Beckley, W.Va. (WVDN) – For the third year in a row, West Virginia University Institute of Technology (WVU Tech) has been awarded a Health Sciences and Technology Academy (HSTA) grant for 10th grade students. HSTA is a nationally recognized program in West Virginia that serves underrepresented high school students and encourages them to pursue careers in the STEM and health care industries.
With this grant, HSTA teachers will receive training, and students get to attend a camp on WVU Tech’s campus free of charge.
“One special thing about this camp over other camps is that it’s a two-week project. HSTA-sponsored teachers who come to this camp will help run the activities. The first week is just for teachers,” said Nathan Galinsky, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering and Director of STEM camps at WVU Tech.
The second week after the teacher training, students come and stay at WVU Tech for an overnight STEM camp, where they’ll be immersed in what it’s like to be a college student while learning nursing skills, engineering, chemistry, and biology. They also will get to go off campus for activities and bond in the residence halls.
“These are students that don’t have a lot of these opportunities. Many of the students we get, this is their first time being away from home,” Galinsky said. “This gives them the college experience.”
“This camp is a different experience for me personally, just because of the idea that the students come from different backgrounds than the other camps. For example, Camp STEM, everyone has some kind of interest in STEM. You get students that are interested in STEM but it’s usually the medicine aspect of it, not the engineering part, so they don’t have the experience or interactions with the other parts of STEM. Everyone can imagine what a doctor does, but it’s a bit harder to imagine what an engineer or biologist does in their day to day lives. It gives them an opportunity to see what they like and prefer, plus a small campus experience.”
Teacher Week will be July 13-15 and student’s camp will be July 19-24.
For more information on camps at WVU Tech, visit wvutech.edu/camps.
