Whitfield Middle Schoolers Take Part in WWT's National STEM Day

World Wide Technology’s (WWT) Global Community Impact Team invited several schools around the area to attend their National STEM Day celebration on November 10, 2023. A small group of Whitfield middle schoolers spent the day at the WWT world headquarters for this event. After hearing an overview of WWT’s work, students participated in a session on corporate consulting before moving into a day of exploring STEM careers and industries.

Career exploration is especially important for students during early adolescence. For those with existing STEM interests, it provides an outlet for exploration and curiosity. For those without a clear sense of what they want to do in the future, research suggests that career exploration can have its greatest impact when emphasized during the middle school years. 

Whitfield students chose to explore infrastructure, coding and debugging, web development, social media management, cyber security, and software development during their time on WWT’s campus. Students spoke highly of the hands-on nature of the break-out sessions. “The second breakout room was my favorite,” shared Paityn Blocker ‘28. “It was very hands on. We had to find all the bugs on a website during a debugging activity. It was really fun.” Cade Prichard ‘28 enjoyed the cybersecurity session, “We got to dig into things like two-factor authentication and data breaches. It was cool to see how all that works.” Sophia Brown ‘29 shared, “I always wanted to be a software engineer; this was a great experience.”

Blending skill- and career-based education with Whitfield’s Habits of Mind and Heart is especially relevant to the future of work, not just for Whitfield students but for those they lead, work with, and support down the line. Families are encouraged to continue the conversation at home using some of the discussion prompts below:

• What is the link between STEM exploration and diversity, inclusion, and innovation?
• How might the ability to understand and work with others benefit you in the future?
• What communities might you be a part of when you’re older? How might you help them?
• If someone starts a job but doesn’t feel valued or included, how might that impact them as a person? How might it impact the business as a whole?