The BlueSTEM Career Pathway: Connecting students to San Diego’s BlueTech industry
Written by: Eli Etzioni
When asked about their careers, many students struggle to answer the question they hear more often than anything else:
“What do you want to do when you grow up?”
A solid answer to this question requires knowledge of oneself as well as an understanding of the outside world, and both can be tough to come by. High school students can end up feeling like they don’t know the possible career options, and if they do know about some of the many potential jobs out there, it is hard for them to gain insight into what it would be like to actually do the jobs they have heard about.
The San Diego Unified School District is partnering with local nonprofit The Maritime Alliance (TMA), the industry association for San Diego’s ocean and water-focused technology companies, to overcome this problem. Their new joint initiative, known as the BlueSTEM Career Technical Education (CTE) Pathway, helps students bridge the gap between them and the career opportunities San Diego’s Bluetech industry has to offer.
In addition, the BlueSTEM CTE Pathway has exposed students to some of the most important leaders, events, and conversations in all of San Diego’s $14 billion BlueTech industry. As part of the program, a group of Mission Bay students attended Blue Tech Week 2018, TMA’s annual conference that brings together academia, government, and the private sector around the shared goal of sustainably growing the Blue Economy. “Hearing from industry leaders about the process of innovating, failing, designing, and collaborating is priceless and helps our students to see that the workforce is open to anyone who is open-minded and can communicate to reach out and get connected,” said a teacher from Mission Bay High School.
Perhaps even more exciting is that the BlueSTEM CTE Pathway has already enabled some students to become a part of San Diego’s robust BlueTech sector. “Allowing students to meet with real life professionals within the Blue economy has created pathways for kids not only for college but straight into careers directly impacting the local economy,” said another Mission Bay High School spokesperson. In the summer of 2018, the program connected six students in their junior year to BlueSTEM summer internships. One of these students was Robert Huffstutler, from Mission Bay High School, who interned at Training Resources Limited, a provider of maritime training courses. “I chose BlueSTEM to further my knowledge about jobs in the marine field in order to make it easier to choose a job in that field,” said Robert. During his internship, Robert was able to talk to ship captains with decades of experience about what life and work are like at sea. “It made me see that the life of a merchant mariner has room for all of people, young or old, just as long as you're capable of doing your job well,” reflected Robert.
Internships like Robert’s “give students the experiences they need in high school, not at 25,” commented Nate Sachdeva, who works on Strategic Partnerships with the Office of Innovation for the San Diego Unified School District. The plan is to dramatically increase the number of BlueSTEM internships offered through the BlueSTEM CTE Pathway in the summer of 2019.
Still less than two years old, the BlueSTEM CTE Pathway is constantly evolving. Pacific Beach Middle School is interested in developing BlueTech design kits, available for checkout from the school library, future site visits to Scripps, Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute, and the Carlsbad Fish-Breeding Program are in the works, and Mission Bay High School has even been talking to The Maritime Alliance about installing fish pools on campus.
The BlueSTEM CTE Pathway connects San Diego’s uniquely strong BlueTech industry to students in a way that is genuinely educational, exciting, and empowering. After going through the program, most students find questions about their careers less daunting, and more answerable.
The BlueSTEM CTE Pathway Program would never have become a reality without the work of San Diego Unified School District Executive Director of Secondary Schools, Cheryl Hibbeln, and Michael Jones from The Maritime Alliance. The program is meant to serve as a case study for other school districts, and the hope is that it will scale and be replicated in other schools and districts.
Eli Etzioni is the Development Manager at Urban Surf 4 Kids, a San Diego nonprofit that aims to change the lives of foster and at-risk youth through surf therapy camps and mentorship programs. He also does freelance writing in the BlueTech and Social Impact sectors. He is a recent graduate of Claremont McKenna College.
