Young students discover STEM careers with some of the world’s top tech companies



The world’s top tech companies and why they want to recruit young engineers! Plus, the new STEM scholarships available from Amazon! 

What happens when you take young people from middle school and mix them up with entrepreneurs, tech innovators and big tech companies?

Well, you build interest in a STEM career at a very early age!

Follow KTLA Tech Reporter Rich DeMuro on InstagramFacebookPodcastNewsletter & Twitter

STEM careers are some of the hottest in the nation, yet women only hold about 25% of them.

Luckily, the Hello Future career fair hopes to change that!



This is actually Hello Future's inaugural year! The new career fair is hosted by the LA Promise Fund, which is a nonprofit organization dedicated to preparing Los Angeles students for success in college, career, and life.

"We have more than 100 companies, schools, and organizations that are committed to promoting young people in STEM," said Veronica Melvin, President, and CEO of LA Promise Fund.



Microsoft, Headspace, and Verizon were just some of one hundred companies at the event.

"There are so many unfulfilled jobs in the stem field in the United States it is insane and to get our students and our girls inspired to want to learn STEM," said Samantha Watson, Regional Manager at iD Tech Camps.

The two-day, hands-on experience educates young students about different opportunities when it comes to STEM careers, that’s Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math.



"It starts with exposure in these younger years and getting them excited about it," explained Melvin.

Students get to interact with companies that might be recruiting them one day!

For example, at the Headspace booth, students learned about the importance of meditation.

"We decided to come to Headspace we walked our way around, and Headspace is something that stands out because we were like, oh I meditate," said Valerie, a student attending the event.



They also got a year free of the app!

At the iD Tech Camp's booth, students learned how to create music through coding, but the best part: getting great ideas about what to be when they grow up!

A veterinarian, a pediatrician and a neurologist - just some of the responses we received when we asked students at the event what they wanted to be when they grow up.

In related news, Amazon just announced some new scholarship money for future engineers! One hundred students will be selected to get $10,000 a year for four years to study computer science at college - which is $4 million dollars Amazon is giving away in total.