High school students produce STEM fair for foster, underserved youth

Team Growing the Genius Generation, one of four teams within the Ford Dream Builders Leadership program for high school students, is making sure to live up to its name with its project to benefit the Bakersfield community.

The team made up of eight students saw its project grow over the past four months. What started out as a Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics Fair for foster youth of the Bakersfield Angels has expanded.

The STEM fair, which takes place from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday at St. John’s Lutheran Church parking lot and event center, will also include underserved youth. The students of Team Growing the Genius Generation also reached out to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Kern County because they wanted more young students to benefit from STEM.

The fair will feature various STEM clubs from local high schools, as well as STEM booths, some interactive, from Cal State Bakersfield and local businesses. State Sen. Shannon Grove, R-Bakersfield, Bakersfield Mayor Karen Goh, Bakersfield City Councilman Eric Arias and Bakersfield Angels Executive Director Allison McClain are scheduled to appear to support the event.

“We saw how great this event would be and how much there was to show, so we decided to include the Boys & Girls Club,” said Sophia Truong, a senior at Stockdale High, where she is Associated Student Body vice president and captain of the swim team. “We just wanted to expose all the different opportunities that we have here in the community. I really like the diversity of how many different vendors we’ve been able to get.”

The Ford Dream Builders Leadership program, run by the Jim Burke Education Foundation, is an organization that selects top Kern County high school students for an opportunity to develop community service projects to benefit a need in the Bakersfield area.

Team Growing the Genius Generation, sponsored by Bank of the Sierra, also includes Ridgeview’s Kaitlyn Corral, Garces Memorial’s Randall Giumarra, Bakersfield’s Elijah Gonzales, Bakersfield Christian’s Erica Nassar, Frontier’s Nyana Rivas and Liberty’s Alex Soriano and Aiden Young.

Young, Liberty’s ASB president who also plays tennis for the Patriots, said STEM resonates with him because he wants to study computer science in college.

“I’ve always had this drive for making the world better through technology,” Young said. “I love learning about technology and how it affects our world and how we live. … This event provides an eye-opener for these kids to see how they can apply what they love at their schools and beyond.”

Truong said she is excited to help set up booths and show STEM opportunities to the young students who will be at the fair.

The team has the opportunity “to show them that they can pursue whatever they like to do no matter their type of background or their situation,” she said. “It’s going to be a really fun day for people to be exposed to STEM and see what it all entails.”