Tech forum has students dreaming big

Tivoli High School student Adrian Creed's desire to become a successful video game designer has been fuelled by his life-long fascination with video games.

Determined to ensure that he is able to realise his dreams, the youngster absorbed as much information as he could during a recent Kids in Tech STEM Forum, which was held at Denham Town High School. The event saw presentations being made by industry experts in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) field.

Creed said he got invaluable lessons from the forum.

"It helped me get more ideas of how to create games and create technologies that can be used to play the games," he told JIS News.

Scores of students from nine high schools in West Kingston were introduced to STEM-related careers during the forum. The one-day event was organised by the Ministry of Education and Youth in collaboration with the Ministry of National Security's Citizen Security Secretariat. It targeted institutions located in the Denham Town zone of special operations. The event included presentations from industry experts representing companies such as Star Apple Analytics, Real Decoy, Jamaica Public Service and the Jamaica Defence Force.

Haile Selassie High's Latonya Barnett said she left the Kids in Tech forum motivated and inspired to explore career paths she had never thought about pursuing.

"I was never interested in becoming an engineer, but I'm happy that they introduced me to it because now I see things the other way. It brought back my inspiration, and I'm really glad that I came here because it was great. I want to thank them for inspiring me because they have taught me that giving up is never an option," she said.

Similarly, Taquan Graham, a sixth-form student at Denham Town High, said the forum allowed him to better understand the interrelationship between science and technology.

"Everything in STEM intertwines, so science, technology, engineering, and maths, all of that will come into the process of me being a marine biologist or biochemist to create solutions and solve problems, to make a better ecosystem for the animals or basically create a medicine to prevent most diseases or stop them," he said.

Graham believes that engaging students in STEM augurs well for their personal and national development.

"I think it is important for kids to get involved because it helps them to build their creative side and critical thinking and to improve the society and create a thriving economy," he said.