Impact of Summer Camp on Minority High School Students on STEM Career Perceptions

Abstract In today's rapidly evolving technological age, the role and relevance of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education cannot be understated. For the US, the quality and breadth of its STEM education will shape its future role on the global stage, driving innovation and addressing pressing challenges from Artificial Intelligence to climate change resilience, advancing healthcare, agricultural solutions, and others. However, the country lacks active participation from young minds in STEM fields. This problem is particularly true among students who are minorities, economically disadvantaged, or from rural areas due to the existence of multiple barriers. Although numerous summer camps have been employed to some degree of measurable success to facilitate a positive outlook toward STEM career choices for some time, limited studies investigate how such summer camps impact female students from Rural Independent School Districts (R-ISD), especially the ones that are few hours from the country's southern border. Further, summer camps offer students exceptional opportunities to engage in learning experiences, explore advanced technologies, establish meaningful connections with like-minded peers, and better understand future career choices. Therefore, given the benefits of intervention via summer camps and the lack of research in the identified geographical region, this research aimed to determine the impacts of summer camps developed on a previously published framework to determine if the intervention enhanced the participant's STEM and soft skills, knowledge, future career, and educational choices of female students from R-ISD. The participating students were subjected to a pre-test to determine the baseline at the beginning of the summer camp. A post-test was conducted at regular intervals to measure the summer camp's impacts on the knowledge, future career, and educational choices of participating female students from R-ISD. Both pre and post-tests were conducted online using Qualtrics, as it allowed for quicker data collection and value. The findings indicate a change in the female participant's outlook after the summer camps. Therefore, as the country solidifies its position as a global STEM powerhouse, tapping into the potential of all its citizens is paramount. Our study suggests that targeted interventions, such as summer camps, can play a significant role in this endeavor, particularly for underserved demographics. Keywords: Summer Camp, Minority, High School Students, STEM Career Perceptions