Stemming the tide of kids dropping out of science-related fields

The statistics tell the story. 

The United States lags behind several countries worldwide in the proportion of students receiving university degrees in science and engineering fields. Half or more of all first university degrees in Japan and China were in those fields, compared with about one-third in the United States, according to the National Science Foundation.

That’s a trend students and scientists at the Medical University of South Carolina hope to change. 

Part of that happens through events such as the Charleston STEM Festival, which will be held Feb. 11 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Brittlebank Park located off Lockwood Drive.

The STEM Festival (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) will be having its fourth installment this year. The program’s purpose is to encourage children of all ages to develop interests in those fields. The festival features hands-on activities, live performances, interactive demonstrations and family-oriented entertainment centered around the sciences.

The festival will continue to be sponsored by multiple departments of the Medical University of South Carolina. Tara Abbott, marketing and recruitment manager of the South Carolina Clinical & Translational Research Institute (SCTR) at MUSC, says the festival is an incredible opportunity to unveil the unlimited options available to young people, as they discover the many ways in which they can change our world. 

Abbott says SCTR is a gold level sponsor of STEM this year and that the collaboration makes sense for MUSC, given the impact STEM has had in developing a pipeline of prospective researchers and health care providers.  

“The STEM Festival is such an exciting and important event for the collaborative because in one hands-on, fun-filled, family-friendly day, it highlights all the ways in which STEM impacts our daily lives and all the ways in which community members, even as young children, might think about embracing STEM in education or the work force.” 

Lori Ann Ueberroth, a research program coordinator within the Addiction Sciences Division in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, agrees. She says research is the perfect compilation of STEM. “Most people just think of research in terms of the medical components, but research is a melding of multiple disciplines,” she says. 

"We need new ideas from energized young students to carry on the interest in these areas so we can continue to learn, promote, and improve our everyday lives.  The young students of today are our researchers and leaders of the future.” 

Cynthia Wright, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, sees firsthand what an initiative such as STEM does for the Charleston community and graduate students she works with on a daily basis at MUSC.

“I am involved in STEM every day,” says Wright, “I advise and teach the graduate students in our biomedical sciences programs and travel around the country to help undergraduate students learn about graduate school opportunities.”

Wright says multiple MUSC students have also been involved with each STEM festival over the past four years, which has been influential on the children and families who attend. 

“I think it’s great that MUSC is involved in the STEM festival as it is a great venue for our community to know what we do here in research and education,” says Wright. “Graduate and professional students in all of our colleges have been involved in exhibiting at the STEM festival, and it has been a joy to watch them interact with the public and share their love of science and health careers.”

The student body through the MUSC Gives Back Student Volunteer Program annually supports the festival, says Liz Sheridan, student services manager at the MUSC Office of Student Programs and Student Diversity. 

 MUSC graduate students are strong proponents of STEM education, says Sheridan, adding that there will be about 60 students representing MUSC’s six colleges.

The two student leaders are Maggie Bosley, a third-year medical student, and Kevin Hakamiun, a pharmacy student, who are organizing the MUSC students’ involvement in STEM.

Sheridan says STEM is one of the signature outreach community activities for students and two key objectives of her department are encouraging diversity and fostering community outreach. 

“Students provide hands-on demonstrations for K-12 students in the local communities to inspire and demonstrate how STEM-based education helped shape their health care-based career choices,” she says. 

Ueberroth says she’s glad to see MUSC’s participation with the festival as these events can be the catalyst in a student deciding to go into a STEM field. She recalls a quote from former President John F. Kennedy, “‘One person can make a difference, and everyone should try,’ so I try.”