction if they’re thinking about firefighting.”\r\n
\r\nThere were careers students might not have thought of as well. Thompson Metal Fab is a steel fabricator in Vancouver that was founded in 1937; they have completed numerous heavy civil and industrial projects in the area that posed extreme challenges, including the Sellwood Bridge, the Grant Street Pier, and the tram at OHSU. Alpha Iron and AIG (Alliance Industrial Group) are based here in Ridgefield; not only were they the steel fabricator that erected View Ridge and Sunset Ridge schools, they also have one of only five large-scale welding robots in the entire U.S. \r\n
\r\nAs impressed as the students were with all of the potential career options, the presenters were equally impressed with the school and the students. Engineer Gillian Watson is part of Women in Kiewit, part of Kiewit Construction Company that focuses on promoting women in STEM. Before speaking with students about their specialized work engineering bridges and marine work, they had the chance to tour View Ridge’s STEM labs. \r\n
\r\n“We were amazed at how advanced this school is; we couldn’t have even dreamed of something like those labs when we were kids,” Watson said, the other engineers around her nodding. “It’s exciting and inspiring, knowing that they are getting to learn there. It just reaffirms what we’re doing here today. There are so many options for them, and no limits to what they can do.”
