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player ready...During a recent tour of Abbott Laboratories in North Chicago, area high school students learned about a test not yet available to the public that uses two drops of blood to determine in seconds whether someone has a concussion rather than waiting up to three days for the results.
The 36 students in the group were participants in U.S. Rep. Brad Schneider’s, D-Highland Park, 8-year-old 10th District STEAM Scholars program that exposes high school sophomores and juniors to area firms that offer careers in science, technology, engineering and math, with an appreciation of art.
During the group’s first visit of the school year in December, the scholars toured Abbott where Evelyn White, a Grayslake Central High School sophomore, got a glimpse of a procedure the company is testing.
“With two drops of blood you can screen for a concussion by the brain tissue in the bloodstream,” White said. “In 15 seconds, you get the results. It’s pretty amazing.”
The STEAM Scholars talked about their experiences during their second visit of the program on Jan. 27 at the Lake County Health Department’s Libertyville location, experiencing firsthand how the organization deals with health issues, from disease to water quality.
Ari Botbol, the outreach director in Schneider’s Lincolnshire office, said 65 students applied for the program this year and 36 were accepted from 14 high schools around the 10th Congressional District in Lake, Cook and McHenry counties.
With two outings complete, she said the participants will tour Underwriter Laboratories in Northbrook and Scott Forge, a maker of aerospace parts, in Spring Grove. They are also forming relationships with each other.
“We reach out to a lot of companies we think the students will find engaging,” Botbol said. “It’s very competitive to be accepted. They are all top students. After they go to college and do an internship or two, they will know they can find a job in the district they grew up in.”
Learning from professionals, whether scientists in a laboratory or engineers in a factory, she said the program gives participants an opportunity to learn how to apply the knowledge they gain at school.
“It gives them an opportunity to meet with people in the field,” Botbol said. “They learn what they need to study to reach their career goals.”
During the tour of the health department, scientists and medical professionals not only told the students what they were doing, but gave them an idea of how they attained their position along with ideas of what to study.
Jobs may come sooner for some. Katherine Anen, a Carmel Catholic High School sophomore from Gurnee, said they learned at Abbott about a summer job program for high school girls in STEM fields.
Mike Adam, the deputy director of environmental health at the health department, told the group that summer internships are available there as well. He encouraged them to apply.
With the country’s leadership and the success of its workers in the world dependent on STEM fields “with an appreciation of art,” Schneider said he started the program in 2018 to expose students to “careers of the future.” Some are already there.
“Many former scholars have gone on to pursue degrees in STEAM,” Schneider said. “I have no doubt they will be the next revolutionary researchers, scientists and thinkers that will make our nation and world a better, healthier, greener and safer place for future generations.”
Shivaani Sivaraman, an Adlai E. Stevenson High School sophomore, said she already has a passion for science and technology. She hopes to better understand the engineering aspects of STEAM through the program.
“Today I learned how it took 72 hours to test (a person) for E.coli, and now it can be done in 18 to 24 hours,” Sivaraman said.
Amritha Praveen, another Stevenson sophomore, said she has developed an understanding of STEM in the classroom. She joined the STEAM Scholars to learn more about practical applications.
“Here we see how to apply it to career options,” Praveen said.
People like University of Illinois freshman bioengineering major and former STEAM Scholar Sydney Kirages said in an email the program confirmed her desire to pursue a possible medical career. She also learned something political from Schneider.
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“The Steam Scholars program not only gave me practical and real exposure to the variety of roles that fall within the STEAM areas, it prompted me to take an active role in shaping our country and showed me that age is not a factor when it comes to making the world a better place,” she said.