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NATICK, Mass. – Could a rewarding career in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, be their DESTINY? That’s what local female high school students came to find out at the Discover Engineering, Science, Technology in You, or DESTINY, event hosted recently by the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Soldier Center, or DEVCOM SC.

During the event, local female high school students learned about STEM career opportunities, internships, and scholarships. Students also learned about DEVCOM SC’s work to optimize Soldier performance and to provide warfighters with the very best products and solutions that science and technology can offer.

DESTINY provided students the opportunity to interact with mechanical engineers, physical scientists, biologists, materials engineers, food scientists, textile technologists, clothing designers, electrical engineers, and chemical engineers from DEVCOM SC and DEVCOM SC’s frequent research partner, the U.S. Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine, or USARIEM.

DEVCOM SC’s Yoojeong Kim, Ph.D., and Brady Loomer conceptualized and executed the event. Kim serves as the lead for DEVCOM SC’s Innovation and Outreach Team, and Loomer serves as DEVCOM SC’s STEM lead coordinator.

Kim emphasized that providing young female students with the opportunity to meet women working in STEM is important, because it helps female students to better envision themselves working in STEM fields and to become more aware of their career possibilities.

“Despite higher enrollments of young women in colleges compared to young men in recent years, there remains a significant disparity in obtaining undergraduate STEM degrees between genders, particularly in fields of engineering and computer science,” said Kim. “Therefore, it is important to proactively engage with female high school students while they are deciding what career path to take. By providing exposure to female STEM professionals and their career trajectories, we can encourage and inspire female high school students to consider and pursue careers in STEM fields.”

Brady noted that “direct engagement with real STEM professionals is one of the key pieces to getting students interested in STEM careers.” He explained that this type of engagement has an even greater impact on groups that are underrepresented in the STEM fields, including women.

“An event like DESTINY allows young female students to see how other women have been successful pursuing a STEM career,” said Loomer. “They can learn about backgrounds, skills, life experiences, or anything else that might have guided the women at the event on their career path.”

The event was part of the DEVCOM SC’s ongoing dedication to STEM outreach.

“The DESTINY event provided an excellent opportunity to emphasize both our commitment to STEM outreach and to fostering diversity in our workforce,” said Jaclyn Fontecchio, deputy director of DEVCOM SC. “We are committed to educating young women about STEM career possibilities. Our excellent mentors provide inspiration and encouragement to young women considering careers in our workforce. DEVCOM SC benefits from these interactions as well. Young people are our future and serve to reinvigorate our organization.”

The event was a welcoming environment for young women to learn about real-world career opportunities in STEM.

“The DESTINY event was a great opportunity for young women to understand the options available for them in STEM fields,” said Stephanie Brown, deputy to the associate director in DEVCOM SC’s Soldier Protection Directorate. “Young students are learning basic math and sciences, and they have a hard time connecting those skills to real-life applications and career paths. Events like these provide them some of the linkages between their basic STEM areas of interest and real hands-on applications.”

Personal interaction between the students and subject matter experts played an important role in promoting student engagement.

“The young women who participated in the recent DESTINY event were very interested in our science and engineering products, but also were engaged with me on the path I took to get to where I am today,” said Brown. “They were interested in understanding when and how I knew what I wanted to do with my life. The event provided that interactive platform for the students to feel comfortable asking those targeted questions and get real answers that were specific and personal.”

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About DEVCOM Soldier Center: The DEVCOM Soldier Center is committed to discovering, developing, and advancing science and technology solutions that ensure America’s warfighters are optimized, protected, and lethal. DEVCOM Soldier Center supports all of the Army’s Modernization efforts, with the Soldier Lethality and Synthetic Training Environment Cross Functional Teams being the DEVCOM Soldier Center’s chief areas of focus. The center’s science and engineering expertise are combined with collaborations with industry, DOD, and academia to advance Soldier and squad performance. The center supports the Army as it transforms from being adaptive to driving innovation to support a Multi-Domain Operations Capable Force of 2028 and a MDO Ready Force of 2035. DEVCOM Soldier Center is constantly working to strengthen Soldiers’ performance to increase readiness and support for warfighters who are organized, trained, and equipped for prompt and sustainable ground combat.

STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) outreach and mentoring the next generation of scientists and engineers are also an important part of the mission of DEVCOM Soldier Center. The mentoring of students by Army scientists and engineers benefits the students and their communities. It also increases young people’s awareness of potential Army job opportunities and helps provide the Army with potential new talent, helping to fuel innovative ideas that benefit the nation’s warfighters and the nation as a whole.

DEVCOM Soldier Center is part of DEVCOM. Through collaboration across the command’s core technical competencies, DEVCOM leads in the discovery, development and delivery of the technology-based capabilities required to make Soldiers more lethal to win our nation’s wars and come home safely. DEVCOM is a major subordinate command of the U.S. Army Futures Command.

By Jane Benson, DEVCOM Soldier Center Public Affairs