Penn Manor High School freshmen were thankful for the opportunity to learn more about potential careers during a STEM summit in the auxiliary gym on Feb. 24 and 25.

Local professionals served as presenters for the event, which included stations in chemistry, manufacturing, biology, engineering, the environment, math, technology, and trades.

"It was really fun at my first station, which was biology, and then we got to assemble a sink," said student Ellie Hochreiter. "In biology, we did an experiment where there were three capsules in which there was a liquid, and one person was contaminated with an illness, but we didn't know who. We took samples from each, and we mixed, and then we put them in a petri dish, and we found out who had the contamination at the end."

She is excited to see where the summit could lead her down the road. "I'm really excited to see what opportunities there are that are possible career explorations for my future, stuff that I didn't know about, that I'm going to learn," said Ellie.

Classmate Abigail Hrovath also enjoyed the experience. "I'm really interested in all the different careers, just seeing what other options are out there. I think that's really cool," she said. "I thought that the biology station was pretty cool and that's interesting, and I'm interested to see what the manufacturing station looks like, too."

Former Penn Manor teacher Barb St. John was one of the community members present to assist students. "I am a volunteer helping to demonstrate chemistry activities to the students and enlighten them on careers related to chemistry," she said. "I hope the students take away an interest in learning more about chemistry or an enjoyment of science."

Dawn Gerhardt, who is the director of Junior Achievement STEM summits for southcentral Pennsylvania, oversees the local programs. "(The STEM summit) gives students the hands-on opportunity to learn about different careers in the STEM field by talking to volunteers and doing activities," Gerhardt said. "We have some volunteers that work in the fields, but we also have volunteers that work in different fields that are just here, giving their day to share who they are and helping with the activities."

Penn Manor High School assistant principal Jenna Fisher was also grateful for the chance to have students introduced to STEM programs. "My goal is that number one, students are respectful and engaged throughout our time here," she said. "We have an abundance of volunteers that have come in from throughout our county. We always like to make sure that our students are appropriate and engaged."

She continued, "My next goal for our students is that they are potentially enlightened with what a future career in STEM could be, whether it is in the workforce, the industry base, or a college four-year program. There are so many offerings that STEM has, and hopefully they feel like after they leave here, they have a better idea of what that could potentially be in their future."