Verona High School Senior Talks About Technology Workshop

Last month, more than 30 students from Verona High School attended a Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) workshop held at Bergen Community College.

The purpose of the workshop was to offer Northern New Jersey high school students the opportunity to learn about different career paths.

The day-long conference had students attend hands-on workshops which demonstrated how industries use science, technology, engineering and math to answer the needs and demands of daily living.

Verona High School Senior Amir Sigari, 17, was among the Verona students who attended the workshop. His experience has made him seriously consider an engineering career, he said.

“It seemed like a good opportunity to venture into new technology and the sciences I have been exposed to,” he said. “It seemed like a good opp to explore general sciences.”

Sigari's favorite workshop was about PSE&G sustainability where they spoke about solar panels, wind and alternative fuels.

“We talked about replacing fossil fuels and coal, which is something I would really like to work on, he said.

Another favorite was the Aeronautics workshop where Sigari got to test fly a helicopter in a simulator. The pilots taught them about how low and high pressures can effect the lift of the helicopter.

“One by one we sat in the simulator with a training instructor,” he said. “I think I did pretty well and I was one of the few people who didn't crash.”

“It was a lot trickier that it seems and the navigational gauges are far more complicated than I thought,” he added.

Overall Sigari feels he learned a lot from the experience but would like to see more Verona students attend in the future. There were 30 Verona students but about 200 students from each of the other schools, he said.

“It was a great learning experience and it introduced us into new fields,” he said. “The potential of all these technologies really caught my attention and PSE&G opened my eyes as to how this tech is necessary in the future.”