TEL is a Certified Program Partner of the SEMI High Tech U program established by the SEMI Foundation. This program is a 3 day STEM* immersive event designed to give students a deep dive into STEM learning and show them career pathways to a high-tech career. TEL believes SEMI High Tech U is un-matched in the ability to tie STEM learning with real application in their future careers, with the added bonus of making learning fun. Each fall, the TEL U.S.-Austin campus hosts a class of 30 to 40 students from local high schools for SEMI High Tech U. Since 2016 when TEL began hosting this event in the U.S., there have been 92 students who have completed the program with a total of 20 TEL U.S. employees volunteering in the last 3 years.
Students of SEMI High Tech U participate in fun, hands-on learning, related to math and science and TEL employees are invited to instruct each different lesson in the program. On day 1 of the 3-day course, students kick off the program learning about career pathways and education. In this exercise, students take a personality test to determine the type of worker they may be in a real-world scenario. Once grouped with other students who score similarly, the teams research college majors, jobs, and career paths that are more common for people of their same personality. The students also receive a presentation on how semiconductor technology relates to everyday technology and future technology, followed by a tour of the training building to see examples of TEL products. In that same afternoon students simulate a microchip layering process, take medieval catapult technology to learn about quality, and later learned how to apply chemistry by turning on lightbulbs using salt water.
On day 2 of the program students visit The University of Texas at Austin, JJ Pickle Research Campus where student engineers, in association with NASCENT, a follow sponsor of SEMI High Tech U, demonstrate the upcoming technology being researched at the school and stress the importance of continuing their education and what steps they can take to make sure they stay on their own career path. The students take a tour of the facility and lab and learn more about the semiconductor process.
The final day of the program is filled with collaboration and communication skills as the students are given their biggest group project of the week, having to think critically and problem solve to propose ways of using technology to improve environmental issues in third-world countries. The students are responsible for researching their given regions and using their presentation skills to explain how their groups proposed to solve the issues. Later the students were really put to the test when they conduct mock-interviews with TEL employee volunteers after learning more about interview preparation and techniques.
TEL awards an elected student ambassador a $1,000 sponsorship at the graduation ceremony on the final day. Of the students elected as ambassadors, some are also welcome back to the next program to help the students in the following year.
TEL recently sponsored an off-site SEMI High Tech U program, which was held during SEMICON West in July 2019 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. SEMICON West was an excellent setting for this program because it’s one of the biggest semiconductor trade show in the world and houses industry experts and companies. Forty high school students from around the U.S. traveled to San Francisco to participate in this event for three days. This event was sponsored by four leading-edge companies in the semiconductor industry.
TEL was one of the sponsors who enabled our employees to volunteer in this career exposure event for students. Hosting at SEMICON West allows a mixture of company experts who have firsthand experiences and knowledge of the semiconductor industry. This allows students a chance to learn and develop knowledge from their experience. Students graduating from the program are looking at jobs in the industry and seeking opportunities within the companies they learned about.
*STEM：Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics
U.S.
