Holyoke Catholic students urged to consider career in science

Date: 1/11/2011

Jan. 12, 2011

By G. Michael Dobbs

Managing Editor

CHICOPEE — Lise LeTellier was hoping the 19 presenters who spoke at Holyoke Catholic High School (HCHS) would be "planting seeds" during the school's first effort to encourage students to consider a career in science or math.

LeTellier, who is chair of the school Science Department, explained to Reminder Publications she organized the Science and Technology Career Day in response to a number of people voicing concern this country isn't keeping up with training people to work in the sciences.

In a letter to the presenters, LeTellier noted, "According to Nobel Laureate Richard Smalley, '80 percent of people being trained in the advanced physical sciences in the United States are from abroad' and '90 percent of scientists and engineers will be living in Asia.' This trend, according to Smalley, 'must be turned around or we will have outsourced innovation.'"

Working with Commonwealth Information Technology Initiative at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, LeTellier recruited 19 science and math professionals from a wide field of careers that included biomedical engineering, robotics, electrical engineering, marine fisheries biology, and environmental engineering and computer science.

The students chose at least two and up to four of the 25-minute presentations made by the guest speakers on their career and how they reached it.

"We need to inspire kids," she said. "Not enough are going into STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) careers."

She is planning to run the career day every two years so students are exposed to the opportunities twice during their time at the school.

One of the presenters, Jim Croke, is a HCHS alumnus of the class of 2006. He recently graduated from Rensselar Polytechnic Institute with a degree in electrical engineering and a specialization in aerospace engineering.

He is currently working toward a master's degree while working for General Electric.

He told the students if you're the kind of person who "likes taking things part ... working on your car or who played with LEGOs as a kid" a career in engineering may be for you. He added engineers like to "take things apart and work to make them better."

Croke said he made his career choice when he was a high school sophomore and that students should consider engineering as the career field offers a variety of jobs.