STEM Programs: Learning for the 21st Century

Whether students follow a traditional four-year path or something less linear, and whether they obtain an associate, bachelor or doctorate degree, STEM programs open doors to fulfilling careers.

University of Mount Union

Taylor Cline: Bachelor’s in Civil Engineering

Growing up in Madison, Ohio, Taylor Cline loved fixing things. She excelled at math, science, drawing, playing the clarinet. Unsure of where to focus her studies, she once asked her father what could be a good career for someone who likes to fix things. “He said engineer,” she recalls. “I thought he meant an engineer that drives a train.” Later, she realized what he meant and—after taking some online quizzes that pointed to engineer as her best-fit career—embraced the idea.

On a campus tour, Cline fell in love with the University of Mount Union, but her mother worried about tuition. “[They] really worked with me financially by offering scholarships and grants,” Cline says. “I was offered a music scholarship by playing in their band.” She eventually had to drop band due to the rigorous demands of the engineering program. “Mount Union has a four-year program, whereas others have a five-year, so it’s hard to squeeze anything else in.”

The foundational courses—humanities, social sciences, arts—required of all majors presented another challenge that Cline is glad she endured. “I realize now how they helped me with leadership, creativity, communication, writing,” she says. Those skills helped Cline secure a scholarship from CESO, Inc. in Fairlawn her junior year—which turned into a summer co-op, and then a full-time employment offer before her senior year began.

One of only three women in the engineering program in her graduating class of 2016, Cline found that small classes and highly supportive professors scaffolded her success. The only female professor in the program helped launch a local section of Society of Women Engineers. “She got all of the women in our engineering program—seniors, juniors, sophomores, freshmen—to encourage and support each other.”

Cline’s dad is an iron worker, so his work on buildings and bridges also influenced her pursuit of civil engineering, as opposed to mechanical—the other option at Mount Union. “I’m glad I did because I really enjoy what I do now.”

Kent State University

Clinton Braganza: Ph.D. Chemical Physics

When Clinton Braganza started his undergraduate degree at the College of Wooster, he was very far from home. He went to high school in his native country of Tanzania, in East Africa. Hoping to find a small university in the U.S. where he could really focus on his studies, he ended up in Ohio at Wooster. “I was looking for a smaller campus because I didn’t want to get lost in a bigger city,” he says. A recruiter handed him information about Wooster, which perfectly fit the bill. “It was a stroke of luck.”

Studying stateside, Braganza realized that his passions didn’t line up with his intended plan. He had selected computer sciences for his degree but found the subject wanting. “There was a bit of math involved and a little bit of understanding of advanced mathematics, but it took too long for me to see the results,” he says. “I took a few physics classes, and I would do an experiment and right away see the results of my work.” Completing his undergraduate, Braganza enrolled in Kent State University’s Liquid Crystal Institute, where he went on to earn a Ph.D. in chemical physics.

Experimentation was a huge part of Braganza’s program at KSU. He tried different specialties, working in different labs with different professors, until he found what worked best for him. His choices led him toward a field of creation. “Most Ph.D. programs are focused toward doing research in academic labs. The program I went to at the Liquid Crystal Institute focused on getting people working in the industry.”

An undergraduate internship at Kent Displays, Inc. evolved into full-time employment where Braganza develops improvements on toys of the past.

Kent Displays also gives Braganza the opportunity to mentor future scientists. “That gives me a lot of motivation when I have a few interns from Kent State. I enjoy getting them into the scientific process.” Braganza believes that interesting young learners in STEM subjects is vital to hooking them on the topic later in life. “I wish there was even more exposure in high school [to STEM],” says Braganza. “You have to start young. If you don’t have that basic background, once you get to college, you can feel left behind.”

The University of Akron

Bob Genet: Associates in Electronic Technology; Bachelor’s in Organizational Supervision

“ You can never learn too much, and you can never meet too many people,” says Bob Genet, Director of Community and Economic Development for the County of Summit. That motto has been lived out in the circuitous trajectory that led Genet through several different careers to his current position.

