Wednesday, June 18, 2025
Long Island professionals recently volunteered their time to expose teens to key aspects of their careers and how they arrived there, during the annual STEAM career fair held at Kennedy High School in the Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District on April 8.
Teens learned from and networked with more than 65 professionals in over 50 professions in the fields of science, technology, engineering, art and math. The event was held at Kennedy but open to Central High School District students.
Games, competitions and the presentation of some teen research projects were among the many features of the fair.
“One of the questions I asked them was, ‘What obstacles did you face along your path?’” Evan Kolberg, a student in JFK’s Advanced Science Research program, said. “I just wanted to see what they had to say about their path to the future, because unexpected things could happen.”
As co-president of both the Coding Club and Cyber Patriot Club, and a senior officer in the Robotics Club, Kolberg said he values the science curriculum offered by JFK.
“I think the science and STEM programs at JFK are truly phenomenal, especially the clubs too,” he said.
Rob Soel, the Bellmore-Merrick district’s STEAM chairman, explained that he wants to offer the students something beyond classroom instruction — he hopes they could get a leg up in careers where they could apply that knowledge.
“In today’s world, there’s really not a career that’s not got a big component of technology,” Soel said. “We want kids to realize their future college majors and career choices, where they can potentially earn a lot of money and have a very big impact on the world.”
Soel also emphasized that STEAM includes the arts.
“That’s what the ‘A’ is for, it’s to include the arts, because we want to emphasize art and design and creativity in our STEAM courses,” Soel said. “Whether you’re studying computer science or engineering, or robotics, we want to make sure kids are thinking about the design aspects and the creative aspects.”
Soel said he focused on finding professionals within the local community, because he wants the teens to know that these careers are accessible to them.
“There’s so many working professionals and high-tech businesses in our own community, that we really try to give our students the opportunity to learn about what’s available to them right here,” Soel said. “What the resources are right here on Long Island, right here in Nassau County, or right here in their own neighborhood.”
Many of the presenters are parents of current students in the school district, while others are alumni who live nearby.
The professionals included employees from the Department of Environmental Conservation, the Department of Environmental Protection, the U.S. Coast Guard, the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Marines, Northwell Health, Zwanger-Pesiri Radiology, Hofstra School of Nursing, Stony Brook University Health Sciences, Delta Airlines and many other local organizations.
Presenters included microbiologists, clinical chemists, phlebotomists, veterinarians, cyber security professionals, networking experts, environmental engineers, and E-Sports professionals, among others.
A representative from the New York State Department of Labor brought a VR headset so the teens could see what it’s like working at a construction site or in an emergency room.
“We try to make the night a lot of fun,” Soel said. “In addition to meeting these professionals, we do some fun things. We set up robots for them to try. We set up coding challenges for them to have fun with. We set up a tournament called Medical Scrabble, where kids play Scrabble competitions, but they have to use medical words to get extra points.”
Some district students even presented the BuddyBasket — their winning project at the International Technology and Engineering Educators Association REACH Challenge for adaptive and assistive solutions. The BuddyBasket enables a teen with ataxia — a rare neurological disease preventing someone from safely holding things and walking at the same time — to work at his school store and family restaurant.
Many students left the career fair with new connections in their chosen fields and new early career opportunities.
“When I was at the career fair, I went over to this table for KidOYO, which is an organization that allows students to program on this unified network where they can earn badges for completing challenges,” Kolberg said. “I was talking to him about my programming journey, which is really cool, to talk to someone who is in my field. He eventually told me to apply for a mentorship position at their company. That night I went on their website and applied.”
