YOUTH OUTREACH
Math Options
Math Options Career Day 2011 took place on May 10th -- celebrating our 15th year!
The 15th annual Math Options Career Day Program 
took place on May 10. Continuing Education was excited to welcome nearly three hundred Pennsylvania educators and female students from forty schools in Erie, Crawford, Warren, and Potter counties to the Behrend campus.
The program’s major effort is the Career Day event which is held every May for seventh and 
eighth grade girls chosen by their teachers. Teachers are encouraged to select six girls from their schools who demonstrate an interest and aptitude in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) fields. Math Options Career Day is designed to challenge and motivate girls to continue to take advanced math and science courses in high school, so that they can pursue exciting and fulfilling careers in the STEM disciplines.
Hands-on workshops, the School Challenge Contest, interaction with professional women in the STEM fields, peer mentoring, and career exploration activities make for an exciting, fun day for the girls, teachers, and volunteers.
For more information on this program, visit the Math Options web site.
21st Century Kids
The 21st Century Kids Program is designed to bring youth from rural populations to Penn State Behrend. The current communities served are Corry, Crawford, Warren County, and Forest County.
These programs are possible through Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) grants and collaboration with our partners: Warren/Forest Hi Ed Council, Corry Hi Ed Council, Warren County YMCA, and the Warren County Library.
The following events are incorporated into the 21st Century Kids program:
A. Explore Your Options!
Throughout the 2011-12 school year, 7th-grade students from the Warren County School District and Forest County Schools will visit Penn State Behrend for a day. The students will tour campus, participate in science and engineering workshops, and eat lunch in the campus dining hall. This gives them the opportunity to experience a college setting, interact with undergraduate students and faculty, and explore the world of STEM.
B. 21st Century Kids Summer Visit
Middle school students from Corry, Crawford and Warren visit campus for a day in the summer to participate in STEM workshops with Behrend faculty.
These programs are developed in partnership with the Corry Hi-Ed Council, Warren/Forest Hi-Ed Council and the Crawford County Career Education Alliance.
C. Warren County Summer Camp
2011
Geoscience faculty member Michael Naber traveled to the Warren County YMCA and presented geoscience workshops relating to the rock cycle. The youth camp also traveled to the Bayfront where Continuing Education partnered with Pennsylvania Sea Grant to provide students with the opportunity to participate in a Lake Erie science program aboard the Research Vessel Environaut.
Women in Engineering Day
Another important outreach initiative was recently co-sponsored by ContinuingEducation and the School of Engineering. The Women in Engineering Day brings high school girls to campus for a day of hands-on engineering workshops. The girls interact with Penn State Behrend engineering faculty and professional women engineers from General Electric Transportation Systems. Due to the success of the 2006 pilot program with Erie's Collegiate Academy, it was expanded to include girls from other area school districts.
For more information on these CE outreach programs and other school district outreach opportunities, please contact Continuing Education at 814-898-6103 or by email at behrend-ce@psu.edu.
College for Kids
2012 brochure available in April. Please visit our College for Kids site to learn more:
Penn State Behrend is home to twenty-five outreach centers and initiatives. Continuing Education is a key outreach center, and CE can help you access the vast resources for solutions to a variety of needs, including research, faculty expertise, student projects, internships, and more.
To access information on the many outreach centers, visit the Penn State Behrend Research and Outreach Web site, email industryhelp@psu.edu, or phone 814-898-7700.