2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

There is a strong and urgent national need to increase the production of qualified STEM professionals in the workforce, particularly in computer science and cybersecurity areas. However, it is still a pressing national demand in the United States to stimulate and sustain the interest in STEM careers for K-12 students, more specifically for under-represented minority (URM) and female students, with many ‘dropping out’ of the STEM career trajectory starting in middle grades. It has been emphasized in numerous research that these URM and female students enter college without the needed content background in grades 6-12 or the enthusiasm to pursue STEM majors. They need more encouragement starting in middle grades to keep STEM careers as real options. This paper will describe the year-long activities, including a one-week intense summer camp in 2024, two pre- and two post-camp outreach activity sessions organized by Savannah State University for local middle school URM and female students with an aim to provide them with training on computer science and cybersecurity concepts, online ethics and safe online practices, programming, networking, robotics and address various computer science and cybersecurity career options. The paper will also share the major challenges of this program and how the camp activities have made a positive impact on their young minds and motivated them to pursue careers in computer science and cybersecurity fields.