On Wednesday, August 12, high school students, parents, Heights Philadelphia staff and mentors, including College of Engineering faculty members, gathered to celebrate the end of another successful summer of Temple + Heights STEM and American Chemical Society Project SEED programs.

For the fifth summer in a row, College of Engineering faculty, in partnership with Heights Philadelphia (previously Steppingstone Scholars), hosted Philadelphia high school students in their labs for a six-week research internship program. Heights students completed hands-on research projects, culminating in a final presentation at the end of the summer.

"Early authentic experience like this has been shown to be very important for growing interest and later persistence in challenging STEM majors," said Jeremy Heyman, director of STEM pathways at Heights Philadelphia. "Students develop important technical/lab skills, further their academic skills, strengthen their communication skills, and build work readiness skills as well. Further more, students build their confidence and networks seeing themselves on a college campus, helping them see that they belong. All of this really gives them a head start and leg up for their next steps."

Alongside faculty members, current engineering graduate and undergraduate students served as mentors, guiding Heights students through their assigned projects, with some students even completing undergraduate-level work.

Electrical and computer engineering students Shahzad Khan and Richard Lin supported Heights students in Professor and Associate Dean for Research, Graduate Studies and Faculty Affairs Li Bai's Computer Fusion Lab. Lin and Khan both felt that the impact of this program was mutual and hope to see students continue with STEM.

"I always like to say the best way to learn something is by teaching it to another person. Working on our project with them got me inspired to go deeper in machine learning and how that technology works so that I would be able to explain that concept," said Khan.

"It was a wonderful experience working with the Heights students," said Lin. "I hope they had fun and learned a lot along the way. I'm also hoping they can continue to explore and pursue engineering in the future."

Heights students who have completed the program in past years have mostly gone on to pursue STEM in college, some even enrolling at Temple.

"This program is a powerful example of Temple Engineering's ability to create place-based impact," said Cory Budischak, associate dean for undergraduate affairs. "Through the connection of Philadelphia students with research experiences, mentors, and an on-campus experience, this program expands access to STEM pathways while simultaneously strengthening the future talent pipeline for our city."

With a sixth consecutive summer on the horizon, the College of Engineering and Heights Philadelphia look forward to continuing their partnership as they work to empower Philadelphia youth in their pursuit of STEM.