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A student led the lieutenant. Karin Polito through his tech tour in Essex to celebrate the state’s fifth annual STEM week on Government Tuesday morning. This is a tribute to her STEM Week, an initiative aimed at encouraging Massachusetts youth to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. After the tour, Polito said, “I was simply blown away by the sophistication, level of detail, care and dedication of the school’s leaders and students and everything about this program.
The Baker-Polito administration has invested more than $9 million of her in school classrooms and programs,” she said. This has given students access to “incredible opportunities,” she added. The funds were used for traditional vocational programs such as Essex Tech’s carpentry and plumbing workshops. Investments are also being made in advanced manufacturing, veterinary medicine, health support, and other of her STEM programs at the school.
Superintendent Heidi Riccio said this was an important part of improving the student experience. “By supporting her program and her three tiers of education, which includes daytime students, evening students, and traditional North Shore High School high school students who can attend lunchtime, our Capital Skills support people to these skills can be learned,” Rico said. “Without this funding, none of this would have happened,” she continued.
Polito toured many of the school’s programs during her visit on Tuesday morning. She talked to students like her 17-year-old Divani Fernandez senior in Salem. Fernandez is a member of Essex Tech’s engineering program. He no longer wants to be an engineer or architect like he did when he was a freshman, but his STEM education gave him a unique set of skills that he will continue to use. “I want to learn more about social sciences and humanities, so using engineering and design processes as a model for problem solving was very good,” said Fernandez.
“We know what we do and have been exposed to a myriad of different types of technology,” says Maxfield. “We are always incorporating new technology.” Polito said he met several girls during his visit who never thought they’d get a degree in biotechnology until they enrolled at Essex Institute of Technology.
Her 17-year-old Callan Maxfield of Salem was working on changing the color of bacterial samples in a biotechnology class while on tour. A biotechnology student herself, she hopes to complete her PhD and become a coroner after she graduates from Essex Institute of Technology.
Her program in biotechnology at the school gives her a head start over some college-level students, Maxfield said.
“When they came here, at the beginning of eighth grade, they said you could do it…” said Polito. “They needed someone who could try and tell them it was okay, and it would give them the freedom to explore, develop, and do things they might not have imagined before. I gave them.”