2021 CompuPower SVE
As the school year comes to a close, CompuPower is proud to announce a successful, engaging, and informative student conference as the culminating event for our 2020-21 CompuPower students. The Summer Virtual Experience (SVE) was held as a virtual professional conference with swag bags upon registration and all! Students, teachers, and parents were invited to attend the event where they could interact with Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) industry professionals and hear about various career possibilities.
In a year of no field trips, mostly remote learning, and a lot of unknowns, the student conference was a way of connecting the partnering high schools together in a way that they couldn't otherwise. Throughout three days of the SVE, students went on a virtual tour of ASU’s Tempe Campus, participated in STEM presentations from a variety of fields, and presented their final coalition projects to judges and to other CompuPower schools.
The conference began with an introduction by our fearless leader, Dr. Kimberly Scott, before they headed off on their virtual tour of the ASU campus. Thanks to the Devils’ Advocates, not only did they see campus highlights, they saw the surrounding attractions like Tempe Town Lake and A Mountain. Later, they also had an opportunity to ask graduating Barrett Scholars questions about everyday life as an undergraduate, not only at ASU, but within those STEM majors. As one student put it "I enjoyed being able to learn about the different experiences that Molly and Rachel had when they were in college as well as the obstacles they faced and how they overcame those obstacles". Before the night was over, students joined our game night session where we played games and got a chance to interact with their CompuPower cohort outside of the structured school day.
Day two was full of energizers and industry professional breakout sessions where students were able to attend presentations about cybersecurity, earth and space exploration, pathology, aerospace engineering, physics demonstrations, and ASU’s BioDesign Institute. Thru feedback, it seemed that the two favorite sessions the students participated in were cybersecurity with Jon Ownby at Cyber.org and a Physics demonstration, The Ultimate Science, with Don Balanzat. Below are some of the wonderful things students had to say about those sessions.
Cybersecurity session:
It was really funny, I really liked the fact that they were demonstrating what they were talking about.
It was fun, engaging, and informational.
It's crazy seeing all hackers can do behind the scenes.
Physics:
I enjoyed everything, I thought it was pretty cool. It was like magic.
I loved this session, it was my favorite one of the day. It was fun and engaging because not only did he make jokes but he also did cool demonstrations.
Additionally, the students were introduced to Outcast Theatre Collective, the intersection of art and social justice. They had a fun-filled session with Outcast where they engaged in games where they moved our bodies and interacted with one another in unique ways. One student noted that "It gave me a chance to think on my feet as well as get out of my comfort zone."
Our student conference ended on the third day after students from partnering schools presented their coalition projects, showcasing the hard work they put in over this school year. Accolades were given to those coalition teams who went above and beyond to promote social justice within their own communities.
We are so thrilled the conference was a hit among the students, teachers, presenters and CGEST staff and especially appreciate the teamwork to make it happen! This was a wonderful way to finish off the school year and even though we could not be in person this year, the students were all truly engaged throughout the entire experience and so was I. I look forward to being able to reproduce these types of experiences for future CompuPower cohorts and will certainly enjoy the day they can be in person once more!
To learn more about the CompuPower program visit cgest.asu.edu/compupower.
Written by:
Elaine Arrieta
Education Outreach Specialist
