By Cortney St. John
Round Table editor
From a biochemist to an equine vet and from a firefighter to an oceanographer, Science Technology Engineering Mathematics (STEM) Career Day offered many options for Middletown High School students to explore.
The fourth annual STEM Career Day was held on Nov. 17 to help to the students understand how important high school classes are to future careers.
“I learned that it is never too early to try out a new career and get started on it in high school,” said MHS sophomore Allison Schumacher.
There were a total of 72 speakers and presenters for this year’s STEM Career Day. Each presenter presented an average of three times and about 40 percent were parents of students at MHS.
Among the presenters there were a few presentations from the Career and Technology Center (CTC) in Frederick County.
MHS senior Anthony Castro and MHS junior Kai Huber presented the TV/Multimedia Production class from CTC during STEM Career Day.
“It is creative, fun and you get to accomplish things you never thought you could,” said Castro.
The students who attended the TV/Multimedia Production presentation learned that the three types of production are pre-production, production, and post-production. The students also watched various videos that the CTC students had produced to show them how a video is made.
“Our teacher gives us the criteria for the video, how long it should be, and what should be in the video, and what he doesn’t say is completely up to us,” said Huber.
As a closing activity for their presentation, they had a few people think of three random things and then connect them to create a video idea to see if they had the creativity that is helpful for the class.
Dental hygienist Rajeana Lammers focused most of her presentation on classes to take and how to become a licensed dental hygienist
In her presentation, Lammers said that people interestec in her field could receive a two-year associates degree with one year of core science classes or a four-year bachelor of science with two years of core classes then dental hygiene classes.
“Good classes to take would be biochemistry, nutritional pharmacology, and clinical dental hygiene,” said Lammers.
Lammers also showed the students pictures of the tools she uses for her job and pictures of the different types of teeth issues.
“I learned that you should take very good care of your teeth because we got to see the effects of not taking care of your teeth,” said MHS junior Leah Myers.
Each year the schedule for STEM Career Day is organized differently to “include more and more students each year,” said STEM Career Day organizer Jane Brandt.
MHS sophomore Shelly Holcomb said “all the presenters gave good presentations and interacted with the students.”
“STEM Career Day was fun and enjoyable and I hope they hold it again next year,” said MHS junior Andrew Tsinonis.
