The core of the Silicon Valley STEAM + Business Camp is career exploration.
This summer, a group of 33 scholars, and nine alumni and collegians in the World Wide Technology Scholars program traveled to the heart of Silicon Valley for a week built around the idea that there are more paths to a meaningful career than most of us ever picture.
Over five days of tours, workshops, challenges, and conversations, our scholars got a firsthand look at how many doors are open to them, and how many different kinds of work it takes to make big things happen.
The week opened the way the best weeks do, with laughter. Scholars broke the ice through introductions and a Rock, Paper, Scissors World Cup that ended with one champion taking home a 2026 FIFA World Cup soccer ball. From there, the group settled into a rhythm of learning by doing. In a team challenge called Stepping Stones, scholars had to move their entire group across a “polluted river” using only a limited number of stones, and any stone left unattended floated away. It took planning, communication, and trust to get everyone safely to the other side. Later, scholars tried cyanotypes, a camera-less printing process that uses sunlight and light-sensitive paper to turn everyday objects into striking blue-and-white images.
The core of the week was career exploration, and our scholars dug in. They toured the campus of Santa Clara University and got a feel for life as a college student. They joined a hands-on virtual AI workshop led by our steadfast partner organizations World Wide Technology and Intel, exploring one of the fastest-growing fields in the world. They rotated through career roundtables where they solved complex problems, made decisions with competing priorities, collaborated under time pressure, and pitched their own ideas.
One session focused on the space industry, and it reshaped how scholars thought about their futures. They learned that a successful mission depends on far more than astronauts and engineers. Finance, communications, marketing, project management, human resources, and dozens of other roles all play a part. Scholars then worked in teams to figure out which roles a given mission would need and why each one mattered. In another challenge, Innovators for Impact, teams developed original business ideas, identified their audiences, and pitched to judges and peers, putting their creativity and entrepreneurial thinking on full display.
That theme carried into a visit to Stanford Health Care. During a panel, professionals from across the hospital shared not just what they do, but the winding roads that got them there. One message came through clearly: career paths are rarely a straight line. Panelists encouraged scholars to stay open to new opportunities and reminded them that there is no single route to success. Scholars learned that hospitals rely on people in technology, finance, operations, communications, research, and many other fields, then toured the hospital and met team members in roles they may never have considered.
Scholars presenting on how many people it takes to fly one person into space.
Two of the scholars who attended the Silicon Valley STEAM + Business Camp.
Gathering at Shoreline Park on the final night of the Silicon Valley STEAM + Business Camp 2026.
Some of the week’s best moments happened away from the workshops. Scholars explored hands-on exhibits at The Tech Interactive and watched a documentary about the Lost Wolves of Yellowstone on the giant IMAX screen. They gathered for a pizza picnic at Shoreline Park to relax and reflect. And each night, a Glow and Grow reflection gave everyone a chance to celebrate what went well and recognize how far they had come.
A week like this is only possible because of the people and organizations who open their doors and share their time. Our thanks go to World Wide Technology and Intel for the AI workshop, to Santa Clara University and President Julie Sullivan for hosting us on campus, to Edward Jones for a candid conversation about networking, to Stanford Health Care for a look inside a world-class hospital, and to The Tech Interactive for a day of discovery. We are also grateful to the many friends of Hope Ignites who joined our Silicon Valley Networking Night, emceed by alumnus and board member Gregg Scruggs, with remarks from CEO Kristin Ostby and two alumni who shared their own journeys.
For our scholars, an early introduction to STEM is about more than any single subject. It is about seeing the full range of what is possible. When a young person learns that a space mission needs marketers and a hospital needs data analysts, the world gets bigger and their place in it comes into sharper focus. That is the real work of a week like this: not deciding on a future, but discovering how many futures are within reach. Our scholars left Silicon Valley with new skills, new connections, and a clearer sense of just how much opportunity is out there waiting for them.
Two scholars at the Networking Night with Hope Ignites Cincinnati alum and San Francisco 49ers assistant defensive line coach Greg Scruggs, and Santa Clara University president Julie Sullivan.
