BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — Roxbury Community College is holding paid STEM summer programs for interested high schoolers looking for scientific experience while still making some money.

Hillel Sims is the Vice President of Academic Affairs for RCC, and he said that the school has been running these programs for a few years now.

“We’ve been running high school programs for the last several summers, but we keep getting bigger and better,” he said.

Sims said that 30 students will be participating in the High School RCC STEM Experience, which will give them a taste of a wild variety of scientific fields.

“30 students that are participating in our summer STEM program, so that means that they are getting exposed to different areas of STEM education, things [like] drones, 3D printing, physics, chemistry, biotechnology,” Sims said.

He also said that 40 students would be participating in the High School Dual Enrollment Program, which will allow Boston-based high schoolers to take a RCC class that can be transferred into college credits. Half of the students will take an engineering fundamentals class, and the other half will take an IT problem solving course.

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Both programs will be paying their students $15 an hour for participating. Sims explained that gaining STEM experience in your high school years is incredibly important and that giving high school students this chance while also allowing them to earn some money is a win-win for them.

“They have to make that choice between, ‘well, am I going to work a job over the summer or work a job during the year or am I going to go and do something that helps me to better my life and my future and for my education,’ and we don’t want students to have to make that choice,” he said.

Sims also explained that they are setting up these students and the STEM world as a whole for success in the future, as more experience means more people pursuing the sciences.

“That’s the future of Boston. We are a biotech hub, we are an environmental hub, we are a hub of STEM," he said, "If we don’t nurture these students now at this age, we won’t have people 5-10 years from now to take on these really important jobs.”

Both programs will be running from July 7 to August 7. Enrollment for this year is closed now, but Sims said those interested in participating next summer should reach out to the RCC STEM department.

WBZ NewsRadio's Jared Brosnan (@JaredBrosnanWBZ) reports.

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