Indiana Tech’s STEAM Academy is gaining steam.

Created in 2021, the STEAM Academy is home to the university’s growing portfolio of academic youth programs. Over the summer, the STEAM Academy hosted four week-long academic summer camps and more than doubled its attendance figures from the previous year.

“This was an excellent summer of growth for the STEAM Academy,” said Academic Camp Director Caleb Hunter. “We saw our reach in the community expand to new areas and were excited to see students returning for their second or third summer in a row. Most importantly, many friendships were formed, and the students shared many aha moments this summer.”

Indiana Tech created the STEAM Academy to provide students with innovative programming and hands-on learning opportunities that enhance their academic and creative strengths in science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics (STEAM). Within each program, the goal is to create outstanding experiences for prospective students and build positive relationships with them before they are ready to commit to college.

“The STEAM Academy is creating more academic pathways for prospective students to interact with our faculty and staff, which gets them excited about learning and shows them what possibilities await them at Indiana Tech,” Hunter said.

The summer kicked off with the Middle School Build + Learn Camp, which focused on engineering, experimenting, and testing structures, objects, and robots to the limits. It was a week of building, learning and destroying, which was a blast, literally, when students used gummy bears to create an experiment that is similar to the combustion reaction used in NASA’s rockets.

High School STEM Camp students were able to take a deep dive into chemistry, biomedical engineering and mechanical engineering. They also saw how all three of those disciplines are being used in real-world applications when they toured the Micropulse Incorporated manufacturing facility in Columbia City, where medical implants and devices are designed, machined and sterilized. Students were also able to get a preview of the college experience by staying on campus and participating in events hosted by the Office of Student Engagement.

The Creative Expression and Communication Camp was all about exposing middle school students to multiple ways to express their art. They were given digital cameras and sketchbooks to capture their experiences throughout the week. The students received painting lessons in a professional studio, studied fashion design and created their own shirts and jewelry, toured the local zoo for creative writing inspiration and learned about the art of decorating cookies.  

The academic summer camp season was capped off with the College of Business’s brand new Launch + Lead Camp. The camp allowed high school students to discover how to lead from a place of strength and work as a team to launch an entrepreneurial venture. The campers learned about their individual strengths through a comprehensive assessment and used those strengths to develop a personal leadership brand. They worked to apply the concepts and ideas they learned from the sessions into a thorough plan for a venture that they pitched before the shark tank panel.

The STEAM Academy Summer camp experience is best captured through these two quotes from a student and parent,

Now, the STEAM Academy Staff is gearing up for the relaunch of after-school programming, which begins in mid-September. After-school programs include Robotic Warriors Club (for students in middle school and high school), Middle School Steam Club, and High School Introductory Robotics.

Learn more about after-school programming at indianatech.edu/steam.

Registration for the STEAM Academy Afterschool programs will open in early August, with programs starting back up around the week of Sept. 9. Please see individual program pages for the most up-to-date information.

“The work our STEAM Academy is doing is important because it allows Indiana Tech to stay in contact with students and families throughout the year and strengthen our relationships with local schools and community partners,” Hunter said. “On a grander scale, youth of all ages should have access to quality opportunities to explore and learn from high-character, knowledgeable adults in safe spaces where they can be themselves. I’m proud to work for an organization that prioritizes this kind of outreach.”