 The thing I like the most is the people. I really like fun to talk to and I really like funny, I like hang out with them. Hi, welcome to Step Up to STEM. This innovative interdisciplinary academic program uses exciting real-world subjects to challenge rising 9th and 10th graders across North Carolina and build their skills in science, math, technology and communications. Step Up to STEM is a great opportunity because it allows students from different places around our state to see themselves as the creators of technology and not just the users of technology to so they can see themselves represented in this field and learn about careers that are available to them and to get to collaborate with people from across the state and work together for a common goal. We're doing a lot of cool stuff about like how like forensic scientists view crime scenes and how like they view it differently from like an ordinary person and even from like a single strand of hair they can find a culprit or anything like that so that's been pretty cool. For this curriculum I decided with the No Justice, No Peace title. I wanted to show students not from just a viewpoint of being a political slogan but also from a scientific point of view. I wanted them to see that we need those key pieces of evidence to solve these crimes, to give peace to families and friends. This has kind of influenced my ideas about STEM because I'm doing a fiber optics course called Focus and Brilliant with Dr. Hubbard and we're learning about things that are really going to affect us in the real world and we're learning about things about the medical field, electricity, wifi and it's cool to see that these are things that I could really use in the future. Our students have been building what we call an optical voice link and essentially they're designing this technology where you have a transmitter with a mic on it and other electrical components and you're able to transmit your voice through a fiber optic cable to a transmitter that has a speaker on the other end and so they're able to use fiber optics to do kind of like a small-scale version of voice communications and so it was a really neat experience for the students and they were able to get a lot of hands-on skills like soldering and being able to learn what some of the different electrical components are. They learned how fiber optic works so refraction and total internal reflection and they were able to put it together into this prototype and the neat thing was it doesn't always work the first time you know you're making mistakes and how you solder things and so the students were really able to kind of thin for themselves and work independently to be able to make a mistake, fix it and then actually see it work. During the program's residential summer institute, students have the opportunity to take advantage of many unique enrichment activities. I think my favorite enrichment was navigating the college process because college is something that I've been worrying about since middle school and it was just nice to hear going in what to expect and what to prepare for and how to prepare for it. Students who are accepted into and complete the program as rising ninth graders are then offered a spot to return for a second summer of programming. It's a lot of fun talking about their lives, about their opinions, about what they do in their culture and it really helps them understand other people a lot more than they would without it. So the fact that NCSSM and stuff of the STEM are considering that even though it's neglected a lot in other areas is amazing. I've been to a STEM camp where I was the only African-American inside the whole entire camp or I was one of two. So that's really what I like about stuff of the STEM is that you see other people and not only just the campers, you see counselors and actual physical teachers who look exactly like you. I think stuff of the STEM is very unique and important and it's focused on underrepresented minorities and one of the things that I have found with working with students is that they value connection and they value communication and they value relevance and so it's not just the theoretical concepts but the big picture of what can I do with this ultimately that can help to make an impact on the world. Families interested in the program must complete the online application and request information from a teacher and school counselor. My husband and I are big believers of STEM emergent programs because it's an opportunity to see it and if you can see it then you can believe it's possible for you. These programs are important because they expose students, they prepare students, they broaden students thoughts. So you know a lot of students are like you know in third grade I thought I wanted to do this but to be able to explore in a forum like this is absolutely amazing. Becoming a senior and about to go to college I'm very excited for the next part of my life. It's all thanks to this camp.