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STEM Internship & Year-Long Program

Welcome to the ASTEMA 2nd Cohort!

Welcome to the ASTEMA 2nd Cohort!

We’re now collecting applications for the Summer Traveling Camp 2025 (academic year 2024-2025). This is a FREE opportunity for High School Students who are interested in Natural Sciences, Physics, Chemistry, Environmental Sciences, Food Sciences & Nutrition, Technology and Engineering to join and earn $1000 stipend during this program.

This program is fully supported by USDA and focused on demonstrating how various STEM disciplines can be applied to Agriculture.

The internship comes with a yearly online Zoom program attached to it. Assuming you’re in the grade 9 or above, during the year, you’ll be attending various online sessions, brought to you by various scientists, prepare homework and learn how various science major can be applied toward Natural Sciences and Agriculture. The zoom meetings will happen twice a month, online, via Zoom, on Mondays, at 8:30 pm EST (the exact dates – TBD). There will be pre- and post-assignments for most of the meetings.

The internship pays $1000 stipend at the end of Summer Camp, plus provides some food allowance at the amount of approximately $300+ paid before their arrival. In addition, graduates from this program will receive a certificate with 120 community hours (3 weeks at the UMES & fields) from UMES, and additional 18 community hours from Jookender covering monthly zoom lections during the academic year.

During the Summer internship (July 21 - August 8, 2025), students will be placed at the hotel, 2 ppl per room with 2 beds, within approx. 30 min drive from the UMES (University of Maryland, Eastern Shore), because most of the activities, lab, and classes will be conducted at their premises. In addition, Students will be working on various farms, to collect and analyze the data necessary for local farmers. The hotel will have a decent breakfast. The grant stays, that during the breakfast, the students will make themselves a lunch and bring it with them.

There will be a bus, designated to this group, available to the group during the day, including the weekend.

There also will be up to 2 Teachers accompanying the group and living at the same hotel with the rest of the group.

The program is FREE to attend, however, parents should understand that they have to provide additional resources (e.g. extra food, laundry, personal care).

12 HS Students will be accepted to the program. The students may come from all 50 States, as long, as they have the means and resources to arrive to the camp destination in July 2025. There will be a bus provided to pick up students from Jookender headquarters location in Framingham, MA and those students along the road from Massachusetts to Maryland.

Criteria for the program participants selection is as following:

  • Be at least 14 y.o. by June 1, 2025
  • Have an authorization to work in this country for any Employer
  • Belongs to one of following populations: minorities underrepresented in science, women interested in agricultural careers, new immigrants in US, first generation in US college students, and Ukrainian refugees.
  • Has an interest in STEM science.
  • Has desire to explore STEM in agriculture.
  • Completed already at least one course in high school science with grade C and above.
  • Merit, based on the application - one page essay, resume, and school transcripts.
  • Available to participate in zoom webinars twice a month during the months of October-May at late evening times weekdays.
  • Committed for three weeks travel camp.
  • Not yet graduated from high school.
STEM Internship & Year-Long Program

Modern agriculture is a highly technical field of science that often requires an interdisciplinary approach involving professionals with specializations in chemistry, biology, environmental science, and engineering, along with traditional agriculture and food science specialists. The workforce demand for well trained professionals in agriculture and food science is very high. Special efforts are made by USDA to attract minority students to the field. However, students majoring in the science disciplines often do not correlate their professional training with opportunities in careers within food and agriculture. To bridge this gap, for the last four years we have successfully run USDA funded FANE and REEU projects that train high school and college students, their educators, in collaboration and mentorship with graduate students for STEM EDUCATION WITH PURPOSE – to build careers in agriculture and food science, addressing all levels of preparation as one segregated pipeline. We focus our activities around one central interdisciplinary research topic related to a new generation of super-fruit called aronia berries. We practice interdisciplinary active experiential learning (AEL) principles in a frame of group pedagogy.

