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Schools

South River Student Learns Benefits of STEM Internships

Program encourages Anne Arundel County businesses to hire local students who participate in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics magnet.

When Nicolas Manoogian participated in the Community Challenge Program at Annapolis City Hall this past year, he pointed out to city officials the need to have better anti-virus software and take measures to prevent phishing, as part of a security risk assessment.

And Manoogian hasn’t graduated from high school yet.

The South River High School rising senior spoke about his experiences in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) magnet program Thursday as part of a briefing to encourage businesses to hire interns from the program, which is also at .

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For Manoogian, the STEM program changed his life, although he wasn’t sure what he was going to get out of it when he signed up as a sophomore.

“The way a computer works is different than how the brain works,” said Manoogian, who has had a lifelong interest in computers. “The way you write a computer program is incredibly complex, but I couldn’t explain it to you before STEM.”

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Not only is he able to talk about abstract computer concepts to people outside the industry but he is more at ease with adults in general, he said.

“I wore this same shirt and tie. I looked them in the eye and said, ‘How are you? I’m your new intern,’” he said of meeting officials at City Hall.

Officials with the county schools system and the Anne Arundel Economic Workforce Development Corp. (AAEDC) said the STEM program at both schools is full of students like Manoogian who could both prove to be assets to businesses and gain valuable experience that they might use in their careers.

With the county’s unemployment rate mirroring the national rate of 9 percent, helping future employees become more marketable to employers with enhanced skills is good for the students, the businesses and the economy, said Robert Hannon, AAEDC president and CEO.

“We have an excellent opportunity. Where do you make your investments? With these individuals sitting up here today,” he said, gesturing to the student speakers—two from North County and two from South River.

The students also spoke of their interests beyond the STEM program and how their teachers pushed them to excel academically.

Chris Frye, a rising North County senior, said his advanced placement (AP) U.S. history teacher told him he would have to redo an assignment after turning in classwork that was inferior.

“North County teachers are so supportive. They pushed, pushed, pushed me. My AP U.S. history class was my favorite, so I thought I could slack off,” he said of the assignment he completed on the bus ride to school. “He said, ‘Chris, this is crap.’ I knew I couldn’t slack off.”

The school system has matched 52 students with businesses and would like to see 200 more be placed, said Kristina Gillmeister, a STEM specialist who, after the briefing, held several information cards business officials had filled out.

Gillmeister also showed the business officials how to navigate the system’s new Magnet and Signature Internship Portal, a website in which both students and businesses can create profiles and search for opportunities. Students can apply for internships the businesses post through the portal.

Chris Sleat, who works with Inclinix of Annapolis, was one of those business members who had filled out a card. His company does pharmaceutical research, and he said he’d like to have an intern research new opportunities with companies.

An intern could benefit a small company like Inclinix, Sleat said.

“I think we could take advantage of it,” he said.

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