BEAUMONT, Texas — On Wednesday, thousands of students and their families poured into Doggett Ford Park for Beaumont Independent School District and ExxonMobil's STEM Night.
This is their second annual collaboration. Experts in science, tech, engineering and math fields were there to give kids a taste of what they do.
The theme was "Fall in love with STEM." Their goal is to inspire students to consider STEM career paths.
Students from all over went to the event. NASA, Lamar University and many other companies were there to get them and their parents eager and engaged in careers of the future.
Students had many different reasons for going to STEM Night.
"To get a grade from my biology teacher," said 8th grader Cohen Mathis.
"I don't want to fail IPC," said Jaxon Hayhurst, an 8th grader.
"I also don't want to fail IPC," said another student, Laidley Thompson.
No matter what the reasons were for showing up to STEM Night, students are finding more than one way to reach for the stars.
"I think it's really nice to see everyone come in here and learn about science," said 6th grader David Thompson.
Thompson is an aspiring mechanical engineer and chef he says the robots like the mechanical canine that was at STEM Night, inspire him to stay in STEM.
"I think it's cool, the people who organized this encouraged everyone to come here and learn about future careers," Thompson said,
"People just really don't understand what it is, and what opportunities it offers. So when we bring everybody together I think it's exciting to leverage that opportunity," said ExxonMobil Beaumont complex manager, Mike Mustian.
Mustian says ExxonMobil's partnership with BISD is crucial to getting students invested in high demand career fields early and often.
"BISD is a wonderful partner. They're focused on developing the next generation and that's what we're focused on as well we need top talent here from the local community to ensure that we can run the plant safely and reliably for many years to come," said Mustian.
"We want to set that spark and hopefully tonight will do that," said BISD Superintendent Dr. Shannon Allen.
Dr. Allen was excited by the number of attendees, which she believes doubled from last year.
"You see parents and students here, so parents have the opportunity to see what is actually triggering their excitement," she said.
Parents like Lamar University Database Administrator Femi Oloruntoba who got to show his kids why STEM is here to stay.
"I want them to keep organizing this event every year to motivate the children," Oloruntoba said.
BISD says there were between 4,000 and 5,000 attendees this year.