GEMS/YES Program

Fort Detrick created the Young Engineers and Scientists program in 2005 to seek out and prepare middle school students in the studies of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Its purpose is to:

• Provide opportunities for all students to increase their knowledge and skills in STEM.
• Provide an opportunity for middle school students to visit a college campus.
• Enhance the development of community partnership agreements with schools, universities, and colleges in the United States.
• Recognize the importance of education to the future and economic well-being of the nation, as well as to the importance of the Army.

Each year, 250 individuals are selected through Fort Detrick to participate in a week long internship at Hood College. These young students work in a state of the art science laboratory. They work in small groups of 4-6 being mentored and led by the well trained Near-Peer Mentor. Near-Peer Mentors are students who are in late high school or early college.

Each week as new students come, the Near-Peer Mentors describe to their young charges a life that sounds so fantastic and the college student emphasizes, by example and word, that their "dream life" of college requires their young charges to push themselves, early in their educations, to take high level math and science courses.

GEMS/YES is proven! Middle school students leave GEMS/YES with an increased interest and skill set in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.