Bridge Programs
This summer, NOVA SySTEMic conducted 4 bridge programs for rising and graduating high school students interested in pursuing further education in an IET discipline.
2 of the programs centered around Engineering Technology and 2 were focused on Information Technology.
In the Engineering Technology program, students spent two days onsite at data center partner Stack Infrastructure, visited Micron Technologies, and learned the basics of industrial process controls.
In the Information Technology program, students learned to assemble a desktop computer, trained a simple generative AI, and conducted cybersecurity exercises in the Virginia Cyber Range. In total, 57 students participated in the bridge programs, earning credit for SDV 101: College Success Skills.
STEM Camps
This year’s STEM Camp enrollments were the highest since 2019. Among our 26 camp sessions, including robotics, coding, cybersecurity, fabrication, rocketry, and more, we totaled 508 registrations and 454 participants.
Fabrication, cybersecurity, and rocketry camps sold out completely and 10% of camp participants took 2 or more camps. We continually strive to engage more girls in STEM and our fabrication camps averaged 65/35 male to female ratio while our STEM elementary camp held a 67/33 ratio.
When asked about the camp experience, one parent said about their child: “He’s been wanting to explore coding for a long time. He was slightly intimidated by the circuitry of the raspberry pi and arduino, but is also anxious to learn more about them now. This is EXACTLY what I was hoping for!!! This camp was AMAZING and we can’t wait to attend more next summer.”
Another parent reflected “What a great group of kids and counselors. I especially loved that you invited parents to come watch. Everything was so positive and encouraging and I really enjoyed the positive environment while kids explored new things.”
We’re looking forward to next year’s camps already. Registration will be available in January 2024.