Our project, called ASTEMA – Advancing STEM in Agriculture in HBCUs, is designed to attract high school and undergraduate STEM students majoring or planning to major in chemistry, biology, environmental sciences, and technology majors to careers in high-tech agriculture using active experiential learning techniques, that has proven to be a powerful tool to increase student’s awareness, involvement into studies, leadership, and critical thinking abilities. During the academic year program trainees participate in bi-monthly webinars in STEM in agriculture topics addressing agricultural engineering, genomics, biotechnology, along with professional development and leadership topics including choice and preparation for college, application package, writing the resume, successful interviews, patenting workshop, application to federal jobs and more. This is followed by summer experience on campus for five weeks for college students and three weeks for high school students and their educators, where they form interdisciplinary teams and work on active experiential learning problems that cannot be solved by one major only. Their summer activities are organized in week-long, theme-focused sequences of webinars, laboratory, and field active experiential learning research activities. A series of pre- and post-workshop assignments, reports, and presentations helps in the assessment of program effectiveness. Two graduate students-mentors and some faculty mentors participate in all activities. All trainees receive certificates by the end of the program upon completion of all program requirements and a modest stipend. Travel camp transportation and housing are covered and limited food allowance is provided to each participant.

Jookender Community Initiatives Inc. is responsible for the logistics of the summer travel camp and participate actively in recruitment and training of participants.

The program has external evaluator that attends part of activities and observe the performance of participants and mentors.

Request for Applications for the 2024-25 Cohort

12 positions for high school students are available at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore in collaboration with Jookender. The program is for high school students who are planning to attend college and major in STEM disciplines, and who are interested in exploring how such majors can be applied to build a career in agriculture with USDA. The program consists of online meetings twice a month during the months of October-May, followed by the in-person three weeks of travel camp activities on and off UMES campus. There will be a set of pre- and post-activities assignments that will be submitted anonymously for evaluation but not grading purposes. Part of online activities will include lectures and discussion in STEM science in agriculture, genomics, biotechnology, phytochemistry and use of technology and engineering in agriculture. The other online meetings will be devoted to professional and leadership development and preparation for college. Travel camp will include team active experiential learning led by trained college students and their mentors, workshops in small electronic devices building, 3D printing, drones in agriculture, soil analysis, medical herbal teas and many others, field trips to agricultural and demonstration facility, wet experiments in the lab, reporting and final presentations by teams of trainees. Travel and housing expenses and food allowance will be provided during the travel camp, while the stipend of total of $1,000 will be paid to each participant upon completion of all program activities.

The application process will include several steps:

  • Fill out this application online asap.
  • Complete the pre-screening with Jookender within 72 hours.
  • Collect all required documentation, create separate files MS Word or PDF for essay, transcript, resume, and application, , name the files with your First and Last name + type of document (Essay, transcript... etc) , and email it to jookender@gmail.com by September 15, 2024.
  • Dr. Volkis of UMES will assign a number to each applicant and create a table with qualifications of all students, without their names. An Independent Committee will determine, which 12 students are the winners.
  • The email letter will be sent out to all applicants in regards to their status on or before October 15, 2024
  • Optional zoom meeting with Dr. Volkis maybe set up with a prospective candidate prior to fully acceptance to the program.
  • There is a bunch of other papers and documentations, including the official program waiver and MOU, will be emailed to you for quick sign ups if you are selected for the program.

Documents

Documents required:

  • One page essay describing why are you interested in the program and how this program would advance your career goals
  • resume
  • unofficial school transcripts
  • application form
  • proof of eligibility to work in US for any employer will be required for all accepted participants

Before you send that info, please, have all required documents ready as MS word or google.doc files - combine all documents into one file in MS World format. Send the file (as an attachment, not link to Google Drive) and the cover letter to Jookender. Email: jookender@gmail.com. The application form and the workbook for high school students on how to write the resume are available below.

Registration closed!