Four Central New York Students received Scholarships to follow education in STEM fields…right at a time when a recent study shows how valuable Science, Technology, Engineering and Math can be.
The Brookings Institution study finds many more employers value the STEM fields…and in Syracuse about 52-thousand jobs depend on them. Brookings Fellow Jonathan Rothwell says a ‘hidden’ part of the STEM economy is the segment that’s more accessible.
The most prominent Stem jobs, many of them require an Associate’s Degree or less, for example registered nurses, the blue collar trades or craft jobs, many of which are prevalent in the Syracuse metropolitan area, jobs like computer numerically-controlled machine-tool programmer. So Community Colleges have a huge role to play here, but they could do more in terms of partnering with industries.
The Brookings study also found STEM job fields in Syracuse paid an average of 65-thosuand dollars-a-year, while non-STEM jobs averages 38-thousand.
East Syracuse-Minoa Senior John Drogo (DROH-go) is ready to benefit. He received a scholarship from S-R-C and Partners for Business and Education to go to R-P-I.
If you think about core disciplines that you’re gong to need in the STEM fields, chemistry, mathematics, a lot of kids think of these as boring and tedious. If you think about it, there’s not much difference between a kid building with Legos, that joy, that unbridled creativity, and what he can do with an education in those fields.
Other students that received the S-R-C scholarships include Stephanie DeRosa from Skaneateles High, Brody Kellish from Cazenovia and Aaron Lim from C-B-A.