Genet was an early proponent of STEM studies when he embarked on an associate’s degree program in electronic technology at The University of Akron in the early 1980s. “Electronics was the up and coming field,” he says. “I had a strong background in math, so it fit my skill set.” His degree garnered immediate benefit; Genet was accepted into the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers union as an apprentice electrician, his first career. “I went directly out into the construction industry,” he says. “But after your body gets old, construction is brutal, so I had to figure something else out.”

Having learned through the skilled trades to think outside the electrical box, Genet ran for and was elected Mayor of the City of Barberton in 2008, thus launching his second career: politician. Then after four years of stewarding a city of 26,000 people through an economic recession, he found that his associate’s degree was not enough to land the administrative jobs his experience and skill level warranted.

“ To go back to school after a 30-year separation is not exactly in the life plan, but you do what you have to do,” he says. “I appreciated school more at that age than as a younger student.” Back at his alma mater, knowledgeable advisors and professors pointed him in the right direction—a bachelor’s degree in organizational supervision—and helped him navigate the world of a nontraditional undergraduate. Commencement exercises were a family celebration, as Genet and his wife of 32 years both completed degrees in 2014. “The fact that you continue to learn all your life provided a role model for my [three] daughters,” he says.

Stark State College

Matthew Gilly: Associate’s in Cyber Security and Computer Forensic Analysis

Reinvention is at the heart of any scientific field. Old thoughts are expanded to include new knowledge, and scholars expand their minds beyond previously reached limits. Matthew Gilly knows about reinvention. He held several job titles before he earned his associates degree in Cyber Security and Computer Forensic Analysis from Stark State College. And even that was only a beginning.

At first, Gilly tried the traditional educational path by enrolling at Kent State to study psychology after high school. However, he dropped out when he realized that the massive, impersonal lecture halls weren’t for him. Gilly worked in a steel mill for a while before starting as a bail bondsman, which created an opportunity to start down another path. “It allowed me a lot of free time, so I went back to school.” Stark State College offered flexibility while maintaining focus on a degree. “I chose Stark State because they offered a lot of online courses that were easier for me as I was living in Ravenna.” An internship at Diebold helped cement his skills and combined with his classwork for the hands-on experience he would need in the real world. Upon graduation, Gilly was prepared and confident. “When I started working full time, I was ready.”

Gilly’s return to the classroom was a deliberate choice. “When I went for Cyber Security, it was something I was actually interested in,” he says. “I had been working for a while, so I knew what I wanted to do.” Now, he is continuing his education with a second associates degree in Homeland Security Information Technology at Stark State, which he hopes will help create the next phase of his career. “It’s almost like an entry into a whole career path where I can choose where I want to go now.”

College of Wooster

Elizabeth Stroud: Bachelor’s in Mathematics

Nine years after graduating from the College of Wooster with a degree in mathematics, Elizabeth Stroud lives not two blocks from her childhood home in Cuyahoga Falls. “I knew I wanted to stay local,” she says. “[And] Akron had numerous businesses looking to hire people with a degree in math or a similar field.”

The first—and only—interview she had after graduation in 2008 was with FirstEnergy Corp. Nine years later, she’s still there. Not only did the academics Stroud studied at Wooster prepare her for her job as an Advanced Business Analyst; enrichment programs gave her a realistic idea of life after college. “Every month or so, the math department would invite individuals from different area businesses to speak about how a degree in math or science could be used in the business world to get us to start thinking about what career paths we wanted to pursue after Wooster.”

Small classes, generous financial aid, and an on-campus tutoring job made Stroud’s time at Wooster comfortable and memorable. She also credits Wooster’s Applied Methods and Research Experience (AMRE) program—which pairs students and faculty with a local business for eight weeks in the summer to work on real-life projects—with making her job-ready upon graduation. “It was the first time I had done any computer programming outside the required courses, and it has come back to help me in my job today.”

Stroud fell in love with numbers in eighth-grade algebra class, but she recommends STEM studies for anyone interested in a wide selection of career options. “It opens doors to a lot of opportunities you might not have been qualified for otherwise,” she says. She also offers practical advice for success: “Seriously consider giving up a summer to participate in an internship or a program like AMRE.”