Engaging the next generation of STEM professionals with STEMatch
By Richard Wang, Senior Director, Engineering
In October of 2023, Tripadvisor employees organized a collaboration with Boston-based nonprofit STEMatch to host an interactive and inspiring Career Day for a group of 6th-grade students. The STEMatch model, which forms connections between local schools and leading companies, aims to increase access to STEM education and inspire students from low-income communities to pursue careers in STEM. The Career Day featured representatives from Tripadvisor Engineering, People Operations, Product, and Sales functions and aimed to build students’ understanding and enthusiasm through interactive breakout sessions.
As the organizing committee, we immediately loved the idea and couldn’t wait to get started, but we had questions. Like, who would we enlist and how would we plan something like this? How would we keep the kids entertained? What would we feed them?
Thankfully, we were prepared: this was a job for the Tripadvisor Engineering ACM (Atmosphere, Culture, Morale) team.
The Birth of ACM
ACM was born in Oct 2020, amidst the uncertain days of the pandemic. As Tripadvisor offices closed and employees transitioned to remote work, many of our developers felt isolated and lonely. Tripadvisor, like many other high-tech companies, has a large number of young developers who would have otherwise come to the office to hang out in the pub or just socialize with other employees. COVID changed all of that.
In response, our VP of Engineering for B2B, Roger Alix-Gaudreau , proposed the creation of an ACM group to improve employee morale and well-being. I quickly volunteered and was joined by a passionate group of developers who were also excited to get started.
Since then, the ACM team has organized a myriad of activities, such as weekly virtual happy hours, Engineering mentorship programs, summer gatherings with food and games, weekly in-office meetups, new hire office hours, and a Java puzzlers group. These programs were key in helping our engineers break out of their isolation, and they continue to help us build stronger connections as we come back into the office.
Planning the event
We started by brainstorming engaging project ideas for the students.
Antonia and Himanshu from Engineering devised a captivating board game that introduced the students to the traveling salesman problem. They printed out a Fortnite map and used a thread to travel through all of the towns on the map with the goal of beating ChatGPT to find the shortest route possible to connect all towns.
Jason and Rachel from Sales developed a negotiation game. They split the students into pairs and asked each student to convince their partner to stand behind them. Any student who successfully did that got $500 (in fake money, obviously).
The volunteers from People Operations created a team-building game where students were asked to assemble a team of superheroes, justifying their choices for each role.
The volunteers from Product Management asked the students how to improve their school lunch.
Finally the Big Day Arrives
“They are here!”
From the big windows of Boston Commons, a meeting room at Tripadvisor HQ, we looked out to see a group of middle-school-aged children getting off a school bus. We met the students at the reception area and led them to the open forum, a three-story vertical garden with a grand stair inspired by the Spanish Steps.
Roger gave a welcome speech to the young visitors. In order to help the students understand what Tripadvisor does, Roger drew a parallel to Harry Potter. He asked the students: “Would you rather visit Hogwarts or Uncle Dursley’s house?” Not surprisingly, the students shouted “Hogwarts!” Roger asked them why. The students replied that they had each read great things about Hogwarts from the Harry Potter books. Roger then told them that Tripadvisor was like the Harry Potter books, since travelers leave reviews for hotels that they had stayed in so that other travelers could read about those hotels and decide whether they would like to stay. The students quickly made the connection.
After the welcome speech, it was time for the activities. At the Engineering station, Himanshu and Antonia told the students what software engineering was about: solving complicated problems using computer languages. To illustrate this, they asked kids to play the traveling salesman problem on the Fortnite map. The kids quickly got down to business, debating whether they should go to one remote town first or last, while pointing out that this was not the latest Fortnite map! It was a challenging problem to solve, but In the end, the students had a great time and a few were able to beat ChatGPT at finding the best route.
The students completed each station before chowing down on a delicious spread of pizza, salads, brownies, and soft drinks prepared by the Tripadvisor kitchen staff. After lunch, the students received the customary Tripadvisor swag before heading back to school for the rest of the day. On the way back to the bus we asked the kids what they would like to do when they grew up. Two enthusiastic boys shouted “software engineer!”, which brought smiles to all of our faces.
A Yearly Event
According to our contacts at STEMatch, the kids really enjoyed each session, and they especially enjoyed learning how to negotiate. It was a great day, and we were really proud of how smoothly everything went and how much fun the kids seemed to have.
It was a complete success and a great day, but the STEMatch Career Day was more than just a fun event; it was a day of inspiration and learning, and a step towards nurturing the next generation of STEM enthusiasts.
We can’t wait to do it all again next year!
Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com.
