Turning passion into a future path

Since its inception in 2006, the Maker Faire and the projects it’s inspired people of all ages to pursue have spread into classrooms and nearly 200 events around the world. But this year, event founder Dale Dougherty is hoping young Makers will have a chance to chart a path from their passion for engineering their way through problems to seeing how the skills they develop through Maker projects can help them land a job down the road.

“I think the thing that’s really interesting is education’s changing, but so is the workplace and how do you prepare for that?” he asked. “How do you take advantage of the positive changes in education and how do you get in front of some of the changes in work?”

To get students thinking about what’s next, Dougherty’s team of Makers is partnering with the Cornell University College of Engineering to host the event’s first Industry Career and College Day. By inviting juniors and seniors in high school to hear from startups, employers and colleges and universities, the event is aimed at helping those who grew up working on one creative project or another imagine how they can be successful with the same skills as they pursue college or careers, said Dougherty.

For Lance Collins, Dean of Engineering at Cornell University, the Maker movement’s ability to capture the imaginations of students has been instrumental in shifting college-level engineering courses toward project-based learning. Though events like the Maker Faire and the many others it has spawned across the country have motivated students to pursue projects that align with their interests and learn new concepts at the same time, Collins said he wonders if they are able to see how the skills they are developing now can play into their futures.

“That’s great, but I want to make sure that they realize: ‘oh wait a second, this thing that I’m doing because it’s fun actually can lead to a career that’s very highly well-paid and exciting in its own right,’” he said. “I don’t always know they see that connection.”

Through discussions about the evolving set of skills needed in the future workforce and a competition in which high school students will receive real-time feedback from college-age judges on ideas they pitch, Collins is hoping the event will capitalize on the success the Maker movement has had in attracting diverse subset of the population and broaden its reach even further to minorities and women, who are typically underrepresented in STEM fields.

“A long-standing challenge is broadly under the category of diversity,” he said. “It’s not just that we want interest, but we want interest from a wide range of people.”

Dougherty said he has been encouraged by the number of community colleges stepping up this year to participate in the Maker Faire, noting their wide reach among students of all ages and efforts to create spaces on campus where students can pursue their own projects. Because Dougherty has seen the group of people who identify as “Makers” over the years expand to include venture capitalists and CEOs in addition to hobbyists and families, he knows the skills are valued in workplaces — it’s just a matter of helping students make the same connection.

“There’s just this difference between knowing and doing and employers like people who can do things, who can solve real problems [and] who can figure things out for themselves,” he said. “Makers are those kind of people.”

The Maker Faire will be held at various times May 18, May 19 and May 20 at the San Mateo County Event Center, 1346 Saratoga Drive. The Maker Faire’s Industry Career and College Day will be held 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday, May 18. Visit makerfaire.com/bay-area/ for more information.

anna@smdailyjournal.com

(650) 344-5200 ext. 106